With His Love (For His Pleasure, Book 16) (12 page)

“Nicole left her with us for the weekend because her and Red went to Las Vegas.”

“Wow, the whole weekend. That’s amazing.” Kallie felt a twinge at not even having been asked. After all, she was Riley’s original nanny—even if she’d been a pretty bad nanny at that—and yet Nicole hadn’t even thought to call her to watch her daughter for a couple of days.

She’d called on Danielle, of all people. And Kallie could see that Danielle was proud as a peacock over it.

“It’s been such a blast, honestly,” Danielle said. “And you should see Kane with her. He’s a real natural. Everyone who sees him with her remarks on it.”

“That’s great,” Kallie smiled. “Gosh, I can’t believe how much Riley is starting to look like Nicole.”

“It’s funny you should mention that,” Danielle said, her voice falling to a conspiratorial whisper. “Because a few times when I’ve been out with Riley this weekend, people keep saying how much she looks like me. Isn’t that funny?”

Kallie nodded, as if it made total sense. “Yeah, well…I can see why…”

“Oh, sure. I mean, Nicole and I resemble one another. Everyone has always said so.”

“Right.”

“But Riley is just an adorable baby. And she loves to eat. I’ve already got her on a gluten-free diet, everything fresh and no preservatives or antibiotics.”

“That sounds fabulous, Danielle. Nicole will be pleased to know you took such good care of her.”

Danielle shouldered her purse. “It’s really the least I can do. Nicole’s such an amazing friend.”

“She is.” Kallie blinked, trying not to show the pain on her face.

“Hey, is everything going well with you and Hunter? Excited for the wedding?”

Somehow, she just couldn’t have this conversation now, Kallie realized. Faking enthusiasm about the wedding—when she’d only just been hit with the news that none of her family would attend—it was just too raw a subject.

“You know,” Kallie said, looking at her cell phone, “I actually have to run. I was actually on my way back to my car. Hunter’s waiting and I can’t be late—”

“Oh, sure, of course, honey.” Danielle leaned in for another quick peck on the cheek. “But we need to get together for dinner sometime, just the four of us.”

“Absolutely,” she said, hoping to God the day never came.

“Say bye-bye to Auntie Kallie,” Danielle said, in a bizarrely childlike voice, as she bent over the stroller. Riley craned her head and Kallie waved at her and blew her a kiss.

“Bye!”

Kallie took off walking, blending back into the crowd. The day had turned sour for her, and she no longer wanted to shop or stroll around Fifth Avenue or anything else.

She just wanted to turn tail and go home and pretend this day had never happened.

***

Hunter called her later that night.

She was in the bath, reading a book when her cell phone rang. “Hey,” she said, smiling as she answered.

“Hey,” he replied. His voice was soft and a little gravelly, probably from lack of sleep.

“Long day?” she asked.

“Very.”

“Anything new to report?”

He sighed. “We’ll talk about it when I get home.”

“You can’t just tell me now?”

“I think it’s more of an in-person conversation.”

She got a thrill of anxiety in her stomach. “That sounds ominous.”

“It’s really not. It’s just a little bit complicated, and I’d rather tell you the details when I get in.”

She rolled her eyes but tried to remain calm. She hated being told to wait to have a conversation instead of just having it. She would have preferred he not even tell her that something needed to be talked about, if he wasn’t going to at least give her a general idea of what the problem was. Now she would spend the rest of the night anxiously wondering what he was going to tell her tomorrow. “I miss you,” was all she said.

“I miss you too. How was your day?” he asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t that great. I went into Manhattan and ended up running into Nicole’s friend, Danielle, on the street in Times Square.”

He chuckled. “I can imagine that was interesting. Was Kane there?”

“He was, but I didn’t really get a chance to talk to him. He was inside getting frozen yogurt.”

Hunter laughed at that. “Somehow I can’t really picture Kane Wright ordering frozen yogurt. But that’s beside the point.”

Kallie picked up a sudsy sponge and wrung it out as she talked. “The thing that bothered me was, they were watching Nicole’s daughter for the weekend.”

“Danielle and Kane were watching her?”

“Yes.” Kallie sighed, dropping the sponge into the water again. “And it hurt, because I really valued Nicole’s friendship and I feel like it’s gone now.”

“Hey, hey, hey. That’s not true. Nicole is still your friend, Kallie.”

“Obviously not. She never even called to ask if we could watch the baby. It’s clear that she hates me.”

“Look, that’s not true. You have no idea what happened. For all you know, Danielle’s been lobbying to watch that kid for the last six months. The woman is insane.”

Now it was Kallie’s turn to laugh. “Maybe you’re right, maybe I’m overreacting.”

“You should call her and tell her how you feel.”

“Who, Danielle?” she quipped.

“Call Nicole. Tell her you miss the friendship.”

She thought about it. “Maybe at some point. Not right now, though. I don’t think I could take it if she didn’t consider me a friend anymore. With everything that’s gone on with my family not attending the wedding and everything, I’m just too emotionally spent.”

“Listen, Kallie. I love you and I’ll always be here for you. We’ll get through this thing together, okay?”

“Okay. Please stay safe,” she told him.

“You too. I’ll be home before you know it.”

***

Hunter got home the next day, and he looked a little ragged, but he was in fairly good spirits. Kallie was glad to see him. They had a long hug and a kiss, and then she couldn’t help herself.

“So, what is it that you need to tell me?” she said.

“Can’t a guy even put his bags down before he gets ambushed around here?”

“No. It’s killing me, Hunter. Tell me what the hell is so important that we needed to talk about it face-to-face.”

He dropped his bags and looked at her. “Let’s go to the beach and have a walk. I think it will be better to talk there.”

“Come on, are you trying to drive me crazy?”

“You can wait twenty minutes,” he said, taking her by the hand. “Let’s go right now. It’s a beautiful day.”

“Just give me a hint. What is it about?”

He shook his head. “Relax. We’ll discuss it soon enough.”

So she allowed Hunter to drag her out of the house and they got on his motorcycle together. She figured this was intentional on his part.

“You don’t want me to be able to interrogate you on the ride over!” she yelled at him, as she put the helmet on.

“Or perhaps I think you’ll appreciate the trip more if you feel the breeze and smell the ocean air.”

“I doubt it.”

“Get on,” he said, straddling the bike.

A second later, she was on behind him, arms around his waist, and they were speeding down the hill together.

They hadn’t ridden on his motorcycle together in a long time, and it terrified and exhilarated her. For a little while, she actually was able to forget all her anxieties and disappointments. It was enough to be travelling with the man she loved and trusted and had been through so much with—who cared what anyone else thought?

Finally, they arrived at the beach. It was mostly deserted, and Hunter parked the bike and they got off. The smell of saltwater and the sound of waves breaking against the shore brought a fresh smile to Kallie’s face.

Hunter grinned at her. “Much better,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s walk down by the water.”

They took off their shoes and dropped them near the entrance to the small trail that led through the underbrush and then opened onto the beach. There were some seagulls hunting for fish, flying low to the water and then circling up again, crying, then diving to try and spear their food.

The sand felt cool and gritty against her feet.

“Okay,” she said. “I feel calm. Can you tell me what it is that you need to tell me now?”

They walked, hand in hand. Hunter’s face was unreadable from this angle, mostly in profile. He looked out at the water and then finally turned to her. “I wasn’t in Los Angeles yesterday,” he said.

Kallie nearly fell backwards, as if punched. “What?”

He’s having an affair. Oh no, he’s leaving me. He’s met someone else.

The thoughts made no sense. Why bring her to this beautiful beach and walk hand-in-hand, just to tell her something so awful? Unless he’d gone off to end it. Now he was going to tell her that the affair was over.

All of these thoughts raced through her mind in a flash.

“I flew out to Ohio,” he said calmly.

For a moment, it was as if her brain had temporarily overloaded, reached maximum capacity and fried a circuit. She just stood there, not reacting. And then she shook her head. “Why did you go to Ohio?”

“I had to confront your family.”

“Oh no. Hunter…”

“I had to do it, Kallie. I couldn’t just sit back on the sidelines and let them hurt you.”

She was absolutely stunned. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked up at him.

“What did you say to them? And how did they respond?”

“I told them the truth. I said that they were wrong about us, and that even if they were right—even if I’m such a bad guy—they’re punishing you and you don’t deserve it.”

“And what was the response?”

He took her hands in his and tried to look her in the eye. “I’m not sure anything I said registered. It was obviously a very tense situation, and they didn’t take kindly to my lecture.”

Kallie felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I wish you’d told me you were going to do that.”

“You never would have let me go.”

“Exactly!” she shouted. The volume and strength of her own voice surprised her.

Hunter took a small step back and his eyes widened. “I had to do it, Kallie.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said. “And this is the whole point.” She wiped some of the tears away, as they streamed down her face. “You don’t listen to me. You don’t care what my opinions are, and this is more proof of that fact.”

“Of course I care what your opinions are. You’re my entire world.”

“I might be your entire world, but you want to be in control of that world. Not just sexually, but in every last detail. I’ve given up so much of myself for you, and you can’t even give up a little bit of control for me.”

“Kallie—”

“No!” She shouted. “I’m sick and tired of you trying to talk me out of how I feel, Hunter. I’ve been telling you for weeks that you’re working too hard. I told you I wanted to read scripts and develop my own projects, and you insisted I work on your projects instead. And now you take it upon yourself to fly out of town—lying to me in the process—to go and confront my family without my knowledge. How dare you?”

Hunter opened his mouth as if to speak, and then he stopped. For the first time, perhaps ever, she saw that he didn’t know what to say.

***

They didn’t talk much for the rest of the day. When they got home, Hunter went into his office and started working on his screenplay again, presumably.

Kallie was upset, and not sure what to do with herself. She tried to do read some scripts, anything to get her mind off the frustration she was feeling with Hunter. But she wasn’t able to concentrate.

As evening fell, Hunter asked if she wanted to go out to dinner.

“Not really,” she said, looking up from a script that was dull—or perhaps simply not good enough to distract her from all of the emotions boiling inside of her at the moment.

“Listen, we need to get past this,” he said. “I’m—”

“No, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m not ready,” she told him.

He opened his mouth again, but she held her hand up.

“At least respect my request not to talk right now. Can you do that?”

His shoulders dropped and his head hung. He nodded, retreating.

She felt horrible at that moment, as if she’d cruelly whipped a dog that had come to her with his tail wagging, trying to make nice. Hunter had gone to her family to try and make them see the error of their ways. It had been a mistake, and he’d been misguided—but his heart was in the right place.

Now she was more confused than ever. As she returned to reading her script, her cell phone began ringing. She picked it up and saw her parents’ number.

A feeling of dread enveloped her. She considered not answering. The last thing she needed was to hear how offended and outraged they were at Hunter’s presence.

But something told her to answer, and if necessary, she would defend her husband’s actions. “Hi, Mom,” she said, her stomach clenching.

“Hello, Kallie.” Her mother’s voice sounded tired, and there was another quality that Kallie was unsure about. Was it anger? Self-righteousness? Fear?

“Hunter told me that he went to see you. I didn’t know about it in advance.”

“I’m aware of that. He let us know that it was his decision to come and talk to us.”

Kallie didn’t know what to say. She certainly wasn’t about to apologize for Hunter. Even if what he’d done was wrong, she was just as angry with her family for abandoning her because they disagreed with her choice in men. “I’m not sure what there is to say at this point,” she admitted. “I already heard the news of your decision from Sean and Lydia. That was a real treat.”

Her mother sighed deeply on the other end. “Kallie, I…I really need to…”

suddenly her voice cracked and she stopped speaking.

Kallie heard the sounds of her mother struggling to control herself and failing, and the tears that she was powerless to stop. Her mother’s breath shook and came out ragged, sobbing. Finally, she spoke again. “I owe you an apology, darling,” her mother said.

“We were wrong. We were angry, and hurt, and scared, and we were wrong. I hope you can forgive us…” she broke down again into sobs.

Kallie had never heard her mother cry like that, not in her entire life. “Of course I can forgive you. I simply want you to try your best to support my decisions in life, whether you agree with them or not.”