the front porch steps, watching as I headed up. When I realized that he wasn’t next to me, I stopped and turned around, meeting his eyes. We were almost the same height, thanks to me being on the steps, and even though this date was the worst date ever, I still felt my cheeks heating up a bit.
I wasn’t blind. I could appreciate a man’s attractiveness.
“I, uh…” Calum ran a hand through his blonde hair. Under the moonlight, it looked almost silver, it was such a light blonde hue. “Look.” He set a foot on the bottom step, but he did not come up near me. “I’m sorry I was kind of an ass tonight.”
“You weren’t—”
“I was,” he cut in, and I clamped my mouth shut, not wanting to argue with him there.
I shrugged. “It’s okay,” I said. “I wasn’t very nice tonight, either.” I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself an ass, but…I definitely could’ve tried harder, all around. Could’ve been better. I just didn’t see the point, since Calum so clearly wasn’t into it. There was no use pretending that there was nothing between us, just to make Michelle happy.
It was like he didn’t hear me, or he was too busy putting the blame on himself. “Kyle dragged me into tonight, and I resented him for it. You didn’t deserve tonight.”
At that, I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea what I deserved and what I didn’t; I’d long since stopped thinking like that. In this horrible world, few people ever got what they deserved, good or bad.
Calum grew quiet then, his eyes raking over me through the darkness. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, what was running through his head as he stared at me. I knew I was no model, I knew I was nothing at all like my younger sister, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I was more like her, if my life would be better. If I wouldn’t be me.
Would Calum like me better if I was like her? Probably, and that thought made me sad.
What he said next I definitely wasn’t expecting: “Why don’t you let me make it up to you?”
At that, I could do nothing but blink and wonder if I’d heard him correctly. Was he really suggesting he and I go out again, after how awkward and weird tonight was? Just…why? Why bother? Why couldn’t we just forget tonight had ever happened and both move on with our lives?
I could feel my heart beating wildly in my chest at the mere thought of going out with him again—this time without Michelle and Kyle nearby. My voice came out airy, soft and wispy like the wind could blow it away: “That’s okay. You don’t have to—” Whatever else I was going to say died in the back of my throat when I watched Calum step up onto the porch steps, inching closer to me with every step he took.
He stopped when he stood on the step right below the one I was one, once again taller than me. Only by a few inches now, but still. He had to be well over six feet tall to make me feel so small. “I want to,” he whispered. “Let me, Bree, please.”
That time, when he said my name, he didn’t sound annoyed that he was with me. He actually sounded genuine, like he really did want to make it up to me.
Or maybe that was just me hoping, wanting something I never had before.
“I’m not an asshole,” he went on, “I’ve just been going through some things, and I…you deserve to be taken out on a real date, not forced to go on some awkward double date with my brother and your sister. We’ll have fun, I promise.”
I had no idea why he thought he could promise something like that, why Calum believed that I would somehow have fun on any date with him, but I found I could not argue with him, either. All I could do was stand there and wonder why this was happening.
Calum was, without a doubt, out of my league. I wasn’t the type of girl he liked, I knew it, so why did he want to try this date night again, without our two chaperones?
“What do you say?” he asked, quieting as he waited for my answer.
I let my gaze fall, staring at his cheekbones, at his nose…and, just for a quick, split-second, his lips. “I guess.” I spoke it