I’m slightly relieved, though I don’t let it show.
“Then what’s going on? You’ve been a fucking basket case since I picked the baby up earlier.”
“Someone came into the store today. Looking for me. Someone from Shiloh Springs.”
“That commune?”
“Yeah.” She looks away. “I thought it was my ex, but it’s his brother.”
I shake my head. “Okay, so . . .”
“He’s not right, Crew. He’s not right in the head. He was kicked out of Shiloh Springs years ago. I haven’t seen him in five, six years. Something like that. He was obsessed with me.” Her hands wring the air and red blooms from her cheeks. “I’m so fucking livid.”
I see that.
“How’d he find you?”
She rakes her fingers through the sides of her hair and pulls two perfect handfuls between her fingers as she paces.
“No clue.”
“Why’d you go back to the store tonight?”
“I thought it was his brother, my ex. He told Pres he had an important message to give me. I thought maybe it was about my parents.” She pulls in a quick breath, her expression tightening. “I hid in my office for three hours, Crew. That’s how long Elijah stuck around to wait for me. He refused to leave.”
“Where is he now?” I square my shoulders, pain searing through my tight jaw.
“He told Presley he’s staying in town. He’s going to keep coming back to look for me. That’s how he is. He’s obsessive. He came here to talk to me. He’s not leaving until he does.”
“What does he want?”
“I don’t know. Me?”
I slick my thumb along my jaw and exhale.
“Okay,” I say. “This is easy. Next time he comes in, have Presley tell him to come back at a certain time. He shows up again, it’ll be me he meets with.”
Calypso shakes her head. “That’d piss him off. Might make things worse.”
“You’re not going back there,” I say.
She scoffs. “It’s my business. I can’t stay away.”
“Then you’re not going back there alone.”
“I don’t need you to rescue me.”
“Then why’d you come here?”
Her jaw falls, her words sputtering. “I-I just didn’t want. I didn’t want to—”
“You said you needed a favor.” My arms fold.
“Yeah.” Her chest rises as she inhales. “I didn’t want to be alone tonight.”
Her voice weakens and her eyes fall.
“Does he scare you?”
She bites the inside of her bottom lip. “He used to. But I’m too pissed off to be scared right now. I left Shiloh Springs. I came here to get away from all of those people.”
I take her by the wrist and pull her against me. She doesn’t need a lecture. She doesn’t need the Spanish Fucking Inquisition. She needs a hug. A friend. Some shit like that.
“I shouldn’t have come here,” she says. “I shouldn’t bring you into this. Just didn’t know where else to go. Didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts tonight.”
“It’s okay to ask for help.” I press her cheek against my chest. She’s hard to move, resisting me. I’m not the best at comforting people, but damn it, I’m trying. Pretty sure this is as awkward for her as it is for me. “You don’t have to go through everything alone all the time.”
She exhales, and I look down, watching the tops of her lashes as she blinks in slow motion.
“Crew?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“Stop talking.”
I laugh.
Noelle says it’s a bad habit of mine, to fill the silent spaces of awkward conversations with anything and everything. I’m relieved that she wants me to shut up, because I’m not good at these kinds of talks.
Her face nuzzles against my shirt, and her body eases under my arms.
“Can I stay here tonight?” she asks. “I can take the couch. I . . . I just don’t want to be home in case—”
“Of course, Calypso.”
“I don’t know what Elijah wants. I don’t know what he’s capable of. I don’t—”
She peels herself from me and glances up at me through wet lashes. My free-spirited, sweet-natured Calypso trembles.
I fucking hate this Elijah prick.
I shush her, running my finger against her full lips.
“You’re staying here as long as you need. And I’m not putting you on the couch. You can have my bed.”
“I can’t take your bed.”
“Fine. We’ll share.”
She bites away a millisecond-long smile. It’s so quick I think I may have imagined it.
“Just don’t try anything tonight,” I tease. “I know how you are. You women can never keep your hands to yourselves.”
Calypso laughs for the first time since she burst through my door tonight.