He frowned, just slightly, and shook his head. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes. Well, I guess. I don’t know actually. I tried ringing. Shit. I’m sorry.” I started to ramble. “Can I come in?”
He paused. Closed his eyes and swallowed deeply before opening them again.
Was that a hesitation to let me in?
Wait. Was he … drunk?
“Caleb…?”
When he opened the door wider, the reason for his hesitation sat on his bed.
A very sexy brunette.
A very sexy brunette who appeared to be hugging his pillow to her chest.
Nausea rolled through me.
Fuck.
“I’m so sorry,” I said again, feeling like a fucking fool for turning up unannounced. I made eye contact with the woman, and heat flared in my cheeks.
Off course he was with a woman.
Earlier, he hadn’t asked to see me tonight and this was the reason why.
I was so naïve.
Caleb was a gorgeous guy. He probably had a girl for every night of the week.
This is a huge mistake.
All of it.
“Should I come back later?” I didn’t wait for a response. Because even after I’d said it, I knew I wouldn’t be stepping into that clubhouse ever again. “You know, don’t worry about it. Call me when you’re free.”
I needed to get out of there. My cheeks burned with humiliation. My spine tingled with embarrassment. And for some stupid reason, tears pricked at my eyes.
I felt like a giant fool.
I turned to leave, but Caleb’s voice stopped me.
“Wait, don’t leave,” he said, stepping after me. When I turned back to him, he was swaying slightly in the doorway. “I think I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong.”
I was?
“I am?”
Over his shoulder, I watched the brunette get up off the bed, her long dark hair swirling around her like a dark halo as she walked toward us. She stood next to Caleb and gave me a smile. Her lips were plump, her smile warm.
“Hi there, I’m Chastity.” She had the same bright blue eyes as Caleb. And dimples. “Caleb’s sister.”
His sister.
I breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“Chassy, this is Honey,” Caleb explained.
He looked tired. His eyes were heavy. As I watched him soften against the door, I realized I was right. He was drunk.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” I said, noticing how he was gripping the door handle so he wouldn’t sway. “I should’ve tried calling you again.”
Chastity smiled again and shrugged. “I was just leaving. I had to make sure his drunk ass got home, is all.”
On her tiptoes, she gave her brother a kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks for the lift to the cemetery,” he said to her.
She winked. “Only one more year and I’ll be twenty-one. Then I won’t be the designated driver anymore and you won’t be the only one who can get drunk on this day.” She smiled warmly at me. “He’s all yours. It was lovely to meet you.”
“You, too,” I replied.
When she left, Caleb invited me into his room and closed the door behind us.
“Cemetery?” I asked, worried I had encroached on some kind of family time.
I watched Caleb move unsteadily across the room to a tall chest of drawers up against the window. He lifted his t-shirt over his head and discarded it, revealing that same chiseled chest and flexing abs I’d had my hands all over last night. Every female instinct in me lit up like a firecracker. Smooth skin. Muscles. Tattoos. The deep grooves and shadows of a flexing six-pack. He was hard to ignore.
Pulling a clean t-shirt from a drawer in the dresser, he pushed his head through it and pulled it down over his thick torso.
“My father died thirteen years ago today.” He threw a flannel shirt over his white t-shirt. “A few of us visit his grave each year.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, taken by surprise.
“We do some shots while we’re there,” he explained as he unclipped his wallet chain to his black jeans and threw it on his dresser. “It’s kind of a tradition.”
“I’m sorry about your dad.”
He gave me a fleeting smile. “Don’t be.” He leaned over as he walked past me to the bathroom and planted a kiss on my forehead. It was an unexpected, warm gesture and happiness lit up inside me.
“What are you doing here?” he asked from the bathroom.
I let out a huff of air. Caleb had just come home from visiting his father’s grave at the cemetery. And he was clearly intoxicated. Now wasn’t the time to spring this on him.
“I was in the neighborhood,” I said lamely. “Thought you might like the company.”
Tomorrow. When he was sober I would tell him.
CALEB
I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face in an attempt to wake myself up. The bourbon I’d drank at the cemetery, and then some more on the ride home, was making me tired. Depressed. I had consumed more than I usually did. Probably because this year the cemetery was more crowded than it usually was. Last year, we’d been under attack, the focus of a personal vendetta from one of our own club members. A few of my club brothers were murdered, including my cousin, as well as an old lady, and it had rocked the club to its very core. The man responsible had also kidnapped Indy and she’d suffered at his murderous hands. But she had fought hard enough to keep him from raping and murdering her, before Cade had shown up and put two bullets in him.