Wait—Did I Steal Your Best Buddy While You Were ‘Missing’? HELL YES!! Chapter 02
Hit up Trader Joe’s for snacks instead, then treated myself to a massage.
By the time I got home it was dark.
No lights on-figured Callan had left already.
The second I kicked off my shoes, someone grabbed me from behind.
My whole body tensed up.
“Have you been drinking?”
Callan didn’t really answer.
“Where were you? You didn’t pick up your phone.”
“Sorry, wasn’t checking it.”
“Any news about Jasper?”
“No.” I let my voice drop. “Nothing.”
His arms got tighter around me, breath hot on my neck.
“This is all my fault. If I hadn’t dragged him on that hiking trip to Big Sur, none of this would’ve happened.”
He sounded genuinely guilty-except his tongue was on my ear, doing that thing he knows I like.
Callan’s one of Jasper’s best friends.
After the whole “disappearance,” they divided it up-
Jasper played the missing thing.
Callan played the guilty friend who felt responsible.
But Jasper has no clue that his buddy’s idea of ‘making amends’ was… different than expected.
Said he was gonna look after me in Jasper’s place.
And honestly?
Dude was being way too thorough about it.
Three meals a day, cooked from scratch.
Wait-Did I Steal Your Best Buddy While You Were ‘Missing’? HELL YES!!
It got embarrassing fast.
“Callan, this isn’t your fault. Jasper loves hiking-he would’ve done that trail with or without you.”
“His parents don’t blame you, so obviously I don’t either.”
“You should focus on work, you don’t need to-OMG! PUT THAT DOWN!”
I lunged forward and grabbed my bra out of his hands,
“I wash my own stuff!”
“I’m more thorough though,” he said, completely serious. “You sure you don’t want help?”
“Absolutely not!”
Actually, before all this, we BARELY talked.
Callan comes from serious money-even more than Jasper’s family.
In public? Ice cold. Won’t give anyone the time of day.
I always thought so too.
So whenever Jasper brought me around his crew, I made sure to keep my distance from Callan.
Then, after college, I landed a job.
Turns out the company was actually one of the Hayes family’s businesses.
Callan became my boss.
Now the distance between us felt even wider.
It wasn’t till he forced his way into my life that we actually had anything real between us.
But slowly, I thought I saw a whole other side of him.
One night I got up to pee and realized he still hadn’t gone home.
I was gonna ask him why-
But then I saw through the crack in the guest room door.
No shirt, just his lean upper body catching the dim light.
Had one of my lace tank tops in one hand.
The other hand was hidden behind the dresser.
Wait-Did I Steal Your Best Buddy While You Were ‘Missing’? HELL YES!!
But from the way the shadows moved, you could tell it was going up and down.
His back muscles were all tensed up, veins popping out on his forearms.
I must’ve made some kind of noise because he whipped around instantly.
The second he saw me, his head fell back.
This low sound came out of his throat.
