Sometimes Moments (11 page)

“Though it’s not on the right finger, I know an engagement ring when I see one. I thought it wasn’t, but seeing you with him this morning… It makes sense that you two got together,” Callum explained, still eyeing the trees behind her hotel.

“It’s a promise ring,” Peyton stated as she played with the white-gold ring on her middle finger. She wasn’t sure why she was clarifying herself to him, but she felt the need to.

Callum stared at his hands in his lap. “That you’ll marry him?”

Peyton moved the hair that blew in her face and tucked it behind her ear. As her eyes scanned over at the trees, her heart ached at the memory of them at seventeen. From the way Callum had looked at her in the lantern light, she’d believed he had loved her, too, in some way.

“I’m not here to discuss my relationship with—”

“Lavender boy,” Callum said, interrupting her. His eyes met hers.

“No. His name is Graham, not lavender boy. Don’t call him that!” she said, raising her voice.

“You love him, not Jay.”

Peyton shook her head in disbelief. Then she stood up and looked down at Callum. The dejected expression in his eyes caused her to flinch.

“I don’t love Jay. Get that through your head. I love Graham.”

Truth.

“Like you loved me?” he asked.

Peyton didn’t blink. “More,” she said without reserve.

Callum stilled and looked like he had lost his breath for a moment. Then he stood up and glanced down at her almost as if he were relieved.

“Then marry him, Peyton.”

His answer surprised her. It wasn’t the answer that she had expected.

“How does loving someone more than I loved you warrant marriage?” she asked, bewildered.

Callum—for the first time—gave her an honest smile. “Because I know how much you loved me. And if you love him more than you loved me, it says something. Now, let’s go talk about my best friend’s wedding.” Callum stepped around her and began to walk off the pier.

Turning around, she watched him make his way towards the hotel. The emptiness inside her began to widen. Her heart had dropped at what he’d said. Until they were seventeen, she’d been his best friend. What she’d said hadn’t been a lie. She did love Graham more. He knew her pain and had been there, loved her through the weakest points in her life.

No one could ever come close to being as important as Graham was to her. But Callum…he was her first love, and she’d believed that he would be her last love. And for the last four years, she’d forgotten what it was like to love him. Somewhere deep inside, she feared that she would remember soon enough.

“T
wo dance floors on two different parts of the hotel? Is she insane?” Peyton looked at the sheets of paper and then at Callum. When she’d unfolded them, she hadn’t expected what she saw.

Callum laughed, took the papers out of her hand, and returned them to her desk. “She hasn’t been formally diagnosed, but I suspect she is.”

Peyton glared at him. “This is not a joke, Callum. I don’t have the resources for this. You’ve seen this hotel. It’s not in its prime. My parents were the ones who had the big ideas for it, not me.” She let out a sigh and covered her face with her hands. Then she noted that she would never allow last-minute wedding bookings ever again, no matter the price.

“Hey,” Callum said as his hands touched hers, pulling hers away from her face.

The way her heart throbbed at his contact surprised her.

He held her hands for a moment, staring at them. Peyton watched as he got lost in the moment.

“Callum,” she breathed out, gaining his attention.

He slowly looked up until their eyes met. “Want to walk around the grounds? Maybe we can come up with a location for a second dance floor together,” he suggested.

He squeezed her hand once before she pulled back. The way her heart had leapt from that one squeeze was too much.

Peyton stood up and nodded. “Let’s go.”

Stepping out of the hotel and onto the path that led to the cliff, Peyton felt like she was a teenager all over again. The days she used to spend holding his hand as they’d roamed the hotel’s grounds. He’d let go at one stage and kiss her or she’d run down to the cliff and he’d chase her. But now, years later, they stood some distance apart as they searched for the perfect location of a second dance floor.

Her heart missed when he used to reach for her hand as they walked together. But she knew it wouldn’t happen between them. Yet she couldn’t help but want it to happen, to confirm whether or not she still felt the same.

The vibrating of her phone had Peyton stopping. Callum stopped, too, turning to see why she had. When she pulled out her phone from her pants pocket, she saw that she had a new message.

Graham
: Sprinklers have faulted again. I’m gonna have to go into the city and pick up some new ones or find a whole new system. I’ll see you in a couple days. Be good!

Peyton
: You be careful driving.

Graham
: Yes, wife.

Peyton
: IF I have no other options.

Graham
: Someday you will.

Peyton
: Is this sudden need to fulfil our promise because of you-know-who?

Graham
: Yes. I’m about to leave your place. Be careful around him, Peyton. If he hurts you and I’m in the city, I will never forgive him. And Jay wouldn’t either.

Peyton
: He’s not going to hurt me. I’m not going to fall in love with him.

Graham
: Peyton, I think we’re well past fall. We both know you’re still in love with him.

Still in love with him.

Peyton stared at Graham’s message. Her chest constricted at the thought. Still being love with Callum Reid would bring problems. And she didn’t need them. No, she’d gotten over Callum a long time ago.

“You okay?” Callum asked, his voice was as sweet as she remembered.

Dammit!

“Fine,” she said, returning her phone to her pocket. “Now, do you have any ideas for a spot?”

Callum looked at her and gave her a small smile. “I have an idea,” he said, turning around and leading her down a path.

She followed him as they walked away from the hotel and to a path that led to the forest. Peyton hesitated as she realised just where he was leading her.

Just as she was about to tell him no, Callum reached over and took her hand.

“Trust me,” he said.

Peyton looked at him and her eyebrows furrowed. “Like I trusted you not to break my heart, Callum Reid?”

He let out a sigh but never let go of her hand. “I had my reasons, Peyton. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me,” she said firmly.

“In time. Now, come on,” he said, pulling her into the forest.

Each step they took, her breathing heaved. She hadn’t been this far into the forest in years. Peyton noticed a round rock that was almost perfectly smooth. She knew what that rock meant; it was a marker. They’d only have to walk a few more metres, take a turn at the broken tree, pass the small embankment, and they’d find their spot.

Peyton stopped next to the round rock, yanking her hand from Callum. The loss of his hand left her confused with old emotions. His touch was one she used to crave, but she couldn’t anymore.

“What’s the matter, Peyton?” he asked, a worried look consuming his face.

“I can’t go there with you. I’m sorry, but I can’t. I can’t let strangers see
our
spot. I’d rather give up the wedding than let them all see,” she confessed only loud enough for them to hear.

Callum’s face went blank as he stared at the round rock. He took a step forward and held her hand again. Peyton’s heart raced, and the aching heat filled her entire chest. When she looked in his eyes, she thought that they meant more than he had led her to believe for a moment. That he loved her more. But she knew otherwise. At the end of the day, he had been her first love. And Graham was her unconditional love. She had said that she loved Graham more, but maybe she loved him more than she had loved Callum only when they had been best friends.

“It’s not for them, Peyton. It’s for me.” There was an unquestionable layer of regret in his voice, and it rendered her breathless.

“Why for you?”

He squeezed her hand. “Because you’re the mistake I got right and all I’ll have are those moments. I won’t make you go down there. Just give me a few minutes, okay?”

The vulnerable glint in his grey eyes had Peyton’s breathing falter. Her head told her that what she was about to say was stupid, to just let go of the past. But her heart wanted more.

“I’m a mistake to you?” she uttered.

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“Then going down there will mean nothing.” Peyton took her hand back and left him as she walked towards the end of the ridge. She ignored the burning that consumed her chest.

She heard his footsteps follow her as they went deeper into the forest. The fallen leaves crunched under her shoes as she held her head high and ignored the fact that Callum Reid had labelled her a mistake.

The moment that she arrived at the small spot of clear forest, Peyton tightly balled her hands. She forced herself to forget what had happened in this spot over four years ago. Her eyes roamed around the trees that made a circle clearing. It had gone unchanged. She could just see their initials carved into the tree in front of her from some distance away. Instinct had her wanting to walk over and feel the carving under her fingertips, but her pride won. Peyton crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Callum walk to the exact spot where they had made love for the first time.

He stood there, staring at the autumn leaves on the ground, seemingly lost in the past. Though she tried not to, she remembered them sneaking away from her house until they were far enough to run past the lake. He had pulled out a blanket from the basket and placed it on the ground before he’d lit the lanterns. Then they’d watched the stars until she’d asked for more than just a goodnight kiss.

“It was right here, wasn’t it?” Callum asked, pulling her out of her memories.

Peyton gave him a shrug.

“You told me that you loved me in this exact spot,” he said, meeting her stare.

Peyton tensed. It was definitely not what she wanted to talk about. “And it’s the exact spot where you didn’t tell me that you loved me. Such a sentimental spot, isn’t it?” She looked away, afraid to cry. So she stared at the tree next to her, her eyes following the natural pattern of the bark.

“Peyton…”

She met his darkening, grey eyes.

“I never said it because the first time I told you those three words, I wanted them to be true and I wanted you to believe me.”

Another blow.

This time, tears started to form and Peyton let out a hard laugh. “I’m glad we’ve cleared the air, then. God, did I waste those years. Guess mistakes are a two-way street then.”

Callum flinched and surprise crept on his face. He took two steps until he was face to face with her. “I’m a mistake to you?”

“The biggest one I’ve ever made,” she said, ensuring that her voice sounded strong.

“Then I guess we both did something right in our lives,” Callum said as he walked past her.