Page 59 of He Loves Me Knot
“Yet you never thought to get up and look to see who it was?”
“What was I supposed to do? Grab a fork and go sniffing? You don’t think it’d be strange if I showed up in your office suddenly—for no reason at all—other than to inspect your takeaway?”
“True. But maybe it’s better than the opposite where you hole yourself up inyouroffice like the wizard of Oz.”
“You know, you’re not the first person to call me the wiz at work.”
She laughed to herself, shaking her head.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She giggled again. “It doesn’t matter.”
“No, seriously, what is it?”
“You know what they say about you, don’t you? That the reason Callum Scott has no heart is because he gave it away to the Tin Man.”
He grimaced.No, haven’t heard that one.“What about my brain and courage?”
“Both are debatable.”
“Then I’ll have to work harder at the lack of heart thing. Make them too scared to question the other ones.”
She studied his face. “You don’t care what people say about you?”
I care what you say about me.
Where had that thought come from?
“Why should I?” He turned down a road that appeared to be part of the main one.
“That’s lucky for you. I sure as hell care what people say about me. Especially at work.”
“Maybe you care too much.”
“And maybe you care too little.” She sounded abrasive.
Maybe we both said more than we needed to. Or not enough.
He snapped his head toward her. “What has caring about what people think of you ever gotten you, Liddy? You’re adventurous. You are. I can tell. But you hold back. The same way you do at work when we have meetings and I ask for suggestions. Maybe one of your suggestions might make things better for everyone, but you don’t. Whether it’s because you don’t like me or you like to fit in, you keep your mouth shut.”
“You don’t know me?—”
“And I think I finally know why. Because when you were growing up, people told you that youcouldn’tdo things. I don’t know who—maybe your parents, your classmates, your doctors. I’m not sure. It sure as hell wasn’t your granny, and I can’t imagine Elle in that category either. She started a dance school for kids with disabilities, for Christ’s sake. That shows how she feels about the matter.”
“Callum, stop.”
He shook his head. “No, because you know what, you deserve better than what you’re letting yourself have. You knew you were smart, so you worked hard and landed an incredible job out of university. Then because you’re adventurous and brave, you hopped on a plane and moved to a new country. But you have to stop caring so much about what people think of you. Wouldn’t it make you feel better to just tell them to fuck off? For once?”
“I’m more than happy to tell you to fuck off.”
Ha. Serves me right.
He’d crossed the goddamn line again. Hell, if the roles were reversed, he’d tell her to fuck off, too. Callum cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean?—”
“To play armchair psychologist to my life? Really?” Liddy crossed her arms, visibly agitated. “Don’t youdarebring up anything that I confided in you and use it against me. At least I try with people. You can say all you want about not caring what people think, but that’s easy when you won’t let anyone get close enough to hurt you. Your ex cheated on you with your best friend, so, of course, the solution is to shut everyone on the planet out.”
Anger flared through him. “That’s not something?—”