To Love a Player (19 page)

22

Callen

I woke up to the sound of a ringing in my ear and I blinked as I tried to figure out what it was. In my sleepy haze, I realized that it was my phone; sadly I didn't realize who it was until I answered it.

"Hello?" I answered, clearing my voice of sleep. A familiar purr came through as Sophie greeted, "Hey lover."

"Sophie," I replied, anger seeping into my voice. What the hell did she want? "How can I help you at this hour?"

"Oh, I was just sitting at the airport, wondering what my gorgeous boyfriend was doing right now," Sophie purred sweetly into the phone. I sighed in frustration as I stated, "I'm not your boyfriend, Soph. Remember? We broke up."

"No, you broke up with me. I don't remember breaking up with you," Sophie argued and I laughed humorlessly, "You are being ridiculous, Soph. We are not together anymore."

"We are not done, until I say we are done," she spat and I said, "We are done, Sophie. It doesn't matter if you think you have some kind of claim on me, but we're done."

"Are you so sure that she loves you?" she asked and I could sense a bomb being fired off. I ignored the feeling and said, "Yes, I am very sure that she loves me."

I held my breath as she said, "Then maybe you should ask her why my brother is over at your house with her right now, in the middle of the night?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, instantly wanting to kick myself for stepping into the web she was spinning. Sophie cackled and said, "You ask her. Ciao."

The line went dead and I looked at the time, it was after four in the morning. Thoughts started flying everywhere, doubts settling in. I took a deep breath, telling myself that it had to be a misunderstanding. But then again, why was Scott there? And how did Sophie know?

The throbbing in my neck woke me up and as soon as I moved my head, pain shot through the muscle. Gritting my teeth, I knew that a run today wasn't going to be possible. I looked around, somewhat surprised to find myself still in the chair from the night before and a snoring Scott lying on my couch. Gingerly, I got up and took our bowls into the kitchen, rinsing them and placing them in the dishwasher. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was just after four-thirty. I groaned softly, knowing that trying to go back to sleep was pointless, so I started the coffeemaker.

I wandered over to the couch and looked down at Sleeping Beauty. He was sprawled out on his stomach with an arm dangling on the floor. A movie had come on last night and I let him stay to watch it. Apparently the hot tub zapped both of our energy because it wasn't too long before we were both out. I vaguely remembered him on the phone with someone as I went off to dreamland, but I didn't hear who he was talking to.

He grunted in his sleep as he rolled over, suddenly pulling me to him. I steadied myself from falling on top of him. This would not be good. I released myself from his grasp and shook him awake. He made a sleepy groan. I choked back a laugh because he reminded me so much of Marnie when I had to wake her up in the mornings. I heard the coffeemaker finish brewing, so I went to the kitchen to get a cup. I figured that the smell of fresh coffee would wake him out of his stupor.

I walked back over to him and waved the cup by his nose. His eyes slowly started opening as he stared confused at the cup. I gave him an amused smile as I said, "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty."

"What are you doing in my house?" he asked, rubbing his eyes before looking around. I laughed, "You're in mine, I guess the hot tub wiped both of us out."

I gave him a fake suspicious look as I quickly said, "Unless you really did put something in that ice cream."

He gave me a sarcastic look back and said, "No, for the fourth time."

"Geez, you're grumpy in the morning," I teased and he growled at me before taking a sip of his coffee. After swallowing, he let out a contented sigh and then asked, "What time is it?"

"Almost five," I said, walking back into the kitchen to get two bowls down for cereal. I heard him mutter, "Oh shit" as he sprang off the couch, shaking his head as he came into the kitchen. I looked down at the coffee spill on his shirt and covered up my mouth to hold back a laugh.

"Hole in your lip?" I asked, cracking a smile. He growled at me again as he grabbed some paper towels to dry it up, saying, "No, that sip was just a little hotter than the first one."

I laughed, shaking my head and wincing as I did so. My hand went right to my right shoulder as I tried to rub the kink out. The tense muscle was starting to stretch the pain to the base of my head. I knew that it wouldn't be too long before I had a full-blown headache. I squinted my eyes shut as the sore muscle shot pain through my body. Almost instantly I felt a hand touch mine, making me stop, before a second hand began to rub the tender spot.

I winced when Scott first started, but soon felt my muscles relaxing under his touch. I let out a soft contented moan as I began to feel completely relaxed as he slowly rubbed out the knot as well as the knots in my other shoulder. My eyes flew open when his lips touched softly at the base of my neck and started to move their way up to just below my ear. I quickly jerked away from him and turned to face him. His eyes were wide as he started apologizing, "Oh my God, Mollie, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"Um, I think it's time for you to go," I said, pointing at the front door. He nodded as he placed his coffee cup in the sink and shot me an apologetic look before he quietly said, "I'm really sorry. Thanks for the coffee."

I nodded silently as he gave me one last look while he stood at the door. I pointed at the door and he nodded slowly before opening it and leaving. I locked it behind him and went into my room. Grabbing my phone off of the charger, I saw that I had ten missed calls from Callen and twice as many texts. The last ones were asking why Scott was at the house. I took a deep breath to calm myself and knew that I may as well take something for the headache that I could feel creeping in.

I stared at my phone trying to will it to ring. I had tried Mollie once more before I took a shower, but she still wasn't answering. What in the hell was going on? Starting to walk away from my phone, I heard the familiar ring tone that I had set for her and I quickly answered it with, "What in the hell is going on?"

"Well, good morning to you too," she snapped back. Wait, she's angry with me? She just spent the night with the guy that I could only trust for about as far as I could throw him. I took a deep breath before snapping back, "Well, I've been trying to get a hold of you practically all night. Why haven't you been answering? And why in the hell was Scott at the house? Is he still there? You didn't sleep with him, did you?"

"Whoa, hold on," she said firmly. "First of all, my phone was in my room charging. About Scott being here, this is going to sound a lot worse than it actually is, but just hear me out first before you get any angrier."

"Fine," I snapped. I heard her let out a long sigh as she explained, "I don't know why Scott was here or why he came over, but he did and he stayed. A movie came on and we fell asleep watching it. He was on the couch and I was in the red chair. He just left and no I didn't sleep with him. Do you honestly think that I would do that to you?"

"No, but I know Scott. He seems to think that girls I'm with are fair game and..." I started to say, but was interrupted by Mollie, who interjected angrily, "I'm not those girls, Cal, and if you are going to think that, then you'll be sadly mistaken. I'm not remotely interested in what he has to offer at all. We're just friends."

Instantly, I felt bad for roping her in with the girls that I've dated in the past, but I couldn't shake the being friends with Scott. I let out a frustrated grunt and said, "I don't like you being friends with him. I don't trust him."

"Then just trust me," she says softly, "that's all I ask. I'm not going to do anything to ruin what we are starting. I love you, Callen and plan to for the rest of my life, as cheesy as that sounds."

I felt my heart melt as I murmured, "That sounds perfectly fine to me and I plan on loving you for the rest of my life."

"Good," she said. I sighed, rubbing my temple at the throbbing headache and said, "I'm sorry. I know that I should trust you with Scott, but be careful. He tends to have his own agenda."

"I will and how did you know that he was here?" she asked and I sighed, muttering, "Sophie called and somehow she knew."

"Hmm," she said thoughtfully, "that's who he must have talked to last night."

"What do you mean?" I asked and she said, "Scott had a phone call around one this morning, but I was half asleep and I didn't hear who it was."

"Well, she couldn't wait to tell me about him being there," I grumbled and heard Mollie sigh in frustration. I let out my own sigh before saying, "She's just trying to come between us."

"Well it worked, temporarily," Mollie stated and I squeezed my eyes shut in response. I wondered what would happen if she managed to do that again. Would we survive? I responded with, "Yeah I know and it was my fault. I should have had more faith in you, I'm sorry."

"You're forgiven and you can make it up to me this weekend," Mollie murmured sexily. In a low voice, I responded, "Oh, you can definitely bet on that."

"Looking forward to it," Mollie yawned. "Look, I need to get going and be at Lacey's soon. I think that it's going to be a low key day today."

"Okay," I said, my voice cracking with disappointment. "I love you, Mollie."

"I love you too, Callen," Mollie said and we hung up the phone. I wanted to kiss her—my mouth felt like it was going through withdrawals. An idea popped in my mind and I knew that I was going to follow through with it, come hell or high water.

After finishing with lunch clean up, I announced that I was taking Jace in for a nap and told Mara that she needed to get her stuff picked up. It had been a long morning and my neck was throbbing from my uncomfortable sleeping position. I was glad that I only had Mara and Jace to deal with today. Elly was on her way to spend a few days with her grandmother on Nantucket before her mom and her two siblings joined her this weekend.

Jace went down without too much of a fight and I was hoping that he wasn't getting sick. He didn't seem like his usual happy self today and I wondered if the trip to the zoo yesterday was a little too much for him. Lacey mentioned that he was a lot more tired last night than usual and went to bed early. He seemed fine this morning, but as the day went on, he was back to being tired again. Maybe a nice long nap is what he needed.

"Mara, honey," I called as I got back downstairs. I didn't hear her in the playroom as I went down to the basement and was disappointed to see that the mess she made was still there. I saw the back door was wide open and felt my heart start to climb into my throat as my mind went to an image of her lying in the pool. I silently prayed that she hadn't figured out how to get the lock open and sure enough, there she was tugging away at the gate.

I tugged her gently into a hug as my heart pounded in my chest. She pointed at the pool and said, "I want to go swimming."

"I have an idea," I said, squatting down level with her big blue eyes. "If you help me clean up your toys in the basement and then take a good nap, we'll go swimming this afternoon, okay?"

Her little face fell as she looked longingly at the pool and then back at me. I gave her an expectant look as I held up my pinky saying, "I pinky swear, but you have to help me clean up your toys and take a good nap."

She wrapped her little pinky around mine and said, "Pinky swear."

I scooped her up and we headed back inside. After getting her toys put away and then settling her in for her nap, Mara was soon snoring softly in her bed. I slowly crept out of her room and headed back downstairs, letting out a small sigh of relief. The house was quiet, peaceful and it gave me an eerie sense of calm before the storm.

"This is the last one for me today, E," I stated as we waited for our next meeting to come in. Eli shot me a curious look and I smiled, "I'm going home after this, I need to see Mollie."

"What? You can't do that," Eli objected and I nodded my head at him as I stated, "I can and I will. We don't have anything else that I really need to be here for and I need to meet with Lacey anyway about my appetizer ideas. I'll be back tomorrow by lunchtime."