Free Web NovelChapter 26: DINNER TABLE
KEISHA’S POV freewebnoveℓ.com
I should have just taken the packed meal.
That was my first thought when Becca led me through the back entrance of the mansion and I looked up and saw Nadia at the dining table with her father sitting across from her and both of them looked up in my direction at the same time.
Shit. You’ve got to be kidding me.
Nadia’s face lit up immediately but Callum’s did nothing, it just remained blank and expressionless.
"I’ll just take it to go—" I started saying to Becca, eager to leave.
"Nonsense." Becca was already moving toward the kitchen. "Sit down, there’s plenty."
"Keisha!" Nadia was already pulling out the chair beside her. "Come sit. We literally just started."
I looked at the chair and I looked at Callum who had gone back to cutting whatever was on his plate with a focused expression. As though I hadn’t watched him pummel Orin two days back.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Slowly, I sat down, hands in my lap.
Becca appeared with a plate before I had fully settled. I thanked her and looked at my food, refusing to look up at Alpha Callum. This was a normal dinner. People had dinner together all the time.
"How are you feeling now?" Nadia leaned toward me immediately, her voice dropping slightly. "Honestly."
"Better." I smiled. "The library helped."
She nodded, her expression genuinely sorry. "I keep thinking about it. About how I was the one who did your makeup that night and sent you off and I had no idea—" She shook her head. "I keep going over it. All the times he seemed so normal."
"He was good at it." I nodded. "That’s not your fault."
"I know but still." She picked at her food. "I feel terrible. I’m the one who kept telling you he was a good person."
"You thought he was." I looked up at her with a tiny smile.
"We all did." She glanced at her father briefly. "It’s disgusting. The whole thing."
Callum looked up from his plate then, his eyes moving to me. "How are you settling back in?" He asked,his voice neutral. Like we were strangers who had just met at a pack function.
I looked at him finally. "Fine."
"Good." He cut a piece of his food. "The communications office mentioned you took today off."
"I did."
"Back tomorrow?"
"Yes."
Callum set his utensils down slightly as though he just remembered something. "You should be more careful about the company you keep." He said it simply. "Particularly people you don’t know well enough."
I stared at him, my jaw tightening. "Right." I replied, my voice tight.
"It’s not a criticism." He pointed out, picking his fork back up. "Just an observation."
"Noted." I nodded, looking back at my plate.
Nadia shifted beside me. "Dad—"
"I’m not trying to make her feel bad." He said to Nadia before looking back at me. "You handled it. I’m just saying going forward—"
"I heard you the first time." I cut him off.
He looked at me for a second and then back at his plate and the room simmered with tension.
Nadia cleared her throat. "So..." She forced a smile. "I was thinking we could do something this weekend. Just us. Get out of the pack for a bit."
"That sounds good." I nodded.
"Shopping maybe. Or just—"
"You’re not going anywhere outside pack grounds yet." Callum interrupted without looking up.
Nadia turned to him. "Dad!"
"Not yet." He said. "Give it another week."
"It’s been handled—"
"Nadia." His voice didn’t change but the conversation ended.
She looked at me with an apologetic expression and I shook my head slightly to tell her it was fine.
By the time plates were being cleared, I was readying myself to stand and thank Becca and leave cleanly.
"You could sleep over." Nadia suggested immediately. "My room like old times."
"I’m okay really." I stood and picked up my plate out of habit before Becca could take it. "Thank you for dinner. Both of you."
Callum was already standing. "I’ll walk you."
Nadia looked between us with a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. "What a coincidence. He was just saying he needed fresh air before you joined us for dinner."
I looked at Nadia. "I’m fine on my own—"
"It’s dark." Callum said simply, already moving toward the door. "Let’s go."
Right.
We walked in silence for a while. The night air was chilly and I tried to avoid looking at him as we walked down the path.
"You’re annoyed." He broke the silence.
"I’m fine."
He was quiet for a moment. "The question I had earlier." He said. "At dinner."
I frowned. "Which one?"
"About the company you keep."
"You made your point." I gritted out. "I don’t need a follow up."
"That’s not what I meant." He sighed. "I meant—" He paused. "How are you actually?"
I stopped walking.
Seriously?
He stopped too and turned to look at me. "What?"
"You’re asking me that now?" I scoffed.
"Yes."
"After that whole dinner where you were—" I gestured vaguely.
He looked at me. "Would you have preferred I said nothing?"
"I would have preferred—" I stopped and took a deep breath. "It doesn’t matter."
"Keisha."
"What?"
He rocked back and forth on his heels for a second, his expression blank.
"How do you feel about it?" He suddenly asked.
I frowned. "About what?"
"Being intimate with your best friend’s father. Sleeping with Dane and I."
I stopped walking, my mouth running dry. "Excuse me?" I said.
"You heard me." He deadpanned.
"I—" I laughed but the sound was devoid of humor. "You’re asking me that right now."
"It’s a reasonable question." He sounded way too casual about it.
"It is not a reasonable—" I pressed my fingers to my temple. "It’s not like I wanted it, Callum. None of it was planned. It just happened and now I’m here and I’m dealing with it. And you standing here asking me how I feel about it like you didn’t just treat me like a stranger at your dinner table is—" I stopped and shook my head. "Good night."
"Keisha—"
"Good night." I turned and walked the rest of the way to my door and let myself in and closed it behind me.
I stood in the dark hallway, my chest heaving.
It’s not like I wanted it.
I pressed my back against the door and stared at the ceiling.
Because the truth— the real truth that I had been thinking about more lately— was that I had started listening for footsteps on my porch at night. That I noticed every day neither of them knocked. That I ached for both of them even though I didn’t want to and it wasn’t getting better.
The pressing question was what I was supposed to do with that.
And how I was supposed to stop it.
