Trusting You: The Switched Series book two (2 page)

I have just gotten out of the shower when my phone starts ringing. I look down to find a blocked number. I just really hope Callie is not calling to back out on me.

“Hello,” I answer.

“Is this Brody?” asks an unfamiliar voice.

“This is Brody, who is this?”

“I’m Leighton, Callie’s friend. We met a little while ago. Actually we didn’t meet because Callie didn’t introduce us, but we saw each other,” she says. Why in the world is this flirty blonde girl calling me? I can’t stand girls that flirt with every male they come in contact with and I can’t stand clingy girls. This girl comes across as both.

“Is Callie okay?” I ask not thinking of any other reason this girl could be calling me.

“She’s fine. I was just hoping I could talk to you about her before she leaves with you tomorrow. I think there are some things you need to know about Callie.”

“What makes you think she is leaving with me tomorrow? She never said what she was doing,” I ask, trying to figure out how I can avoid this girl tonight. I am exhausted.

“I just left her house and I know for a fact she is going to go with you tomorrow. I know it’s late, but can you meet me somewhere tonight. I really need to talk to you about some stuff.”

What is with this girl? It’s after ten o’clock at night and she wants to meet me. There is no way I am going out tonight.

“You can come by here if you want. I’m too tired to go anywhere tonight. If it’s important enough for you to meet a strange man in a hotel room at night, then come on,” I say hoping she will get the hint that I don’t want to talk to her tonight.

“It is that important. What hotel and room number?” she asks. I cannot believe this girl is actually willing to meet me in practically the middle of the night in a hotel. What is with girls these days?

“I am at the Sheraton, room 315,” I say hoping she is really not serious about this.

“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes,” she says, before hanging up. I guess I won’t be getting any rest tonight.

About twenty minutes later, I hear a knock on the door. I open the door to find the same little blonde I found earlier when I opened Callie’s door. I used to really like blonde girls. I don’t really know what it was about them, but that’s pretty much all I dated in high school. Of course it only took one for me to break that habit. I had to go to Destin for an undercover job and met Sam. She was a lot of fun at first, but she became a little too clingy for my tastes. I actually ended up having to change my number to get her to stop calling. I’ve stayed away from all women in general since then. I don’t need clingy crazy around me.

“Thank you for letting me come by,” she says, before coming into the room. I close the door behind her and lead her to the sofa in the room. I guess it’s a good thing I have a suite, this could get weird and uncomfortable if there was just a bed in this room. I really hope this girl didn’t come here hoping for that to happen.

“What did you want to talk about?” I ask her. I know I need to be nice to her. She is Callie’s best friend and if I am going to keep Callie around for my family and for me, I need to make sure this one likes us too.

“I really just wanted to meet you. Callie and I have been best friends for ten years. In those ten years, I don’t know of anybody she has anything else to do with other than me. She has had no family, just the people that were pretending to be her grandparents. When she turned eighteen, they pretty much kicked her out and said good luck with your life. She acts like it doesn’t bother her, but you know it has to. I really want her to have the family she deserves. I also want to make sure it’s going to be okay when your sister wakes up. I know how mean, girls can be and I don’t want Callie to have to go through losing another family.”

“I don’t want Callie to lose another family either. Now that I have met her, I can assure you that she will always be welcome with me no matter what Molly has to say about it. I promise I will take care of her.”

“Good, I need to tell you something else too. She is scared to be by herself. I don’t know if you noticed all of the locks on her doors, but for some reason, she is really freaked out when she is by herself. She also doesn’t like for anyone to stay with her,” she says, looking up at me. “I know that makes no sense, but I was her roommate in college and believe me when I say it wasn’t easy. She used to have some really scary nightmares. She says it’s better now, but I just thought you should know. I doubt she will tell you any of this, but I wanted to make sure she had someone to take care of her. I’m assuming you will do that,” she says, looking at me.

“Of course I will take care of her. What are her nightmares about?”

“I don’t know the specifics, she never talks about them. I assume they are about her parents being killed. You will have to ask her if you want to know more. She doesn’t talk about personal stuff very much. I just wanted to talk to you first and make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into,” she says, getting up and walking toward the door. I am not ready for her to leave. I still need to find out more about Callie.

“Is there anything else you can tell me about Callie?” I ask, before she opens the door. “I don’t know anything about this girl. I don’t want to do or say anything that will make her run back here,” I say hoping she will stay and tell me more about Callie.

“I shouldn’t have come here to start with. She would be furious if she found out I was here. In fact, she told me to stay away from you, so it would probably be best if she didn’t find out about this. I just needed to make sure she was okay going with you. If you want to know more about her, you will have to ask her. Just don’t put a lot of pressure on her to like your family. Don’t smother her. She has gone ten years with no one and she is okay with that. Thanks for letting me come by. I really hope she likes it in Tennessee. Please take care of her,” she says, before opening the door and walking out. That was a pleasant surprise. I usually have girls all over themselves trying to talk to me. Maybe she’s not as bad as I thought. I wish I had at least gotten her number. What if I have a question about Callie? I’m never going to be able to sleep now and I have no idea how tomorrow is going to go. One thing is for sure, Callie is a lot braver than I would be. There is no way I would go to another state with a complete stranger, even if they did say I was family. Maybe tomorrow won’t be too bad.

This has definitely been one of the longest days of my life. It has been a lot of fun getting to know Callie, but I am exhausted and have no idea where I am going to stay tonight. I don’t really blame Callie for not wanting to stay with my parents tonight, I mean she did just meet them, but I really hate to leave her by herself. Especially after what Leighton told me last night. Leighton. Why can I not get that girl out of my head? She is definitely not my type, but for some reason I can’t stop thinking about her. I better stop though, especially if Callie really told her to stay away from me. I really don’t want to lose her trust.

I pull into the driveway and get out of the truck to get our luggage out of the backseat.

“Who is Ash and are you sure he would be okay with me staying here tonight?” Callie asks, standing beside me waiting for her bags.

“Ash has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. This is actually his place. I just started crashing here and never moved out. He’s like family to us. He lost his family a few years back and we sort of just took him in. He doesn’t really talk about it so I don’t know details. We are pretty much all he has. Anyway, he won’t mind you being here, but I’ll call and tell him everything in the morning. He had to go out of town for a couple of weeks for a case he’s working on.” At least I hope he won’t mind. I should probably call and warn him tonight.

“Another cop, of course,” Callie says, smiling at me.  “Thank you for letting me stay here. I know they probably wanted me to stay with them, but I am not ready for that. I’m sure when Molly wakes up she wouldn’t be ready for that either.”

“It’s no problem. We are actually pretty clean around here for two guys,” I say, knowing I spent all day the day I found out about her cleaning, because I was determined to get this girl back here. “I’ll show you my room and you can stay in there.”

“I feel really bad taking your room. I can sleep on the couch,” she says, looking at me. Does she really think I would bring her here and make her sleep on the couch?

“My mama raised me right, there is no way I’m letting you sleep on a couch. You are taking my bed. It even has clean sheets and everything,” I say, carrying her bags into my bedroom.

“You actually cleaned this house knowing I would come with you, didn’t you?” Callie asks, coming up behind me. I just turn around and smile at her. I guess I’m not as smooth with things as I thought.

“Jax and Collin don’t live too far from here. It’s a very small town so we can all be here in a matter of minutes. There are horses here if you want to look around in the morning. I can also take you back to my parents sometime tomorrow and you can look around there too. I can crash with Jax and Collin tonight. If you need anything, just give me a call. I’ll give you a quick tour, and then I will give you some privacy,” I say, before leading her around the house.

“I have a gun,” Callie blurts out when we walk back into the living room. Why would she tell me that? Did I do something to scare her? I hope she’s not some crazy girl that is fixing to shoot me.

“Okay, how did you get it through an airport?” I ask.

“I didn’t. I mean I have a gun at home. Actually I have two. They are legal. I have a permit for them both. I just don’t have them with me,” she says, looking at me with huge wide eyes.

“Do you need them? Detective Clayton was going to surprise you with your car so you would have a way of getting around. I can call him and if he hasn’t left, he might be able to break into you place and get them if you want them,” I say, pulling my phone out of my pocket to call him.

“There is actually one in the glove box. I keep one in my car and one in my purse usually. They make me feel a little safer,” she says, almost looking embarrassed. I put my phone back in my pocket and walk over to the couch. I am exhausted and have no idea when or if I will ever get to go to bed tonight.

“Do you want me to stay here tonight? I promise you are safe out here, but if you would feel better, I can sleep on the couch.” I know Leighton told me she didn’t like to stay with people. I am totally confused now.

“I would feel better if you would stay here, but if you don’t want to, I understand. I don’t really sleep very well. I have some medicine that helps me sleep I can take, but I might still wake you up during the night and would really hate to keep you up all night,” she says. Maybe I can get her to talk now.

“Why would you wake me up?” I ask, but she just looks down. “You have nightmares,” I say, watching her nod her head at me.

“They have gotten better, but after being here and meeting everybody today, I don’t know what will happen,” she says, sitting down beside me. “I’m sorry.  I’m a pretty big mess. You should have just left me in Florida,” she says quietly. Is she kidding right now? I want to find whatever monster has caused her this much misery and kill him myself. I can’t believe she could even possibly think I wouldn’t have wanted her to come if I had known.

“When did they start?”

“The night I found my parents,” she quickly says.

“What are they about?” I ask, looking over at her. I know she probably doesn’t want to talk about it, but I need to know.

“Blue eyes, that’s all I saw that night, but I will never forget them, probably because I have seen them hundreds of times in my dreams,” she says.

“I’m really sorry you had to go through that alone. I have seen a lot of messed up things in my life, but I can’t even begin to imagine walking into a room and finding my parents that way,” I say, quickly regretting it. I don’t guess she needs to be reminded my parents are fine while she had to witness the worst thing any human could go through.

“I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. Thanks for everything today. You are staying, right?” she asks.

“I’ll be right here if you need anything. I’m just going to call and let everyone know you are okay. I hope you can sleep well tonight and Callie, thank you for coming and giving us a chance. I know you didn’t have to and I really appreciate you taking a chance on us,” I say, walking over to grab some blankets and a pillow out of the closet.

I put the blankets down on the couch and grab my phone out of my pocket. I really dread this call, but I guess I better tell them I am staying here with Callie.

“Hey. Is she okay?” my mom asks, answering the phone.

“She is fine. I am actually staying here with her tonight. I just wanted to let you guys know,” I say.

“Oh, okay. Are you sure she’s comfortable with you being there? I mean, she did just meet you two days ago,” she says.

“I know, I offered to leave, but she asked me to stay. I really don’t think she likes being by alone. I’m sleeping on the couch and she has my room. Everything will be fine, I promise.”

“Okay, make sure she knows she can stay here anytime she wants. We can fix a room up for her,” my mom says. I’m not sure she is realizing Callie is twenty six and not six.