Free Long Way Home by Helenkay Dimon

kissed her and lost my fucking mind.”
    “So you two . . . ?”
    Callen didn’t look up. “Almost.”
    “Sounds to me like you guys aren’t done.”
    That time Callen let his arms fall against the table again as he faced Declan head on. “We are.”
    “You’re not very convincing.”
    Yeah, that was the problem. Callen kept saying it in his head, and repeated it a bunch of times in the car an hour ago. None of those times stuck. “We have to be over. I can’t take that again.”
    “Actually, no. You get to choose whether you want to try and whether you think you can get past all the crap in your history.”
    Okay, yeah, the conversation could end now.
    Callen started shifting in his seat, trying to find a comfortable position. “She lied.”
    “And Leah lied to me.”
    “It’s not the same.” Leah had wrestled with a vendetta passed on to her from her lying piece of shit of a father. He nurtured her hatred and fed it, but then she met Declan, and all those years of Marc Baron grooming Leah to hate fell apart.
    Sure, it took Leah too long to come clean, and Callen gave her a rough time in the process, but she turned a corner. Grace . . . hell, he didn’t know what was happening with Grace, other than he saw her and he got hard and stupid.
    “Deception is deception.” Declan thumped his fingers against the table. “But I forgave Leah. Can’t imagine my life without her now.”
    That was a big statement for a guy like Declan. He didn’t spew about his feelings, which was one of the reasons Callen liked talking things over with him. Still, the guy was up to his ass in love, and Callen didn’t think that was going to change anytime soon. He saw how happy his brother was. How, with each day, he became more comfortable around her, more attached.
    Seemed to Callen like there was an obvious solution if the question was how to make her stick around forever. “You ever going to man up and marry her?”
    Declan frowned. “We haven’t been dating that long.”
    “Right, because length of time matters.” If Callen were the eye-rolling type he would done it right then. Instead, he let his tone make the point.
    “Have you met her dad?” Declan asked in a voice full of sarcasm.
    But he didn’t say no, which Callen took to mean the question was on Declan’s mind. Likely all the time. “What does that have to do with anything?”
    “I’m not putting her in the position of choosing between me and her idiot father.”
    Talk about missing the signs
. “She lives here, with you. Hell, with us. So, I think she already did.”
    “I can’t even deal with that right now.” Declan kept drumming those fingers.
    Callen watched the non-stop movements and gritted his teeth against the annoying pounding sound. Looked like denial to him. “But I’m guessing you already decided to ask someday.”
    “Okay, yeah. She’s the one. No question.”
    Not a surprise, but still a
whoa
moment. “Then ask her now.”
    “Not until I figure out a way to get her talking with her father again. The man is a dick, but she loves him, and I have to figure out a way to respect that.”
    “Sounds like we both have women troubles.”
    Declan snorted. “At least I’m sleeping with mine.”
    Rubbing it in. The bastard. “You forget Leah is mad at you.”
    Leaning back and looking completely in command, Declan propped his hands behind his head and smiled. “But this is where we’re different. See, Leah and I will work through her grumpiness with me today and I’ll be in bed with her in fifteen minutes, while you’re in yours alone.”
    Bed. Grace . . . damn it. “You suck.”
    “You’re jealous.”
    There was no point in denying it. “Damn right.”
    Now he had to figure out what to do next.

Chapter Six
    Grace stepped into Gossamer at lunchtime the next day and froze, despite the warm colors and welcoming cozy feel. To her right was a seating area with overstuffed sofas, complete with two older ladies who stopped