Top shelf the calway fam.., p.1
Top Shelf (The Calway Family Series Book 2), page 1
TOP SHELF
The Calway Family Series, Book Two
Copyright © 2023 T.D. Colbert
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, numerous places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. This book may not be resold or given away in any manner.
Published: T.D. Colbert 2023
www.tdcolbert.com
Cover Design: T.D. Colbert
Editing: Jenn Lockwood Editing
For anyone who has the strength to start over
contents
1. Tyson
2. Sadie
3. Tyson
4. Sadie
5. Tyson
6. Tyson
7. Sadie
8. Tyson
9. Sadie
10. Tyson
11. Sadie
12. Tyson
13. Sadie
14. Tyson
15. Sadie
16. Tyson
17. Sadie
18. Tyson
19. Sadie
20. Tyson
21. Sadie
22. Tyson
23. Sadie
24. Tyson
Epilogue
About the Author
eight years ago
CHAPTER ONE
tyson
“You need to come get cleaned up, Tyson,” I hear my dad call from the porch. I’m hunched over the open hood of my truck, looking down into it like it’s a black hole.
I close the hood, dusting off my hands and wiping them on the towel I have tucked into my jeans.
“Coming,” I say with a sigh.
Sadie Blackwell is getting married today.
An hour later, I’m in the front seat of my dad’s SUV, with my head resting on my hand as I look out the passenger window.
“What’s your deal?” my kid sister, Lola, asks from the backseat. She’s playing some game on her cell phone that my dad just got her, and the sound is driving me nuts. I moved back in with my dad a few years back once I graduated from college. And right when I was planning to move out last year, his wife, my stepmom, Lynn died in a car accident, leaving my dad alone with my younger sister, Demi, and our thirteen-year-old maniac of a stepsister. And I knew I couldn’t go yet.
He tells me all the time he’s ready.
But I don’t know if I am.
I don’t know if I’m ready to leave them.
But right now, I want nothing more than to be alone, hiding out somewhere dark and quiet, with a bottle of bourbon and my sorrows.
Because Sadie Blackwell is getting married today.
And the groom isn’t me.
When we get to the church, I almost roll my eyes as we walk inside.
“I’d never get married in a church, ya know? Feels so impersonal to me. I feel closer to God or…I don’t know, whatever’s out there, when I’m lost somewhere in the woods. That’s where I wanna get married,” she had told me ten years ago, when we were lying outside underneath the swingset in my backyard the night before we started our junior year of high school.
But her fiancé, Dallas…his family is big in his church. And it just ‘meant so much to him and his family,’ she had told me.
Gag.
I see my other sister, Demi, and my older brother, Tate, waving to us from across the hall, and we smile as we walk over to them.
“Ready?” Tate asks me, clapping me on the back. He’s the only one who knows—who really knows—why this day has been giving me an ulcer for the last year. Why I know where all the emergency exits are in case I can’t handle it.
He’s the only one who knows, and I need to keep it that way.
I blow out a breath and nod slowly as we follow the rest of my family through the doors and into the main hall.
“Should we move closer to the front?” Demi whispers back to us.
“No,” Tate says for me. I nod a silent thank you to him, and we slip into one of the last rows. But as luck would have it, we’re on the side where the bridesmaids have lined up. And I’m closest to the aisle. So, in a few moments’ time, I’ll have to watch her—a vision in white, no doubt, the most beautiful fucking angel in the whole goddamn world—walk down the aisle to the wrong man.
My stomach starts to swirl, and I tug on my tie to loosen it. But as the minutes tick by, nothing seems to be happening.
“What’s taking so long?” Lo whispers. My dad shrugs, and we notice that other people are starting to look around. Just then, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see Jamie, Sadie’s older cousin. She went to school a few towns over, but she hung out with us a bit as teens.
“Ty,” she whispers, her eyes big. “Can you, uh…can you come with me for a minute?”
My eyebrows knit together, but I nod slowly and stand up from the pew. I turn back to my family.
“Be right back,” I whisper.
I follow Jamie out into the hallway, and she pushes open a door at the end of it. When we’re inside, she turns to me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her. My heart drops. “Is she okay? Is everything alright?”
Jamie bites her lip and nods slowly.
“She can’t do it,” she whispers, and my eyes widen. “She told her parents. She’s telling Dallas now. But she needs to get out. She needs an escape route—and she wanted me to get you. Can you…can you take—”
“Of course,” I say, my stomach flipping on its end so much that I think it might be in a knot. My heart is beating in my throat, and my palms are sweating. “Where is… where should I—”
But just as I ask, the door opens, and there stands my beautiful best friend, dressed in the most beautiful wedding dress I’ve ever seen. Her auburn curls are pulled back, and if it were the right moment, I’d be ogling the shit out of how fucking perfect she looks. But right now, I need to put my best-friend cap on.
“Hey, Blackwell,” I say gently. She closes her eyes as the tears stream down her face. I rush toward her, swiping them with my thumbs and pulling her into my arms. “I’m not going to tell you how beautiful you look right now,” I whisper. “So remind me to tell you later. I hear you need a getaway car?”
She nods against my chest as soft sobs shake her little shoulders.
“I need to get out of this first,” she says. Jamie walks toward us, and they slip back into the room she came out of. I take the opportunity to pull my phone out and text my brother.
The wedding is off, I say.
Very funny, he writes back.
I’m serious. She wants me to take her out of here, so I’m going to. I’ll let y’all know where we end up.
Oh, fuck. You’re not joking? Tate says.
No. Tell Dad not to wait up for me. Safe to say you guys can probably leave.
Fuck, he writes back. Okay, be safe. Give her a kiss from us.
Just then, the door opens again, and Sadie reappears, looking just as breathtaking as she always does, with or without the designer gown. She looks up at me, and I smile, reaching my hand out for hers.
As we turn to walk down the hall, we hear a sob that stops us in our tracks. And I know exactly who it is, just from the pure melodrama that drips from it.
Her mother. Debbie, the bane of her—and, ipso facto, my—existence.
Sadie turns to her mother, and their eyes meet.
“You’re ruining everything, Sadie,” she whimpers before she bursts out into tears again, her father consoling her. Jamie watches us with sad eyes as I reach down and pull Sadie to me.
“This is your life, Sadie. Yours,” I whisper. “You tell me what you want to do, and we’ll do it.” I hold my breath, waiting for her to tell me she’s making a mistake. But she doesn’t.
“Just take me somewhere,” she whispers back, the tears welling in her eyes again. “Anywhere.”
I nod, reaching down to grab the duffel bag from her hand. I throw it over my shoulder and take her keys from her hands. I lead her out to the parking lot, unlocking her black Jeep and opening her passenger door for her to climb in. And then, I’m driving my best friend away from her wedding.
CHAPTER TWO
sadie
I feel like no matter how deep I try to suck in, no air is reaching my lungs. My heart is racing, and the comedown from the adrenaline is making my fingers tingle. The panic has settled on my chest like a goddamn elephant.
But there’s one thing I’m not feeling.
Regret.
Doubt.
Fear that I made the wrong decision.
I feel the weight of disappointment from my parents. The uncertainty of what comes next. How to deal with Dallas moving forward.
But I don’t feel that uncertainty in the pit of my stomach. Because if there is one thing I’m sure of, it’s that I wasn’t supposed to marry Dallas Grisham today.
I squeeze my eyes shut, rubbing my clammy palms on my bare thighs, forcing breaths through pursed lips as I try and steady my heart rate.
“Hey,” Tyson says, and just hearing his voice brings me down a little. I open my eyes slowly and look at him. I see him lift a finger and press the button to roll my window down. He nods toward it, the wind blowing my once-perfect updo to shit. “Breathe,” he says. I just stare at him for a minute. Then he gives me a l
“Where are we going?” I ask him. Slowly, he slides a hand over the center console and onto my thigh. There’s a mini-electric shock underneath the skin where his hand rests. He wraps his whole hand around mine, covering it.
“Let me take care of that, Sade,” Tyson tells me. “Please, just try and relax some.”
I let out a long breath and lean back against the seat. I close my eyes and let the wind hit my face, and then I breathe. I let my hand melt into his, and I let the wind rock me to sleep.
“Sade,” he whispers. “Sade, wake up.” I blink slowly, rubbing my eyes and trying to get a hold of my surroundings. I blink a few more times as I look out the windshield, and my stomach flips.
The lake house.
I close my eyes, letting this feeling wash over me. This feeling of blissful familiarity. The place he took me so much. Us and a big group of our friends. Summer after summer.
The lake house.
He opens his door, then turns around and reaches over to the backseat, pulling my bag out. He gets out and meets me on my side, closing my door and putting his arm around my shoulder. There is something so familiar, so safe about being with him right now. I’m aware that my life as I know it is burning down around me, but with Tyson, none of that matters. He makes it so I can turn my brain off, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.
We walk up the porch steps, and he types in the code. The door unlocks, and then we walk inside, and I breathe in that familiar scent of the Calway lake house—cedar and cinnamon, just like every other time I have ever been here.
Like the time after my sixteenth birthday, when Tyson almost gave me my first kiss.
Almost.
And the time after, in college, when we were both back for winter break. When we’d had a few beers around the fire. When he walked me back to my room, and I wanted so badly to ask him to stay with me—until my drunken boyfriend, Dallas, stumbled past us through the door to our room, crashing down onto the bed and taking my fantasy with him.
But now, here we are again.
But this time, it’s just me and him.
“Oh gosh,” I say, watching him set the keys and my bag down on the kitchen island. “I just realized you don’t even have a bag.”
He smiles and shrugs.
“Tate always leaves some clothes here,” he says. “Or I’ll just sleep naked.”
I chuckle as the image flashes through my mind for the briefest of seconds. And then reality descends upon me again.
And I remember the mess I’ve just made—and the mess I’ve run out on—and that when this little stunt of mine ends, I have to go back to it. I have to figure out how the fuck to clean it up.
And then I feel that elephant sitting on my chest again. My hands clam up, and my breaths become shallow. But before I can even mutter a word, he’s made his way across the room to me.
“Hey,” he whispers, still in his shirt and tie that he looks so fucking delicious in, “come on. Come with me.”
He takes my hand again, walking me across the huge family room and to the back door. He unlocks the latch and pulls me out onto the deck. There’s a big glider bench that I used to love reading out on when we were younger. I’d always wake up before the rest of the house, and this is where I’d come.
He pats the seat next to him, and I sink into it. He drops his arm around my shoulders again, pulling me into him and resting his head on mine. It’s chilly out (fall always comes earlier up here), but the chill is forcing me to take actual breaths. And it feels good. And then it feels like it needs to get out. And it does, in the form of big, round, hot tears that are spilling from my eyes.
When he notices, he cups my head with his other hand, holding me on his shoulder. He rubs my hair, and I feel him press his lips to the top of my head. And after a moment, as I curl up deeper into his chest, I realize how completely fucked up this is. Because I’m sitting here, still wearing my stupid “bride” tank top the girls got me, but all I want to do is turn and kiss the man who has always been there for me, who has always acted as my getaway car long before this day.
“What is it, Sade?” he finally whispers, looking down at me and swiping one last tear from my cheek. “Talk to me.”
He is so fucking beautiful. He always has been. But sitting here like this, his dress shirt a little more snug around his thick arms and chest, his tie loosened, his dark hair tousled and disheveled from the events of the day…God, I swear I have never wanted anything more. Maybe it’s the emotions, maybe it’s the familiarity.
Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s me and Tyson. And this time could be our time. Finally.
I turn my body toward him and press up onto my knees.
He raises an eyebrow, nudging me gently with his shoulder.
“Hey,” he whispers, “what is it?”
I don’t say anything at first. I let my eyes scour his face, soaking in all the things I’ve had to admire in silence before. The dark brown of his eyes, the copper that speckles his mostly black facial hair, the long lashes that fan his cheeks when he blinks.
The lips.
God, those lips.
“Why did you take me away today?” I ask him. The question surprises him. His eyebrows jump, then knit together.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I asked. Why did you take me away today?”
“Because you needed me to,” he says. I swallow and nod. I move my hand on top of his, covering it, then I lift my eyes to his again.
“Did you want me to marry him today, Ty?” I whisper. Please tell me no. His expression is pained, his eyes darting back and forth.
“I…I just want you to be happy, Sade. I—”
“Tyson,” I say, my voice hard now, “did you want me to marry him today?”
His eyes meet mine, trapping me in a gaze that shoots a chill down my spine and makes it so that I can hear my own heartbeat.
“No,” he says, his teeth almost gritting together.
“Why?” I ask him. “Why did you take me away today?”
For the love of God, please just answer me the way I need you to. The way I have wanted you to for a decade.
His jaw ticks as his eyes drop down to our fingers, interlocked now. I give his hand a squeeze, taking his other one in mine now. I’m pleading to him with my eyes. I’m begging him to say what I need him to say.
“Because you don’t belong with him. Or anyone else. You belong with me, Sadie. And I took you away because you should be with me.”
Holy fuck.
That’ll do it.
I feel my pulse reverberating through my whole body.
I press up onto my knees and slide my hands up his chest, pressing my palms against him. I lean forward so our lips are just inches apart, and I can feel his breath on my skin.
I press my lips to his lightly, just long enough for the tension in the air to slowly start to dissipate.
“Tell me again, Ty,” I whisper to him. His eyes widen. “Tell me who I belong with. Who I belong to.”
I feel his hands slide up my back as he presses me to him, devouring my lips in a kiss that leaves them swollen and puffy.
“You belong to me, Sadie Blackwell,” he growls, and my stomach flips.
I kiss him again, this time letting my tongue dance around his, my fingernails digging into his shoulder.
“Show me,” I tell him when we come apart. His eyes widen again as he stares at me.
“Sade, are you…”
“Tyson, don’t ask me that. Just…show me.”
He waits one more beat, and then he slides off the glider and onto his feet. He pulls me up onto mine, then bends down to pick me up. He kisses me again as he carries me inside, kicking the door shut behind him.
He walks down the hallway toward the large master suite, opening the door and effortlessly holding me with one arm as he does. He lays me on top of the bed and undoes his tie, unbuttoning his shirt as he stares down at me like a lion watching his prey’s every move.
