Chapter 25

I sense that something is wrong the minute Calder picks me up for our date.

He arrives at three o'clock on the dot, and in his jeans and fitted charcoal sweater he looks so sexy that I'm tempted to drag him into my apartment and jump him right there. He gives me a devilish smile and kisses me, but the minute I slip my hands beneath his shirt, he pulls away and teasingly shakes his head.

"A little eager, aren't we?" he says, his eyes gleaming. That's when I see it: a flash of something across his expression. It's gone before I can give it a name - regret? Sorrow? Guilt? - but whatever it is, I know that there's something, some worry, still lingering in his mind.

He doesn't want me to know. He smiles and touches me and pretends that nothing's wrong, and for the moment, I let him.

He takes me to a local park.

"It's nothing fancy," he says. "But my father used to bring my sister and me here when we were younger. I always thought it was beautiful." He sounds almost apologetic, and I re