“I want to know everything your dad said about me,” he says, his gaze growing intense.
I begin to feel sick all over again. “Okay,” I nod.
“I mean it, Isla. I want to know all his thoughts about me. Don’t sugarcoat it or omit anything. I have to have all the facts before I take the next step.”
“What? What do you mean?” I ask, panic creeping into my body.
“I need to know exactly what was said because I’m calling him. Tonight.”
Chapter Thirty
I stare at Caleb, stunned. He wants to call mydad?
“What? Why? You don’t have to do that,” I say, panicked.
GAH, this is so not what I had in mind for their first meeting. I was thinking a dinner at a nice restaurant. Not a confrontational phone call over Caleb potentially blowing up my career.
“Wrong. I do. I’d prefer to do it before dinner, too,” he says, that determined look entering his eyes.
“Caleb, I don’t think this is a good idea. My dad was speaking from a parent’s perspective. He’s worried about me. He doesn’t know you.”
“That’s why I have to talk to him. He needs to know me. That he can trust me when it comes to you,” he says, putting his hands on my face and tracing my cheekbones with the rough pads of his thumbs. “I want your dad to understand that I’m going to do everything I can to protect you. And I want to tell him what you mean to me.”
I stare up at him, my breath caught in my throat in surprise.Caleb wants to tell my dad what I mean to him.
My heart begins to pound in my ears. This islove. This is what love means. Caleb is willing to call my dad because he cares about me and what my dad thinks. Most guys wouldn’t careenough to have this uncomfortable conversation this early in a relationship.
But Caleb does.
He’s willing to take all of this on. The challenges of dating a reporter, learning to trust me despite my role in the media, becoming vulnerable and opening up about his past—all of this is trust. It’s trust he’s never given anyone outside of Catherine.
And he’s given all of this to me.
I stare up at him, fighting back tears. This is what love is.
And I know I love him.
I can’t say it—I won’t say it, I don’t want him to think I’m blurting it out after a fight—but I know I do. It’s not just what he’s doing now, but it’s how he listens. He worked through our argument instead of running from it. Caleb is smart, sexy, he makes me laugh, he’s sharp, thoughtful …
I love this man. And one day soon I’ll tell him.
But not today.
“Isla?” Caleb asks, snapping me from my thoughts.
I swallow hard and blink back my tears. “Yes, you can call him,” I say.
Caleb nods. “Good. But first, you have to tell me what your dad said. Don’t give me an edited version. I need to know what your father thinks of me.”
“Okay.”
I proceed to tell Caleb the conversation I had with my dad in the car, and Caleb’s face remains neutral. He takes it all in, and as soon as I’m finished, he nods.
“Okay. Now would you get Mr. Foley on the phone for me?”
I smile at that. “His name is Mitch.”
He shakes his head. “He’s Mr. Foley until he tells me I can call him Mitch.”