Coming home had stirred up memories and emotions long buried. If she was acting like a jealous teenager around Danny, it was probably because of that. He had been all she thought about for much of her adolescence, and being back home was simply stirring up echoes of feelings that were no longer there. That was all. It was a reasonable explanation.
He was waiting for her when she came out, leaning casually against the doorframe of the exit and looking out at the cars in the parking lot. Callie faltered mid-step but collected herself before he saw her. Those memories of her teenage crush were awfully vivid right now. She tried to shake them off as she approached him.
“Ready?” he asked. When she nodded, he held the door open and gestured for her to go first. “After you.”
She stole a quick glance in the direction of their table but couldn’t tell if he had taken the waitress’s phone number with him or left it lying there. It was none of her business anyway, she told herself as she slid into the passenger’s seat of Danny’s truck.
As he started the engine, he pulled some cash out of his pocket and tucked it into Callie’s purse.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “I said I’d pay for my own dinner.”
“You’re unemployed now, remember? Keep it.”
Her frustration mounted. “I’m not destitute, Danny! I quit my job to come take care of Mom, not because they fired me or anything — ”
“You quit your job to come here? Because I called you?”
“My jerk of a boss wouldn’t give me the time off. It’s no big deal. I’ll have another job within a week of getting back, no problem. I always land on my feet.”
“Damn, Callie. If I had known you would do that, I would have thought twice before calling,” he said ruefully.
“Why? Mom would still need someone to help take care of her, and you can only take off so much time from work. Besides, isn’t ‘family first’ the motto you want me to adopt anyway?” She held the cash out to him. “Here. I’m doing just fine, really.”
“No.”
“Just take it.”
“No.”
“Danny, I swear — ” Muttering under her breath, she tried to shove the money back into the pocket of his jeans.
He caught her hand with his. “Careful, Callie. One wrong slip of the hand, and you should be the one buying me dinner.”
She realized then just exactly where her hand was and what he meant. “You idiot,” she said, unable to keep from laughing and trying not to blush. “Fine. I’ll keep the money. This time. But I make no promises about your maidenly virtue next time.”
A slow grin spread across his face and she felt sixteen again and unable to form coherent thoughts. He was so beautiful. No wonder the waitress had made a play for him. She would be crazy not to.
He released her hand and she clasped it in her other one, safely out of temptation’s way in her lap. She was not sixteen anymore, although it felt good to laugh with him like she used to do. She was only visiting, and in a while, she would be moving on again. “Thanks for dinner,” she said, facing forward once more.
He would have walked her to the front door when they got to Liddy’s house, she was sure, but Callie hastened out of the truck before he could get his own door open. She was too giddy around him for her liking and felt a need to put some space between them. “Thanks again,” she said with an overly cheerful wave. “I’ll tell Mom you made sure I was well-fed, as ordered.” She turned to go up the front walk.
“Callie?”
She turned back. “Yes?”
Whatever he was about to say, he changed his mind. “Nothing. Say good night to your mom for me.”
“I will.”
His truck’s engine roared to life again and then faded into the distance as he drove off. It was what she had wanted, but mass of contradictions that she was, she was sorry to see him go.
Liddy was still comfortably ensconced in her bedroom when Callie walked through the front door. The television was on, but she muted it when she heard her daughter. Her voice drifted out to the living room. “Back so soon? I thought you might want to make a night of it. How was dinner?”
“Fine,” Callie called out, tossing her purse onto the couch. “How’s your leg?”
“Oh, as good as can be expected. I can’t say I’m overly fond of the exercises they gave me to do, though. Oh, well. I took another pain pill about an hour ago, and it’s starting to kick in.”
“Hungry?”
“I wouldn’t say no to a snack.”
Rummaging through the cupboards, Callie pulled out a bag of microwave popcorn and put it into the microwave.
“I hope you kids didn’t cut things short on my account,” her mother called into the kitchen. “I had hoped you two would get a chance to catch up. It’s been so long, after all.”
Callie leaned in the bedroom doorway and gave her mother a knowing look. “You mean you were meddling. You guilted Danny into taking me out to dinner because you were trying to ‘fix’ things.”
Liddy was unrepentant. “It’s a mother’s right to meddle when it’s in her child’s best interest. What’s going on between you two anyways?”
“Same old, same old. He thinks I’m making all the wrong choices. I think they’re my choices to make. You two aren’t planning some sort of intervention, are you?”
“Why, yes, dear. And step one of our diabolical little plan was to have me break my hip in order to get you on a plane. I’d say everything is coming together rather neatly, wouldn’t you?”
“You’re getting sarcastic in your old age.”
“I was born sarcastic, honey.”
The microwave timer went off, and Callie returned to the kitchen to dump the steaming popcorn into a bowl for her mother.
Her mother’s voice followed her. “So did you two sort everything out?”
“What’s to sort out? He’s got his opinions, and I’ve got mine. Extra butter?”
“Yes, please. I mean, are you two on friendly terms again, or am I going to have to break my other leg?”
Callie delivered the bowl of popcorn to her mother. “Don’t push it, Mother.” She took a deep breath. “There’s something else I want to talk to you about anyway.”
Liddy took a handful of popcorn. “What is it?”
“Dad.”
Her mother’s hand froze in midair between the bowl and her mouth.
“I’m not a child anymore, Mom. I have a right to make decisions for myself, including whether or not I get to know my father.”
Liddy put the bowl of popcorn down, her face grave. “Callie — ”
There was a “no” coming, but she wasn’t going to take no for an answer anymore. “It’s a sore subject for you, I get that. And you probably think you’re protecting me. I get that, too. But … ” She sat on the edge of her mother’s bed, her eyes imploring. “I don’t even have a picture of him, Mom. You wouldn’t let me keep even that much of him.”
Her mother’s face grew sad, and she touched Callie’s cheek softly. “You don’t understand, honey.”
“No, I don’t understand, and I’m tired of it. There’s this whole other part of me that I feel I don’t know. I need to find him, Mom. I need your help. You wouldn’t help me before, but I’m asking you again. Please.”
“Finding your father won’t help you, Callie. You’re better off without him. Whatever you’re looking for, can’t you try to find it here?”
“I don’t belong here.”
“You could if you tried.”
“Mom — ”
Sighing, Liddy let her head sink back into the pillows. “I’ve got a terrible headache, honey. Would you get me an ice pack, please?”
Callie’s shoulders slumped in frustration. She had expected as much, but if her mother thou
ght she would give up that easily this time, she was mistaken. “Yes, Mom. I’ll get you an ice pack, and I’ll stay long enough to help you get back on your feet. But if you want this — us — to work, it can’t just be on your terms.”
She turned and went back into the kitchen to wrap some ice in a towel for her mom. Her eyes were stinging, and she touched them in surprise to find them wet. She hated arguing with her mother, hated running up against a brick wall every time she tried to get through to her. The last time she had been home had been the worst. She had no illusions; her father had abandoned them. She was not expecting to find a saint, but she still needed to find him. Her mother just couldn’t seem to understand that.
Drying her eyes, Callie regained her composure. “Here,” she said, returning to the bedroom and holding out the ice pack.
Liddy took it and pressed it to her temple. “Thank you.”
“I’m not giving up, Mom.”
Her mother closed her eyes. “No. I know you aren’t.”
• • •
Callie sat alone in her old room, trying again without success to conjure up an image of her father. She thought he must have been kind to her because she felt a wistful sort of affection when she thought of him, but it was impossible to tell how much of that was just wishful thinking on her part. Impossible without help, at least. Help that her mother had refused to give her over the years.
Seeking an outlet for her frustration, she reached for her notebook.
Most people think that coming home is like the ultimate feeling of belonging. Everything is as it should be when you’re finally home again. Parts of yourself come together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, and everything fits. But for some people, coming home is only a reminder that you don’t have all the pieces you need, and without them it’s hard to make sense of the rest.
I wish I could make the pieces fit.
Chapter Five
“ … extra rolls of receipt paper are in the back room if you run out. There are extra bags back there, too. Our home phone number is right here if something should pop up that you have a question about. And … I think that’s everything. Any questions?”
The young woman standing before Callie in Liddy’s gift shop smiled brightly and shook her head. “Nope, I think I’ve got it. Thanks again for the job. I can use a little extra income this summer.”
“Great. Works out well for everybody, then.” Callie held up a key. “Here’s your copy of the store key. The back door sticks a little, but not too badly. Welcome aboard, Allyson. We’re all glad to have you.”
From behind her somewhere, Debbie muttered something under her breath that Callie chose to ignore.
A cuckoo clock on the wall announced the time as twelve o’clock. “That’s my cue,” Callie said. “Mom needs her lunch. Like I said, any questions — any that Debbie here can’t answer, I mean — just give me a call.”
On her way out the front door, she pulled the Help Wanted sign off the window.
Her mother had had an astonishing number of visitors since her accident, most of whom came bearing gifts of casseroles or offers of help with errands and other things, so it didn’t surprise Callie to see another vehicle parked in the driveway at Liddy’s house. What did surprise her was that it was Danny’s truck. He hadn’t said anything to her about coming by today.
She felt her pulse speed up and told herself she was being silly. Still, she caught herself doing a quick check of her appearance in the rearview mirror. Knock it off, she warned herself before grabbing her things and getting out of the car.
Danny came out through the front door just as Callie started down the walkway. “Hi,” she greeted him awkwardly. “I didn’t know you’d be here.” That hadn’t come out right at all, she thought, kicking herself mentally. Could she have made him feel any less welcome?
“Just dropping off a few groceries.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
“But I’ve got a group scheduled at one, so I’ll get out of your way here.” He made as if to go around her.
“You’re not in my way,” she said quickly, putting a hand on his arm to stop him. She removed it just as hastily, afraid that he might sense the effect even such simple contact with him had on her. “I just meant that I was surprised. You’ve taken off so much time from work already to help Mom. I hope it hasn’t been too inconvenient for you, is all.”
“It’s fine. Next week’s booked pretty solid, though. It will be tough to get away then.”
“Right. Your busy season and all.” It was inane-sounding chitchat. She was much more comfortable with written words, she decided, than with spoken ones. At least with certain people.
“So … ”
“Yeah, right. Tourists are waiting. Let me get out of your way.” She stepped aside to give him room to pass. “Thanks again, Danny.”
He shrugged off her thanks and put on a pair of sunglasses. “I’ll see you.”
As he walked to his truck, she toyed with a sudden impulse to ask him to dinner at the house. It was a perfectly normal thing to do with an old friend, so it shouldn’t have been so hard. As old friends, why shouldn’t they be able to enjoy each other’s company during her visit?
But she couldn’t seem to get the words out, so she watched him drive away instead before turning to go inside the house.
She had to laugh at herself. It was silly. He was a friend, nothing more, and there was no reason for her to feel self-conscious around him. It must just be the effect of having old memories stirred up of teenage crushes. There was nothing more to it than that.
Really.
But she still wondered if he had asked out that waitress.
• • •
“Honey, do me a favor?”
Callie put down the pot she was scrubbing. “What?”
Her mother waved a fistful of cash at her from the couch. “Danny dropped off some groceries the other day at lunch time, and I forgot to pay him back for them. Could you drop this off for me?”
“‘Forgot,’ huh?” she muttered under her breath. Then she raised her voice. “Can’t you just give it to him the next time he comes by?”
“What if he needs it before then? I’d feel terrible if something came up, and he didn’t have the money, and — ”
“All right, all right,” Callie conceded, knowing full well that she was being manipulated. “I’ll drop it off by his house when I go into town later.”
“He won’t be there, he’ll be working.”
“His grandpa will be there, won’t he? I can just leave it with him.” While she had never heard any mention of Danny’s parents in all the time she had known him, he had spoken of his grandfather many times and with obvious affection. She had only met the old man a few times, but she had a dim recollection of a tall man with white hair at Elliot’s funeral, silent and stern looking. He’d said little to Liddy at the service, and even less to Callie, but he had offered Liddy his arm when she had begun to tremble, and his handkerchief when her tears had come.
For a moment, her mother was quiet. “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” she said finally. “Miles hasn’t been up for visitors lately.”
“Is he okay?”
Liddy smiled, but without cheer. “He’s getting old, honey. Happens to the best of us.”
So Callie found herself driving out to Danny’s outfitter later that afternoon with a wad of cash and the uncomfortable thought that if she could tell this was a flimsy excuse to see Danny, he would likely think the same thing.
“It was Mom’s idea,” she said aloud in the car, and then laughed at herself. If she blurted that out as soon as she saw him, it would probably just make her look worse. She hadn’t felt this self-conscious since … well, since the last time she saw Danny.
The conifers grew thicker as she turned off the highway and do
wn a gravel road. She made a wrong turn once and had to go back, but for having been away so long, she was pleased with how well she remembered her way. The launch point for most of Danny’s rafting trips was much further upstream, but the business itself was in a log cabin-style building not far from the river’s edge. Callie pulled her mother’s hatchback to a stop in the graveled lot and looked up through her sunglasses.
The building was bigger than she remembered, and it had been designed beautifully in that it seemed like it sprang from the woods naturally. A few other cars were in the lot, and she saw that Danny had expanded his business because there were two company vans now instead of one with boat trailers hooked up behind them and large rubber rafts in tow. The business logo “River’s Edge Rafting Company” was emblazoned on the side of each vehicle, and Callie smiled as she remembered the hard time she had given Danny about the name years earlier.
“River’s Edge Rafting, huh? Very creative. What, was Patch of Dirt Right Next to the Water Where We Float Boats already taken?” she had asked, holding the stencils in place as he painted the sign.
“Couldn’t fit it on the letterhead,” he had countered dryly. Then he had scooped her up and dunked her, laughing, in the river.
Maybe she had only been seventeen, but she thought she might have been a little bit in love with him then. And her teenage heart was broken because she had wanted so badly for him to kiss her that day, but he hadn’t seemed to notice.
The sign was still there, mounted above the entrance. The sun and rain had weathered it a bit, but that only lent it charm. A rack with kayaks and canoes stood off to the side — it looked new. Business seemed to be going well.
Callie tucked her sunglasses into the neckline of her tank top and opened the door in time to hear a peal of feminine laughter. Her eyes adjusted to the natural lighting and focused immediately on a petite young brunette behind a desk, the only other person in the room. A door behind her that might have led to a storeroom was closed. The girl was on the phone, but she gestured to Callie that she was almost done, and Callie took the opportunity to look around inside the office.
Coming Home Page 6