She’s right, he is different. He had thought this would be the end of them, but he thinks he was wrong. It might actually be the beginning of them.
“Let’s be who we are now and forget the rest,” she says.
“I wasn’t nice to her. There were others too. I treated them poorly. I was so pissed off at Elizabeth.”
“I believe you Callum. I believe every word you say.”
Their kiss in the alley is the start of something honest. Something that is more than great sex or a great friendship.
Eight
By the end of winter break, Victoria has a job at Asheville General Medical Center. Her start date is the day after Victoria begins school. George and Callum are working on a few projects together. One involves chopping what seems like an awful lot of wood. Victoria has done some hiding behind the curtain whiles Callum swings the axe over his head. George sits nearby in a rocker on the porch providing pointers and making jokes about England’s loss of the colonies. There is also an effort to convert old slides to videos. Victoria is glad they found something to do where they can both sit. Callum does too much walking considering he is still healing. George should be taking it easy too. Callum has also taken on the challenge of duplicating George’s mother’s chicken and dumplings. There is no written recipe, just much talk about flavors and textures and every week there is a new version of chicken and dumplings for dinner. They are all good but never quite right.
The first day of school, Victoria and Marina go into the kitchen to sort out a lunch. Callum stands at the counter despite the hour.
“You’re up early,” Victoria says. She feels like she wants to kiss him, but it isn’t right. Not in front of Marina.
“Perk of having a chef in the house. The lunches are top notch.” he says. “I packed you a grilled chicken and roasted vegetable wrap, crisps and a banana. Don’t you dare toss the banana either. Eat it.”
“You made my lunch?” Marina says, like maybe he just cured cancer.
“Of course. What were you going to pack? A pb and j?” He says the letters with disdain.
“What are crisps?” Marina asks with her nose in the bag.
“Potato chips of course.”
Marina hugs him and reluctantly follows her mother to the door. Callum follows them. “Marina, something I learned years ago. A question and a compliment get people talking.”
“Callum,” Victoria says with surprise. “That is really good advice.”
“I was the new kid many, many times. You develop strategies. Marina your number one directive this morning is to find someone to sit with at lunch. You have two choices. You might turn off your ears for this Victoria.
Marina is fascinated. “Tell me.”
“Go with the question and compliment and get yourself in with anyone you genuinely like. That friendship will build. This is a small city and new kids are exciting here. If all else fails sit with the, sorry Victoria, sit with the kids with disabilities.”
“What?” Victoria says with shock.
“It’s all about aligning yourself. She’ll come off as kind. If she sits at the strays’ table, kids with no friends, she’ll be in danger of becoming a stray.
Victoria opens the door and pushes Marina through. “Thanks bunches Callum,” she says sarcastically.
Marina runs in for one more hug. “You are a genius,” she says.
“Just be kind to everyone, you’ll be fine,” he lies, but it makes Victoria smile.
Victoria signs Marina into school for her first day and her heart breaks a little as she watches Marina trudge off to class. When Marina is out of her sights, Victoria turns to leave and there he is. Christopher Augustine holds the door open for his daughter. She is a year or two younger than Marina. She has Marina’s exact same chin, there is the slightest point to it. He has aged well, dark hair is clipped short. An easy smile rests on his face as he walks with his hand on his daughter’s shoulder, laughing. Victoria steps out of his way and he walks by without noticing the woman he raped.
She drives home, vision blurred by tears and rage, parks poorly, and runs into the house wiping her eyes. George sits at the kitchen table, reading a paper, drinking coffee. Callum sits close by, reading the second book of Hunger Games, Catching Fire.
Victoria storms into the kitchen, seething. “Why didn’t you tell me he is here? You had to know?”
“Now wait a minute Vic. What’s going on?” he asks, looking confused.
“Christopher. He was at the school, Dad. He has a damn daughter. Marina has a sister.” At the word sister, Victoria storms from the kitchen and runs the stairs to her room. She slams the door with everything she’s got.
George folds his paper neatly and lays it at his side. Callum sets his book aside.
“That was faster than expected,” George says. “I wanted to give her some time here, first.”
“You knew all along?”
“I did,” he says.
Callum wants to ask why he didn’t mention it, but he doesn’t. Callum isn’t interested in berating George.
“She’s probably packing Callum. Can you stop her?” George pleads.
“Truthfully George, I’m not sure I should. What does this mean for Marina? She is the bastard rape child of this fucking asshole? Sorry. Were they better off in Utah thousands of miles from him?”
“I’m not sure Callum. This is not an easy situation. Marina has family,” George says.
“George, he has no rights. He’s a rapist.”
“But Marina has rights.”
“Her father is a rapist,” Callum repeats.
George doesn’t reply. Callum reaches for his crutches to go to Victoria. He finds her in the foyer.
“I’m going for a ride,” she says.
“I’ll join you.” He pulls his coat off the rack and follows her to the car. They drive the mountains. The last weeks have been warm and the trees are barren but free of snow. Evergreens hold their color in these aptly named Blue Ridge Mountains. They drive without conversation, without music for an hour before she parks in an overlook with a view of the valley below. All these miles later, Callum still has no idea what to say to her. What are the guidelines for this type of situation? Running does seem to be her best option.
She sits back and her eyes scan the view in front of them.
“Should you take Marina back to Utah?” he asks. “I’ll stay here with George. He won’t be alone. I’ll stay with him until the end.”
Fresh tears flow. “It is really hard to act like I can handle anything when you are so damn nice.” She smiles because, even now, he can bring a smile to her face. “Please say something mean so I don’t have to sit here and cry. Something really terrible. Right now. Go.” She tries to joke.
“You have snot running from your face,” he says.
She immediately reaches to wipe her nose.
“Just kidding,” he says and she manages a laugh.
“Damn him,” she lays her forehead on the steering wheel. “It’s not entirely his fault. Truthfully I didn’t come here really thinking that Christopher was gone, but I didn’t imagine our damn kids would be in the same damn school. Does he have a claim to her Callum? Can he try to take her from me?” The fear shows on her face.
“I can’t imagine he does, but let’s go talk to a lawyer. Or let’s get you and Marina the hell out of here.” He is ready to pack their bags. As much as he doesn’t want to be without them, he doesn’t want Marina finding all of this out now. She has been lied to a lot.
“Should I have told Marina the truth, Callum? Did I make this worse?” she asks.
He doesn’t know the answer. All he knows is that he is going to protect them. He will protect them both, no matter what. There is a lot he cannot do. He can’t fix things with Elizabeth or Jeremy. He can’t change his mother’s view of him as anything other than a stupid little boy. He can never be the golden angel surgeon like his brother. He can never do those things, but he can do this.
“
Tell Marina she’s mine. Tell everyone she’s mine. I’ll be her father.”
“What the hell are you talking about Callum?” She asks in disbelief and confusion.
“He can’t have any legal claims to her if he never knows he is her father. Tell her we met years ago when you came to England and we had an affair. Tell her I found you. Tell her.”
“Callum. Stop it,” she says in frustration. “Just stop. You are talking fantasy.”
“Victoria, we can do this.” He is insistent.
“Callum, Marina found you. She ran into you on a mountain. You are not being rational.” She lays her hand on the back of his neck. “It’s okay, Callum. We’ll be okay.”
He takes her hand from his neck and holds it in his own hand. “I don’t want you soothing me. I’m fucking soothing you.”
Victoria’s mobile vibrates. She answers and Callum can hear a panicked voice on the other end but not the words.
“I’m coming,” Victoria says and throws the phone onto the seat. She starts the car, immediately throwing it into reverse.
“Rosalie found my Dad. He was unconscious on the kitchen floor. Oh my god Callum he can’t die before I get to him. Not like this. Not after we fought.”
They pull up to the emergency entrance at the hospital. Callum sends Victoria in. He can drive with his left leg to park the car. Inside Callum finds that George has already been admitted into the Cardiac Critical Care Unit. When Callum arrives, he is conscious and smiling. Victoria is sitting at the edge of his bed and her relief is obvious.
“It’s okay. They just need to adjust his new medication. The fall wasn’t too bad.”
“I didn’t fall. I laid down abruptly,” George argues. After a while, George sleeps and Callum and Victoria move to the lounge to talk.
“Callum, my head is telling me to get Marina the hell out of here.”
He wants to pull her to his lap. He likes when they talk close and she lays her head against him. He likes how it feels when she leans on him, literally and figuratively. This isn’t the place though, so he doesn’t.
“Callum, thank you. For everything you said earlier, everything you offered.”
“I meant it all. I still mean it.”
“You are the most wonderful man.” She holds his face in her hands and touches her lips to his. “Honestly, will you tell me what you think?”
His jaw and fists tighten and he hesitates sharing the truth, but truth is the only option. “Victoria, sometimes when I think of Anna, I get so angry. I will never forgive her adoptive fucks, who called themselves her parents, for keeping Anna from me. Never. Victoria, she was just across town. We could have had a life together. I could rip their heads from their bodies and kill them both.”
“I get the picture.” She takes his hand to smooth out the clench. “Marina needs to know something, but I don’t know what. I made it worse in Nashville. I told her such lies, Callum.” Her eyes fill with guilt and Callum decides fuck it and does pulls her into his lap.
“You don’t have to decide anything right now. Your Dad gets out of here tomorrow?”
She nods.
“I’ll pick Marina up from school.”
“You can’t drive Callum.”
“It’s been six weeks. I can probably drive.”
“You need six to ten with the brace and the crutches,” she says.
“What time is Marina out? Three-thirty? Its ten now. You stay here. I’m going to the ER. It seems I have fallen and need an orthopedist to look at my leg. I’m so sick of this fucking brace Victoria. It’s coming off today. Let me take care of this. We’ll talk in a few hours.
Because she has someone who genuinely has her back for the first time in a very long time and she trusts him, she takes his face in her hands again and tells him clearly and openly, without reservation, “I like you so much Callum.”
“Well good, because I am completely in love with you,” He kisses her before she can say a word, gets up and crutches away with a smile.
Callum makes his way into the ER and tells them he had surgery six weeks ago but took a bit of spill today and wants to verify that his leg is still healing well. Within three hours he has been thoroughly examined and is cleared for driving and the brace is off. Some sweet talking is involved. There are instructions for physical therapy which he promptly tosses into the trash.
He returns to George’s room without the brace or crutches.
“I’ve always been a fast healer,” he explains. My brain is a mess, but my bones are fantastic.”
Callum takes the keys and programs the address of Marina’s school into his mobile so he can navigate there. “We’ll talk later and figure this out. Okay?”
Victoria watches him walk down the hall. She has never seen him walk before. He walks like a man who owns the world, like he has all of the answers.
As Callum drives to Marina’s school he decides that, one way or another, he will get his eyes on Christopher. He wants to know what they are dealing with. Callum easily finds his way to Asheville Middle School. He doesn’t know the protocol for picking up a student so he parks and waits by the doors. Then he realizes he doesn’t want to be too close and risk embarrassing Marina.
With the brace off, he is thrilled to be able to walk and start rebuilding muscle in his leg. He has nearly twenty minutes until dismissal so he loops the circumference of the parking lot, the sidewalk and then the playground where a collection of parents play with their younger children. Callum takes a seat on a bench by a group of men. Callum has always suffered the sadness that accompanies growing up with poorly managed dyslexia, but he has also enjoyed the benefits of being a very tall, very good looking, very confident presence. People, men and women alike, are drawn to him and he knows it.
There is a mutual exchange of nodding and some heys and a what’s up. Within ten minutes, Callum has the rundown on their group. They are stay at-home Dads — a writer, two techies, a bartender (nights only), and a sculptor. Asheville is loaded with artists. One of the techies is named Christopher. Callum studies him hard. He has sandy hair, not unlike Marina’s. Inconclusive. His eyes are dark, unlike Marina’s. Inconclusive. It is the chin that gets him. It is his fucking chin. There is a tilt, an angle and a slight point. He is Marina’s rapist father. Callum wants to punch him in the face. Impulse control is not a strong trait of Callum’s. His muscles tense, he can nearly feel the blood moving through his veins, his breathing quickens. Their voices becomes distant. He knows he is in trouble.
“What do you do, Callum?” Ryan the writer asks, shaking Callum from violent thoughts.
Callum forces himself to rejoin the seemingly innocuous conversation. He scrambles for something but wants to be vague. But punching Christopher in the face would feel oh so good. Suddenly a small child, a boy, runs up and grabs Christopher’s leg.
“Juice, Daddy?” he says. He looks like Marina miniaturized. There is a sister and a brother. Oh my God. Callum isn’t sure why, but this makes him want to cry. Callum doesn’t cry so he takes a deep breath and answers Ryan’s question.
“I am considering opening a shop in town. I’ve been running a kitchen in London for the last eight years and I’m looking for a different pace of life. That is 24/7. I’d like to cut it back a bit.”
“How old is your kid?” Christopher asks.
“Eighth grade,” Callum says and doesn’t know how long he can control the impulse. Thankfully, he hears the bell.
“Good to meet you,” Callum says before making his way to find Marina.
Ryan calls after him. “We all work out at Asheville Fitness after drop off in the morning, if you are interested.”
“I’ll think on it,” Callum calls back without turning around.
Marina finds him quickly. She looks happy and that is good news after a first day in a new school. He hopes there is no corporal punishment here in school. They loved that when he was a young. He remembers getting a ruler to the knuckles often.
“Hey kid,” he says
and when she notices he is without crutches, “surprise.”
She has a brother and a sister he thinks and bites back his regret that he is now part of the lie. She gives him a hug in full view of her classmates. They go for an ice cream before he tells her the news of her grandfather and who knows what else. Let the kid enjoy thirty happy minutes before dumping on her again.
Marina tells him every detail of her day. She found a nice group of girls to eat lunch with using his technique. They encouraged her to join Best Buddies, a group that supports students with intellectual disabilities. Victoria will be happy.
“Callum I have to tell you something.”
He wipes Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk from her chin with a napkin. That damn chin. “Tell,” he says forcing a smile. He was trying to lie less, but now he is lying more.
“What happened on the mountain with you was the best and worst thing I have ever done in my life.”
He knows what she means, but he wants to hear it from her anyway. He stuffs a large spoonful of Chubby Hubby into his mouth and speaks through it. “Explain.”
“I am so sorry I hurt you Callum,” she say and her eyes fill with tears.
“You are forgiven and you should never be saddened by it again. Ever.” He holds her chin and speaks right into her eyes. He hates her guilt. She is a kid. Guilt and regret and self-loathing are for grownups. “You probably saved me Marina. I wasn’t on a good path, but I am now and I have you to thank for that. You are forgiven. Understood?
She nods and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Why the best?” He fishes for the compliment because an emotional boost would be lovely.
Forever Falling (Sunshine and Moonlight Book 2) Page 15