To Be With You

by Daphne Abbott

  He was only repeating the same things Liam had said earlier in the week, but I still felt silly. My father had called me dramatic and overly emotional too many times for me to feel comfortable being a whistle-blower. If only someone else was experiencing the same things I was, I wouldn’t feel so worried about reporting the activity.

  “Is that it?” Fab asked after I was silent for several minutes.

  My heart raced, remembering the night before and the things I’d felt and said. As much as I loved Fab as a friend, I didn’t think it would be appropriate to discuss my confusion with him before Callum, so I just grinned and said, “Yup.”

  His expression told me he knew I was lying, but he wouldn’t argue. “You know you have no reason to be scared, right?”

  Something in the way he said it made me think we weren’t still talking about the weird feelings I’d been having. A big part of me wanted to find out more about what he meant. I wanted to beg him to confirm that Cal was feeling the same things as me. I wanted him to assure me that if I revealed myself, it would all work out.

  Instead, I said, “What’s that you’re working on?”

  “Finishing up the edits for the latest episode on your reno. We’ve got some more stuff to shoot around the town, and I was hoping to get some interviews from the applicants.”

  I grimaced and poured more coffee into my cup. “There’s not been anything sent in yet that we’re going to approve.”

  “I know,” Fab said. “Which I find odd, and I was hoping I could poke around into why.”

  “Do you think something is going on?”

  He shrugged and scribbled something on the pad of paper near his hand. “Who knows? Nothing in this situation feels normal, so maybe I’ve just got myself worked up and suspicious. Or maybe—”

  “Or maybe, someone’s trying to sabotage me.”

  Chapter 24

  Olivia

  Although the historical society approved my renovation plans, my father had pushed forward with his threat of a Town Hall meeting. Instead of approving my business, the question on the table was the board’s proposal to expand the library by including an after-school center for the kids in town.

  They announced the question two weeks before the meeting, and people filled social media accounts for the town with comments. We had a lot of support, but of course, there were also a decent amount of naysayers. As far as I could tell, the loudest complaints came from other wedding vendors in the area and Mary Beth.

  “… and they get everything free these days. I got nothing free when I had kids in this school system.” Old Mrs. Dixon folded her frail arms over her chest and looked down her nose at the other board members at the table and me. “We shouldn’t waste money on handing out free meals and books when that money could go to better use.”

  “Is this woman advocating for childhood starvation?” Natalie muttered without taking her eyes off the crowd assembled.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was,” said Stella. “She’s the one that wanted me to take a book off the shelves because it promoted sinful behavior.”

  The shriveled little woman, who was currently arguing with Ida about the best use of funds, looked like the type to preach sin instead of acceptance. “Does she not understand this money isn’t the town’s yet? We have to approve it before the town gets anything,” I said.

  Ida said something about bigots, and the room erupted in angry shouts.

  “Shit,” muttered Pru. “I’ll try to calm them down.”

  “No,” I said and held out my hand to stop her from rising from the table. “Let me try.”

  I walked up to the podium, feeling hundreds of eyes watching my approach. I’d dressed for the occasion in a pretty butter yellow dress that reminded me of the paint color I’d chosen for the Van Ess house. I’d intended it to lift my mood after Callum’s shattering revelation last night, but it was failing.

  “Ida,” I whispered. “Let me try, okay?”

  Ida backed up and looked me in the eye for a few moments. She must have seen what she wanted because she nodded her approval and said, “Careful, these idiots are pretty riled up.”

  I had to bite my lip, so I didn’t laugh at her barb. “I think I’ve got it.”

  I stepped up to the mic and looked out at the large group assembled. My stomach was in knots, and I could feel sweat rolling down my back to the crack of my ass. Knowing my luck lately, the sweat would show up as a dark line on my dress, and someone would post it on social media.

  I stood quietly at the podium, not saying or doing anything. I let the screams of indignation wash over me without a reaction. I hadn’t learned a lot from my father—he wasn’t the type to impart wisdom. But years of watching him be a leader in the town had taught me how to control a room with silence.

  Mysteriously, he’d been called away on an “emergency” at the last minute and was letting Ron Schall, a city council member, lead the Town Hall. Was it a coincidence that my father was not attending the meeting when most of the town was here? Or could this be a way to distract me from more problems at the house?

  Shaking off my internal worries, and leaned into the microphone and said, “My Aunt Rose loved this town. She poured hours of her time and vast amounts of her money into improving the town. Most of you here have benefited from one of Rose’s projects. The renovation of this school and the addition of the sports facility. The dredging and clean-up projects that opened once isolated lakes to more tourism. The coalition between our town and the leadership of the native tribes in the area on matters of public safety and environmental resources. The construction of the very room we are in and the money to pay for an instrument for any child that wanted to learn. None of this would have been possible without Rose’s efforts.”

  I paused to gauge the audience’s reaction. I saw mostly nods and smiles, which was a good sign. In the front row, my friends, family, and Callum with his family sat in silent support. The look on his face was one of pride and something else that was hard to define. Something that looked like awe, but a little different. Something that made the skin on my neck prickle.

  “Rose’s death last year was a blow to this town and the surrounding communities. I’ve had people from as far away as the upper peninsula of Michigan send me messages that are full of gratitude for the things Rose did for this area. That’s how I know that this money, her last gift, needs to be used only for the kinds of projects that would make Rose proud. The board and I agreed on a sixty-forty split, where much of the money would go to a large municipal project that would benefit the most citizens of Eagle Creek–”

  “How does a before and after-school program at the library help those of us without kids?”

  The question was yelled from the back of the room, and I couldn’t tell exactly who had said it. The sentiment wasn’t unwarranted, so I answered, “I understand that not everyone has children, and I hope you can find benefits in other projects that will come. However, our research shows that a staggering number of families in the area are living at or below the poverty level. In years when the tourism seasons in winter and summer are slow, that number increases by up to thirty percent–”

  “Why not use the money to build another fancy resort like the one in Garrett? They get way more tourists than we do, and it’s all thanks to that fancy spa and hotel.”

  This came from a man in the back that I recognized as an employee of the bank. “That idea was discussed, but again, if the weather is poor in the winter or summer, that gigantic building will sit empty, and any jobs created will probably be lost. Instead, the board and our consultants agreed that the addition of a children’s center was an investment in the future generation of the town. Not to mention the financial burden we can ease by providing two meals a day to kids who qualify.”

  “We don’t need your charity. We need more jobs.”

  The blood in my veins tur
ned to ice, and I looked to where the latest complaint had come from. Mary Beth stood at the microphone that was set up for those asking questions. I could only describe the look on her face as smug, and it made me want to gnash my teeth in anger.

  I fucking hated that smile. It was the same one she’d given me when she told me to just accept Peter’s infidelity, because it was just something people in their world did.

  “I agree. The town needs jobs that are not dependent on such a fickle thing as tourism,” I shot back.

  Tonight was not the night to test my patience. If she thought she could beat me with the same gaslighting rhetoric she always used, she was in for a world of disappointment.

  “What authority do you have to decide how this town moves forward?” Mary Beth asked as she crossed her arms across her chest.

  “Mary Beth, I appreciate your questions, but I’m confused why you’re attending this meeting. You haven’t lived in the town limits for years.” I bit back a grin when her mouth dropped open in surprise. The MacPhersons home was just outside the town limits, and because of new zoning laws, they were technically considered citizens of Garrett, the city to our north.

  “We still consider Eagle Creek our home,” Mary Beth said, but her voice had lost some of its venom. “And we feel passionate about the fate of the town.”

  I had to bite back a laugh. She was acting ridiculous, and I was feeling like the only person who noticed it.

  “Again, I appreciate that sentiment,” I said. “And if the rest of the town feels the same, we will scrap the project and re-group. But we would love to start this children’s center now because the contractor has assured us they could complete the work by the first day of school.”

  A murmur went through the crowd, and some people that had looked on the fence before were looking more interested. I scrambled to think of something more to tell them, something final that would change their nays. But I had nothing.

  “I know I don’t live in this town anymore, but I just wanted to say that if this center existed when I was a kid, it would have been my favorite place to be,” Callum said as he stood up and walked to the front of the stage. “I was the weird kid that loved books, art, and music. I didn’t play sports like my brothers, and I had nothing to do after school.”

  I’d never heard him admit these things. I knew he’d felt different from his brothers and cousins, but to hear the details like this was overwhelming. My brain felt like it couldn’t hold on to everything that was happening between Callum and me. Not to mention the weird shit at the house, my suspicion of my dad and my ex-in-laws, and the endowment. All I wanted to do was hug him and remind him I very much liked that boy he’d been, and that he’d turned into an amazing man.

  “I don’t know a lot of you anymore except for the pictures we share on social media. But I know there are a lot of parents in this room, and I have to assume some of you may have a kid like me. If I had a place to go where other kids like me would also go, where I didn’t feel like such an outsider. It would have been the best part of my day.” He trailed off and shrugged an awkward shoulder. “If I had something like this, I wouldn’t have felt like I needed to go someplace else to find my people.”

  His people. That’s what he’d been looking for at RISD, what he’d found in Fab and Jo. Even though we’d been making enormous improvements to the area, there still were a lot of the old prejudices and ignorance that made life in Eagle Creek hard for someone like Callum. Emotions clogged my throat, and it took me a long moment to gather myself. “Thank you for that, Callum.”

  His smile was soft and conveyed more than I was ready to see, so I turned my eyes back to the crowd.

  “We’ll proceed with the votes. Please come to the front of the room and drop a slip of paper in either the ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ box. This is an informal vote, so please practice discretion and only vote once. I’ll be at the back of the room to answer questions you may have.”

  * * *

  “You were amazing,” Callum said as he pulled me into a long drugging kiss.

  We’d left our impromptu celebration at The Loon’s Nest when Lucy and Fabián started with the shots. I was running on fumes, and Callum had traveled for hours the day before, so we’d made our excuses and left to the sounds of catcalls and whistles.

  The win felt as amazing as his enthusiasm for the project, but I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of unease I had since the night before. His honesty about the tattoos and his feelings around them had been refreshing, but they filled me with more questions than answers in the light of day.

  “It feels good to get that part out of the way.” I stepped out of his arms and walked into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.

  Callum chuckled. “Yeah. Between your dad being a no show and Mary Beth acting like she’d won before the vote, I’m trying to figure out if your ex’s parents were in cahoots with your dad for some financial gain, or they’re all just that petty and want to ruin you.”

  I shrugged and took a long drink. “Probably both. The MacPhersons have enough hate inside them to be working on both sides.”

  I leaned against the counter and watched Callum get his own water and sit at the island. Once again, he was elegantly dressed in a pair of tailored dress pants and a shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. My body responded to how good he looked in the dim light of the kitchen, even as my mind swirled with questions and doubts.

  “Are we going to talk about it?”

  “What?” I blinked and looked up from my study of his hands to see Callum watching me with a wary look on his face.

  “You’ve been acting off all day. You’ve barely said a word to me, you snapped at Lucy for asking a simple question, and you tried to fire Gavin when he suggested waiting till next spring to open the greenhouse.” He put his hands on the counter of the island and leaned forward. “On top of all that, we just had a major win at the town hall, and you’re acting like you lost.”

  Heat rushed to my cheeks, but I ignored it and crossed my arms over my chest, leveling a glare at him. “If anyone’s been acting off lately, it’s you, Callum.”

  “Oh, really? Tell me about it.” He mimicked my stance and chuckled. “I can’t wait to hear this bullshit.”

  Heat flooded my body, and all the pent-up anger and worry I’d held for weeks flowed out of me. “We agreed whatever this was.” I waved my hand back and forth between us. “It was just sex, and just for the summer. We also agreed that if feelings became a problem, we’d stop.”

  He raised a dark eyebrow. “We did.”

  His haughty tone flustered me. But I’d started this conversation, and it was too late to back down. “Since you obviously don’t have the strength to do it, I’m ending this now. Before you get hurt.”

  His face was blank. “Before I get hurt?”

  “Come on, Cal. You can’t tell me you don’t have feelings for me, not after last night.”

  “Ah,” he said and nodded. “Yes, last night. Let’s talk about that. While I agree there was a lot more than just sex happening last night, I think the more concerning thing was your reaction when you heard me in the shower.”

  I refused to let him see his effect on me, even as my stomach tightened with dread. “This isn’t about that.”

  “I figured that would be your response after Logan told me what he saw in The Loon’s Nest parking lot the other night.”

  “Logan saw nothing,” I said.

  My heart raced at the memory of Kevin’s hand on my arm, the odd look in his eyes, and the dread I’d been living with for days. I had confrontations with Kevin before about my lack of interest, but this last one had gotten uglier than usual. Logan showing up when he did saved me a lot of trouble with Kevin, but it had opened Pandora’s box with everyone he told about the incident.

  Then, there was my soul-deep belief that someone was trying to sabotage my renovation.
I’d yet to get definitive proof, but things kept going missing on the job site, and doors that I swore I locked would suddenly pop open. But I was too afraid of sounding like a crazy person to voice my concerns to my friends and family yet. I needed some concrete proof that someone was messing with my job site, something more than strange feelings and missing tools that turned up in different places.

  “This is about me. This is about you. You covered yourself in tattoos about me. You lied when you said we could do this without feelings because you already had them. You’ve been carrying a torch for all these years, haven’t you?”

  Something crossed his face that I couldn’t define.

  “I told you that my tattoos hold special meanings for me. Each time I went in, something was on my mind, or there was something I wanted to celebrate, and I’d pick a botanical to match it. And yes, the first one was about your engagement to Peter. But that doesn’t mean I was carrying a torch or not moving on.”

  “How can you say you’ve moved on when you have a reminder of me etched on your skin?”

  “A reminder, that’s all it ever was. A reminder of a person I cared for. A reminder of what I thought I wanted and didn’t get. A reminder that sometimes life throws you a curveball.” Callum sighed and tunneled his hands through his hair. “But, I won’t lie. I have developed feelings over the last few weeks. I knew that was a risk when we started this, and I’m not sorry it happened.”

  Blood roared in my ears, and everything seemed to freeze in time. We were supposed to enjoy each other and walk away at the end of the summer. What had made everything go so wrong?

  “I’m not asking you to love me back, Olivia. I take responsibility for my own feelings. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope you were feeling the same thing.”

  My world shattered. Every thought, fear, and secret hope converged into an epic big bang that rocked me to the core. Questions and thoughts circled in my head, but they were like wisps of smoke. They were formless and weightless, and I couldn’t grab one or hold on to it long enough to form sentences.