by Lisa Dyson
“What about those two rooms?” Callie pointed down the hall. “Is one of them yours?”
“Oh, no. I’ve got my own suite in the attic. Those rooms are rented by my nephew and his two young daughters. I hope that doesn’t make you change your mind. I forgot to mention that there would be children in the house. Although they’re very well behaved.”
Callie smiled. “That’s not a problem at all.” She wasn’t used to being around kids, but how difficult could it be for what she hoped would be a short time before she went back to her old life? And then she remembered who Mrs. Thompson’s nephew was.
“Oh, you might even know my nephew. I think you’re about the same age and he grew up here, too. It’s Tyler Garrett. His sweet little girls are Alexis and Madison.”
CHAPTER THREE
LATER THAT MORNING Callie was finally settling into her room. Poppy was Tyler’s aunt. Amazing how much she’d blocked out when she’d moved away.
She’d been surprised to hear that he and his daughters lived with Poppy. She would have expected Tyler had a place of his own. Especially with two children.
Poppy hadn’t mentioned Tyler’s wife. Had Poppy not mentioned her because she wasn’t someone from town whom Callie would remember? Or was Tyler a single dad with custody of his children? He might even be a widower for all she knew.
She’d hung up what she could in the small closet and used the large oak dresser with a beveled mirror for the rest of her things. Then she checked her email on her laptop and didn’t want to think about what she was missing back at work.
Close to lunchtime she decided to take a walk to see how much things had changed in town. She’d really like to go for a run to rid herself of her pent-up energy and frustration, but it was too hot and humid for that. Early morning or dusk would be a better time.
She’d changed into shorts, a tank top and her running shoes earlier, so she closed the door to her bedroom as she left and exited the house through the front door. There were no outside locks on the bedrooms, only a lock when you were inside the room. Obviously the crime level was pretty low and locks weren’t a necessity. Just one more thing she’d have to get used to again while being back in a small town.
She headed the few blocks toward the downtown area, such as it was. Just as Tyler told her, Pratt’s Furniture Store had expanded into the space where Garrett’s Hardware used to be. Next to Pratt’s was a bakery that hadn’t been there before. A gift store was next to it, also new since she’d lived here.
On the other side of the street was the First National Bank, looking exactly as she remembered with its tan-brick façade. She crossed the street when she saw that the little drugstore next to the bank was still there.
This was where she’d hung out after school when she was able. She wondered if they still had the counter and a few booths where they served juicy burgers and shakes so thick you needed a spoon to eat them.
She opened the glass-and-metal door and stepped inside, feeling like a teenager again. Nothing had changed. The counter and booths were still there, the Formica chipping on the tabletops as was the wood laminate on the benches. The stools at the counter, circa 1950s, were metal circles with red-vinyl inserts that had seen better days.
“Callie?” The woman behind the counter was staring at her, eyes wide.
Callie smiled. “June!” She came up to the counter where the woman stood on the other side. “You’re still working here!” She sat on the empty stool in front of June. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” June told her. “And you look like life is treating you okay, too.”
“Thanks. I’m surviving down inside the beltway.” These days she could add “barely” to surviving and still not be accurate enough.
June was probably in her early forties by now. She’d been a young mother working at the drugstore when Callie was in high school. Her husband had gone on disability after he was in a tractor accident at their farm a few miles from Whittler’s Creek and June had taken the job to make ends meet.
Callie ordered a burger and shake, figuring she’d run off the excess calories later. After June sent the order to the short-order cook, she turned back to Callie and asked, “So what brings you to town? I haven’t seen you in what? A decade, at least.”
Callie should come up with an answer for the question that would be asked every time she ran into someone she knew.
“I’ve got some things to take care of in town,” she said vaguely, hoping June didn’t have a follow-up question.
“Well, it’s great to see you.” She had another customer to take care of and she stepped away.
Callie spun her stool a hundred and eighty degrees and looked around again while waiting for her food. A feeling of déjà vu came over her, or at least a step back in time.
It wasn’t long before June delivered her food. Callie hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she smelled the burger in front of her. “Thanks, June.” She put a blob of ketchup on her plate for her fries. “So what have you been up to? How are your kids?”
The two caught up while Callie ate, interrupted occasionally by other customers. So far, no one else had come in that Callie recognized.
She was wiping her mouth after her last bite of burger when the bell over the door rang, signaling that someone was entering the store. Callie turned in that direction. It was her stepsister, Wendy Carter. Their gazes collided. Wendy looked away first, as if uncomfortable. Interesting. Not the same cocky teenager Callie remembered.
She couldn’t help but notice Wendy’s appearance. Her jeans and plaid shirt looked like they’d been washed a hundred times or more. Her hair needed something—a cut, deep conditioning—Callie couldn’t say. And her complexion… Callie had never seen anyone with such a sickly appearance. She was pale, with tinges of green and yellow on one cheekbone. As if she’d been bruised a week or so ago.
“Hello, Callie,” Wendy said stiffly when she came up to the counter. “I didn’t know you were in town.”
“I got here yesterday,” Callie said just as stiffly.
“What can I get you, hon?” Thankfully, June interrupted their awkward exchange to take Wendy’s order.
Callie had nothing more to say to the stepsister who had mentally and sometimes physically tortured her when they were growing up in the same house.
While Wendy placed a take-out order, Callie pulled out the money she’d stuck in her pocket to pay the bill June had left when she’d delivered Callie’s food. Even the handwritten green checks that had to be added manually were the same as when she was a kid. She didn’t bother asking if they now took credit cards. She’d planned ahead and taken out cash from an ATM before she’d arrived in Whittler’s Creek. Callie laid enough money on the counter to cover the bill, as well as a healthy tip.
“Have you been to see my mom and Bart?” Wendy’s question caught Callie by surprise.
“Not yet.” Not until she gathered her courage.
Wendy didn’t comment, merely nodded and then concentrated on a fingernail.
After waving goodbye to June, Callie was almost out the door when Wendy said just loud enough for Callie to hear, “You don’t belong here.”
Callie turned to Wendy, wondering if she’d heard correctly. “Excuse me?”
Wendy sneered. “You heard me. Go home. No one wants you here.”
Callie remembered to breathe, in and out, in and out.
When her stepsister turned away, Callie assumed Wendy had nothing more to say.
So she continued out the door to the sidewalk and relaxed her hands when she realized her nails were digging into her palms.
*
IT HAD BEEN a long afternoon of frustration.
Tyler’s job had been straightforward until that email about financial fraud showed up in his in-box. He’d spent the afternoon trying to find someone to audit the town’s finances, but no one could do it for at least another month.
Thirty days was way too long to wait. It would give whoever was re
sponsible the time to find out that an investigation was under way.
He’d appropriated a storage locker for all the records and they’d finally been moved, so at least they weren’t cluttering up his office anymore.
He closed his computer and straightened his desk before letting the receptionist know he was leaving for the day. “I’ll have my cell if anyone needs me.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Donna mumbled. “You say that every day. When was the last time anything happened in this town?”
Tyler had to think a minute. “When Mr. Rawlins got drunk and was waving a shotgun around.”
Donna’s eyebrows rose. “You know that was last month, right?”
“Seems like last week,” he quipped. “And how quickly you’ve forgotten the standoff at the bank that secured this job for me in the first place.” She did have a point, though. His job was mainly administrative.
Not that he expected to stay in this position until retirement, but he couldn’t complain when the job and this town gave his daughters the stability they needed.
A little while later, he arrived at Aunt Poppy’s, his family’s temporary home, to hear giggles and commotion coming from the kitchen. He headed there to greet his daughters and see what they were up to.
Aunt Poppy watched the girls while he worked, and staying with her just made sense while their house was under construction. This week they were attending a day camp to give his aunt a break.
“Hey, what’s going on in here?” The words were barely out of his mouth when Alexis and Madison came running into his arms. He picked them both up and squeezed, making them giggle even more.
“Hi, Daddy.” Alexis, the older of the two, kissed his cheek loudly. Madison, two years younger at four, did the same to his other cheek.
He was about to ask about their day when he noticed Callie across the room. She was hard to miss in those formfitting shorts and tank top.
He put his libido in check and got down to reality. What was she doing here? For that matter, what was she doing in the same room with his daughters?
“Where’s Aunt Poppy?” he asked instead when he didn’t see her anywhere nearby.
“She ran an errand,” Callie explained. “I said I’d be here with the girls until she got back. I’m renting a room from her while I’m in town.”
She was staying here? He was silent, wondering how to tell her to stay away from Alexis and Madison without causing an incident.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Callie’s puzzled look told him she didn’t know why it would be a bad idea for her to be around his children. “I don’t have much experience around kids, but yours have been great. And Poppy only expected to be gone twenty or thirty minutes. She needed something for dinner that she forgot to buy earlier. I offered to go, but she said it would be faster for her to go since I wasn’t familiar with the store.”
“Um, no. It’s fine.” He put the girls down, purposely not looking at Callie when he answered. He’d speak to his aunt privately about his concerns.
“Ms. Callie was telling us about when she used to go to the same camp as us.” Alexis was bouncing as she spoke.
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh. And she even took a bus like we do.”
He glanced at Callie and then back at his daughters. “You know I went there, too.”
“You already told us that, Daddy.” Madison was very serious. “But you don’t remember singing the same songs as us. Ms. Callie has been singing them with us. She knows all the words.”
“Well, let’s not wear her out. Who wants to go on a short bike ride before dinner?”
Both girls raised their hands and began dancing around the kitchen. “Can Ms. Callie come, too, Daddy?” Madison had stopped moving to ask the question.
He glanced at Callie then back at Madison. “Well—”
“I don’t have a bike to ride,” Callie told Madison. “So you’ll have to go without me.”
Tyler didn’t know if she was giving him an out or if she really didn’t want to go, but he was grateful for her answer.
“Go put on sneakers and I’ll meet you at the garage after I change clothes.”
When the girls were out of earshot, Callie said, “I’m sorry they put you on the spot. Don’t feel obligated to include me just because I’m staying here now.”
He decided to be honest with her. “I won’t. In fact, it would be best if you avoided being around my daughters.”
*
SHE AWOKE THE next day with a feeling of dread. Picking up trash along the side of a road was not her idea of a productive day. Remembering Tyler’s advice, she donned jeans and a T-shirt. Then she put on the pair of shoes she’d picked up last night at the big-box store that had opened outside of town since she’d been gone. For ten bucks, she could afford to ruin them. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and secured a baseball cap—another new purchase—around it. She applied a slathering of sunblock to her exposed skin and put the bottle into her small backpack, along with the water bottle and energy bars already there. Then she headed downstairs to grab breakfast and the prepackaged Greek salad she’d bought for lunch.
Driving to the community center, she thought back to her reaction the previous evening when Tyler had announced that he’d prefer she avoid being around his daughters. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. His comment had confused her, but she’d been too shocked to question him about it. Instead she’d gone for a long run to blow off steam.
Callie arrived early at the designated meeting place. A few people were at the community center already and she introduced herself, leaving out the real reason she was there. Tyler had told her that everyone else was there voluntarily, so no one should think twice about her participating.
“We’re so glad to have you join us,” a tall gentleman, probably somewhere around seventy, told her. “I’m Gary, and this is my wife, Liz.” He gestured to a petite woman about the same age with neatly styled, short blond hair.
Callie smiled and shook hands with both of them. “I’m Callie James. Nice to meet you.”
“Are you new in town?” Liz asked.
“Actually, I grew up here. I’m back for a visit.” That was pretty close to the truth.
“James?” Gary scratched his head. “Are you related to Bart?”
Callie shouldn’t have added her last name during the introduction. “He’s my father.” She’d be more careful from here on out because she didn’t want her dad hearing that she was in town before she could contact him herself. It was bad enough that Wendy knew she was in Whittler’s Creek.
“Great guy,” Gary said before they were interrupted by others coming into the building to join the group.
When Poppy arrived, her eyes widened at seeing Callie. “I didn’t know you were participating in this. We could have driven together.”
“Oh, well.” Callie was surprised to see Poppy, too, and didn’t know how else to respond. She wondered if Tyler had told her the real reason Callie was there. If he had confided in her, then Poppy was very good at pretending ignorance.
At least Poppy would be able to vouch for Callie being where she was supposed to be today. Otherwise, Tyler was relying on her honesty about fulfilling her service hours. Based on last night’s comment to Callie about not wanting her around his girls, why would he take her on her word?
Callie was quiet as conversations continued around her. Poppy suddenly grabbed her arm and said, “I want to introduce the two of you.” She guided Callie over to a handsome man, close to Poppy’s age, with a healthy tan and thick salt-and-pepper hair. “This is Gino Borelli. He’s moving in next weekend.” Poppy and Gino made eye contact and Callie could have sworn there was a spark between them. “And this is Callie James,” Poppy told Gino. “She moved in yesterday.”
“Hello there, neighbor,” Gino said as he and Callie shook hands.
“Are you new in town?” Callie asked before he could ask her anything.
He shrugged. “Not new. I lived here a l
ong time ago. Now my business has brought me back and I can once again be in the company of this lovely lady.” He gestured to Poppy. His words would have sounded silly if not for his faint Italian accent.
Poppy must have thought so, too, because she was blushing like an adolescent.
“Let’s get going,” someone finally said, and the gathering moved out of the building and onto the sidewalk. Back at the community center, they’d been given reflective vests to wear. There was nowhere to hide when you were wearing bright orange.
In all the discussion going on, Callie didn’t hear where they were going to do this cleanup. So she just followed along with the group of about a dozen people.
They walked quite a ways before stopping. “This is our street,” a woman announced. Callie couldn’t remember her name, but did recall the woman seemed overly excited to be doing this task. “Let’s divide into two groups and each take one side of the road. I have extra garbage bags when you need them.” Along with the reflective vests, they’d been given two orange trash bags each. “When a bag is full, tie it carefully and leave it on the shoulder. A county trash truck will pick them up later.”
That was a relief. At least they didn’t have to haul other people’s garbage back to where they’d started.
As the group divided into two, Callie found herself with Poppy and Gino, as well as three others. Callie donned her rubber gloves and noticed she wasn’t the only one who’d brought them. Then they fanned out on their side of the street and began the arduous task of picking up garbage.
Callie was amazed at the stuff she found. She had a difficult time deciding what was worse—the used condoms that she’d covered with dead leaves before picking them up, or the used diapers that had been neatly balled up and tossed on the side of the road.
On second thought, that clear plastic container with a half-eaten sandwich covered with maggots was definitely the worst thing she’d had to deal with.
She could only imagine what Tyler had in store for her tomorrow since, after today, she would still have ninety-two of her one hundred service hours to complete.