“You ruined nothing, sweetheart,” Jesse said before he took a big swig of beer, “It’s about time someone showed up and made life around here a bit more exciting.” He wrapped a heavy arm around her, “I’m glad you’re okay though.”
Becca had already begun to take pans out of the oven and set them on the island while Lauren dug in the refrigerator.
“Who’s hungry?”
Eighteen
Callie followed Lauren up the metal bleachers toward the group of women waiting for them.
“Hi, ladies. We’ve saved you a spot,” Becca said as she pointed down to a brightly colored quilt that was laying across the seats.
“Is it supposed to get cold?” Callie asked as she helped Alex up the bleachers with one hand while trying to hold onto the large drink and popcorn that Lauren had insisted she buy at the concession stand.
“No, but you’ll be grateful for that blanket soon enough.” Callie gave her a confused look and Lauren laughed. “Just sit and enjoy yourself.”
Callie did as she was told and Alex plopped down between the two of them, helping herself to a handful of Callie’s popcorn.
“Hey, hey!” Alex shouted excitedly, jumping up and down in her seat and waving frantically. “There he is! There he is! Hi, Uncle Trey!”
“Hey, Firefly,” Trey said as he came up to the fence right in front of them.
“Look! Look at me! I’m your number one fan!” She turned around and proudly displayed his number and the name O’Brien on the back of her home-made t-shirt.
“Well, well… You are the prettiest girl to wear that name since your mama wore your daddy’s football jersey back in high school.”
“Yep, that’s about right,” Alex stated confidently as she grabbed a handful of popcorn.
“Hey, are you eating all my popcorn?” he laughed as he watched the young girl shove a handful into her mouth.
“Nope, I’m eating all of Callie’s, but I’m sure she’d get you something if you’d like.”
Trey’s eyes fixated on Callie and he lifted his chin in her direction, a smirk on his face. “Hey, Cal. Glad you could make it.”
Callie shifted in her seat, heating under his pointed stare. She grabbed a handful of popcorn, shoving it into her mouth as she looked away, “Hey,” she mumbled quickly.
Lauren giggled next to her.
“Do you want some popcorn or not?” Alex asked.
“No, I’m fine sweetie.”
“Okay then, good luck,” Alex said, giving her uncle two thumbs up.
He winked and turned away.
“Oh wait, Uncle Trey? I heard a bunch of ladies talking at the concession stand about how hot you looked in your pants. Maybe you should change into shorts so you’re not so hot.”
The entire bleachers roared with laughter, and Callie thought for a second, she had seen a slight blush on Trey’s cheeks.
“Thanks, Firefly. I’ll think about it.”
After 5 hours of watching slow pitch softball, it was finally over. They hadn’t won the tournament but they all seemed to be happy with second place. Callie had no idea that baseball was so sexy. All the running and rolling in the dirt. She almost couldn’t watch Trey play because he was the hottest thing she’d ever seen when he was clean but dirty…she almost couldn’t take it.
“Now what?” Callie asked as she stood stretching out her legs and bending the stiffness out of her back.
“Well, now we take that little one to the lock-in and we get ready for the street dance,” she informed as she pointed toward Alex who was running around with a gang of girls her age.
“Street dance?”
“Yep, that’s why they have Main Street closed off. The band starts at seven and plays until ten. After that, there are fireworks at the edge of town.”
“I could stay home with Alex, then you wouldn’t have to pay for a sitter,” she said as Alex and her friends walked up.
“What? Are you crazy? Sorry, Callie but I’m going to my own party.” Alex beamed and all the little girls around her nodded their heads.
“What am I missing here?”
“Every year on Daisy Days, the youth group from our church has a lock-in. They invite all the kids from town and have games and food and chaperones, and I swear they have more fun than any of us do. The kids spend the night at the church and they feed them breakfast. It’s a great way to keep the kids safe and not have to worry about them while the adults are out having adult fun.” Lauren flashed Callie a huge smile.
“Sounds like a blast, but I’m not much of a dancer so I wouldn’t be any fun tonight.” She didn’t like to lie to Lauren, but this would give her the opportunity to pack up and leave without anyone noticing. It was the perfect cover.
“Callie Loftier,” Trey hollered as he and Jesse walked up. “What are you saying? You’re going to miss out on the best 80’s cover band that Worth County has ever heard? You can’t be serious.” He put his hand over his heart and winced like it was breaking.
“It’s going to be tons of fun.” Jesse gave her a big smile. “You have to come.”
And as if sensing her uneasiness, Alex grabbed ahold of Callie’s hand and pulled her away from the crowd. “Or you could come to the church with me and hang out. You’ll be the oldest one there that isn’t a chaperone, but my friends will all be nice to you. They all think you’re beautiful. You can sleep next to me on the floor and I’ll even let you use my Wonder Woman sleeping bag.”
Callie bent down to Alex’s level and pushed a blonde curl behind her ear. “Wonder Woman, huh? Geesh, that’s pretty tempting.” Callie took a deep breath and tapped her finger on her cheek dramatically.
“I just don’t think I should crash your party before I officially meet your friends. I mean, I want their first impression of me to be a good one. So, I guess I better go with your mom and Uncle Trey to the street dance.”
Alex reached over and patted Callie’s cheek with her little girl hand, “I think that’s a good decision.” She turned toward the others, “She’s decided to go with the adults.”
Everyone started laughing and Trey picked up his niece, tickling her until she squirmed in his arms. She puffed her cheeks out as she held her breath and tried not to laugh.
“Thanks for settling that for us.” He set her back on her feet and her hands instantly went to her hips.
“Uncle Trey, you stink.” She pointed one finger at him while she used the other hand to pinch her nose closed. “You need to go home and shower mister, because you are not fit to be around people.”
He bent down, arms open wide as if he was going to scoop her up. She let out a little yelp when she realized his intentions and took off running, her uncle close on her heels. “But I thought you were my biggest fan!” he yelled after her. “Come and give your uncle another hug.”
Trey chased Alex all the way to Lauren’s SUV and made sure she was buckled in tight. Then came around and knocked on Callie’s window.
“Hey, Cal?”
“What’s up?”
“I was wondering if I could pick you up for the dance?” His smile was a bit shy, almost like he was afraid to ask her.
She squirmed in her seat. “Um, I guess that would be okay,” she replied before she could process what her answer was.
He tapped the top of the SUV, “Great, I’ll pick you up at seven?”
She nodded and he winked at her, smiling like he had after hitting that home run in game two.
“’Bye O’Brien girls. Love you.”
Lauren and Callie both stared, dazed as Trey walked toward his truck.
“What was that?” Lauren asked in a hushed whisper.
“I have no idea,” Alex whispered from the back seat, pulling Lauren and Callie from their fog.
Lauren reached for the DVD player and pushed play on Alex’s current favorite movie.
She waited until Alex was fully engaged with the movie before speaking again.
“It was like he was the old Trey. Before Jamie
died.”
Callie just shook her head, looking wide-eyed at Lauren as they drove down the road.
“I don’t know. It’s like he’s flipped a switch.”
“Right? It’s strange. I should be happy, I mean…I am happy but, I just don’t want to trust it,” Lauren fretted.
“I think I need to leave.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“I don’t know. What if this has something to do with me being here.”
“What do you mean if? I think it’s time you accept the fact that Trey’s turnaround has everything to do with you being here.”
The two sat in a weighted silence as The Princess Bride played from the back seat.
“He needs to know the truth,” Callie affirmed, unable to look up from her hands.
“I know. The longer we let this go on, the harder it will be to tell him.”
“I need to leave, or we need to tell him, and then I leave.”
“Why would you need to leave if we tell him the truth?”
“Do you honestly think he’s going to want anything to do with me?”
A shriek from the back seat made Callie jump. “You’re not going anywhere until after next week and I don’t want you to make him mad until after then either. Next Friday is my Star Day and he might actually show up if you guys don’t mess this up!” she bossed.
“Alex,” Lauren spoke softly, trying to soothe her daughter, “Honey, we aren’t –”
“No Mama, please. Promise me you won’t say anything to Uncle Trey until after my Star week. If he’s going to be mad at all of us again, I want him to come to my school first.”
Lauren and Callie looked at each other trying to figure out a way around this.
“Please, Mama. Daddy can’t be there and I need Uncle Trey to be there.” Tears streamed down the little girl’s cheeks.
Callie reached back and held the little girl’s hand in hers. “We won’t say anything. We promise.”
“And you won’t leave?”
“I will stay until after your Star Day, okay? Now wipe your tears.”
“Okay,” the little girl said between sniffles as she tried to calm herself.
Trey showed up right on time and for some reason, it kind of pissed Callie off.
She had paced around the guesthouse for the last forty-five minutes trying to figure out how she was going to spend the next week here without getting any closer to the O’Brien family. She’d promised Alex she’d wait to tell Trey the truth and she intended to keep her promise, but it wasn’t going to be easy.
She rubbed her temples, trying to rid some of the tension that had built behind her eyes. Her stomach did the funny flip-flop thing it had been doing since Lauren dropped her off.
She met Trey at the screen door, opening it for him.
“Wow, you look amazing,” she said in a breathy whisper, embarrassed by how much his presence affected her. It was just her luck to fall in love with a man who looked like a movie star but could never be hers. She shut the door a little harder behind him than she’d intended.
He looked back at the door first and then slowly at her. “Um, I think that’s my line,” he drawled, smiling and handing her another daisy.
She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her lips. He really did have a beautiful soul. Another thing that pissed her off for some reason. She thanked him as she walked around the kitchen island and added it to the vase that held the other flowers.
Trey’s eyes followed her. “Callie, you are so beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever told you how truly stunning you are.”
Callie blushed, looking down at her retro Guns and Roses t-shirt, skinny jeans, and ballet flats. “Thank you,” she snapped. “But you don’t have to say things like that.”
With furrowed brows, Trey asked, “Why do compliments upset you?”
“It’s just…” she blew out an exasperated breath. Little did he know she hung on every word he spoke. Every time his eyes roamed over her face, her body, she felt like the most desired woman in the world.
“Come on, you must have had boys all over you in high school.”
Callie released a frustrated laugh. “Our high school experiences were very different.”
“Okay… still, are you going to tell me there has never been a person in your life who gave you compliments?”
“It’s complicated.”
“No, it’s really not. I see you, I can clearly see that you are a beautiful, amazingly sexy woman. I tell you so. Couldn’t be any easier.”
“You can be such an asshole.”
His back stiffened and he looked confused. “Why does that make me an asshole?”
“It just does. You continue to refuse to have an open mind to anything. It’s okay for someone to have a different life than you, different experiences than you, you know that, right? People don’t always have a choice in what happens to them. Sometimes you need to just roll with what life throws at you.”
“Whoa, this is taking a strange turn.”
“I know, I just… I just don’t…” Callie turned her back to him.
“What? You don’t what? Tell me.”
“I don’t know how to respond to compliments, okay? The nicest things people ever said to me when I was growing up were, Hey Callie, your labs look good today, and looks like you’ve been following your medication schedule as planned. I didn’t have a lot of exposure to people who gave me compliments. My mom and dad sure, my sister more so now since we’ve gotten older, but those always felt so heavy with other things, ya know?”
“No, I don’t know,” he answered as he gathered her hands in his and led her to the couch.
“Like when my mom would walk in my room and say, Callie, your coloring is so good today. You’re such a pretty girl. You know what I heard? Hey Callie, I don’t think you’re going to die today.”
“Jesus, Cal.” He reached for her, but she shied away.
“I don’t know how to do all of this,” she admitted.
“All of what, baby?”
“All of you, and your family, and your crazy number of friends that you’ve known since you were in utero. I don’t know who I’m supposed to be for them.” She paused as she looked away, “Or for you.”
He reached for her, hooking a finger under her chin and turning her face toward him. “Callie, you crazy girl. You don’t have to be anything for me.”
“But I do. You just don’t know.”
“Well how about this? How about we skip the street dance if it’s too much for you?”
Callie shook her head.
“Just hear me out. We skip the street dance, go over to Mom’s house, and eat some of those delicious leftovers I know she has in her fridge, and then we go to the fireworks.”
“But your friends… They’re so excited to have you back.”
“My friends will understand, believe me. They’ve known me a long time and ditching them to spend time with a beautiful woman is the most Trey thing I could do.”
Nineteen
Trey pulled off to the side of the gravel road just outside of town and Callie cast him a suspicious look.
“Fireworks start in about twenty minutes. Shouldn’t we get into town so we can find somewhere to sit?”
“We already have a front row seat,” he said, winking at her as he pulled into a field drive.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Here,” he said, a smile crossing his face as he handed her a handkerchief.
“What exactly do you want me to do with this?”
“Blindfold yourself.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Could you just trust me for once please?” He batted his eyelashes obnoxiously.
“Okay, fine. If you agree to never do that again,” she pleaded as he covered her eyes and tied the cloth behind her head.
Callie held on as the truck bounced and jumped around, finally coming to a stop.
“Now, do you think you can follow direc
tions for once in your life and stay put until I come and get you?”
“You mean you’re leaving me in here?” She could feel her anxieties rising.
“I’ll be right back. It’ll only take me a minute…please, don’t look.”
“Okay,” she agreed as a smile crossed her face.
“Damn, you’re beautiful,” Trey whispered as he gently caressed her cheek with the tips of his fingers. She leaned toward his touch, suddenly wanting so much more from him.
She sat quietly, her other senses on high alert. She heard the rustling of the grasses outside of the truck and every step that Trey made. The bare skin of her legs rubbed against the seat, making her feel anxious.
“Are you ready?” he asked as he opened her door.
She smiled and nodded her head as he slipped his arm around her shoulders, helping her from the truck. He led her several steps and she giggled as the short grasses tickled her ankles. “What are you up to?”
He slid his hands around her waist from behind and she leaned against his hard chest. His breath tickled her ear as he leaned in, releasing the cloth around her eyes and kissing the shell of her ear.
A shiver escaped as she gasped, covering her mouth with one of her hands. The sun was setting behind the grove of trees that encased their private area, casting shadows over Trey’s face. A small fire burned in the middle of a circle of rocks that had been cleared for just that reason. Soft music played from somewhere as the fire crackled.
“Do you like it, Crazy Girl?” he asked as he stepped out from behind her.
She moved toward the fire. “You did this…for me?”
Trey looked at the ground, a shy smile crossing his lips. “I wanted you to have a special memory.”
“Oh my god, Trey. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She reached out and took both of his hands in hers. “No, I mean it. No one has ever done anything like this for me.”
Rubbing small circles on the top of her hands with his thumbs, he whispered, “I’m glad it could be me.”
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