Chapter 16
When the volleyball game ended, with Jules’s team the victors, Callum trotted up beside her and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “Congrats. You played well. I see you are as competitive as any Colton.”
“Competitive?” She blinked. She never thought of herself in that light.
“I don’t know. I just like to give my all to anything I undertake.
If I’m competitive, it’s with myself.” She’d had to give her all her whole life to make up for the lackadaisical and half-hearted efforts of her parents.
So much of her family’s survival had depended on her.
Cal cast a glance about as he ushered her up to the food table. His mother was taking the lids and covering off the food as hungry volleyball players gathered around. “Where’s Dad?”
His mother shot him a withering look. “Two guesses and the first doesn’t count.”
Cal groaned. “Seriously? He went to the hospital? The whole family is here!” He waved a hand down the line of Coltons serving plates of food.
“You know your father. He said it was an emergency,” Emily said. “Swore he’d be back before the fireworks started.”
Jules put an ear of corn on her plate, sidled closer to Cal and whispered, “If it’s an emergency, shouldn’t we cut him some slack?”
“If it were an emergency, sure.” Cal scooped a huge glob of potato salad onto his plate and jammed the spoon back in the serving bowl with an irritated huff.
“But everything is an emergency to my dad. He spends more time at the hospital than he does at home. More than any other doctor or nurse. He’s been known to sleep there.
His workaholic habits are the reason my family was split up, but he didn’t learn. ”
“Dedication to his profession and patients is admirable,” Jules defended.
“Even a good trait can be taken to extremes and become a vice.” Cal served himself a piece of chicken. “Can we talk about something else?”
She glanced at the faces of the other Coltons, saw frowns and eye rolls, heard grumbles of “hospital” and “again.” Clearly Cal wasn’t the only one frustrated with Jonathon’s work habits.
As she left the food table with a plate full of delicious-looking treats, Ted Barrett called to Jules and patted the arm of a lawn chair. “Saved a seat for the winning team’s MVP.”
She joined Ted, Cal taking the seat on her other side as he balanced a loaded plate.
“Aren’t you awfully young to already be the mayor of Red Grove?” she asked her teammate.
Ted laughed. “If you give the people what they want, in my case the promise of lower crime and a better, more prosperous town, age is just a number.”
“Ted’s always been driven,” Cal added. “And with his charisma, we knew early on he’d either be a politician or an actor.”
“Or a used car salesman,” Wyatt quipped.
Ted arched an eyebrow at Wyatt, then turned to Cal. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Then, aiming his fork at Wyatt, he added, “And you need to remember who signs your paycheck.”
“The city controller, as I recall,” Wyatt returned, smirking.
Jules angled her gaze past Ted to Cal’s youngest sister, Matti. “Tell me more about your work. You’re a social worker?”
Matilda covered her mouth with one hand as she chewed, then after swallowing, she nodded.
“I am. I work mostly with at-risk children, placing them and monitoring them while in foster care. It’s very rewarding, even when it’s heartbreaking.
Sometimes I’m the first stable and loving adult these children have known, and getting them to a safe placement means so much. ”
“I bet so.” She had wondered, too many times growing up, if social workers might show up one day at her own house and split up her family. She’d have fought tooth and nail to stay with Abby and protect her, but no one had ever bothered to look too closely at the Bailey household.
Now, she smiled at Cal’s youngest sister, whose messy curls somehow made her look younger than Jules guessed her to be. Matti had one of those friendly faces that she could imagine served her well in earning the trust of her young charges.
“Enough about me,” Matti said. “I want to hear more about the special project you and Callum have been working on together.”
Jules’s pulse stumbled. She shot Cal a side glance. “Special…project?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Matti curled up one side of her mouth in an impish grin that looked just like her brother’s. “Unless there’s another reason you two have been spending evenings together?” The teasing lilt in her voice left no question what she was asking.
“Uh…”
Cal cleared his throat. “Matti, down, girl. Sit. Stay.”
Matti dug an ice cube from her drink and threw it at Cal. “Okay. Okay! Excuse me for hoping you finally had a love life!”
Jules ducked her head, feigning intense interest in scratching Pilot behind the ear.
But his sister’s comment sparked a curiosity in Jules.
Why didn’t Cal have a wife or girlfriend?
He was…what? Between thirty-three and thirty-six years old, she’d guess.
Handsome as the day was long. Cheerful. Employed.
Intelligent by all indications. Responsible. From a good family. Thoughtful—
She interrupted her laundry list of attributes when she realized she was checking off all the sorts of things she admired and looked for in a man. Not that she’d been looking for a partner in many years…
She was saved from further discussion or contemplation of the topic of her relationship with Cal, when someone turned on music, loud enough to make conversation difficult and dancing inevitable.
ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” led the playlist, and when Cal stood and held his hand out to her, Jules happily followed him onto the makeshift dance floor.
The family and their closest friends danced and sang and laughed until dark, when Dylan, under fireman Aiden’s…
er, supervision lit up the first fireworks.
Colorful rockets filled the night, and a sense of contentment and joy swelled in Jules.
She was having fun. A rarity for her. And she felt welcomed and wanted in a way even her own family hadn’t made her feel.
Except Abby. She and Abby had been a team, supporting and loving each other when their parents had not.
Abby. Battling down a surge of guilt, Jules reminded herself she wasn’t in Red Grove to have fun or find a surrogate family or a love match with a hot sheriff.
Her sole reason for putting her chemistry research on hold and moving to North Dakota was to protect Abby.
Cal and his family, welcoming as they were, could not sidetrack her from that goal.
She had to make the world safe for Abby again.
And no blue-eyed man with a devastating smile and earthshaking kiss would stop her.