Chapter 3
When David turned onto their street, there was still a bit of tension in the air between Callie and Sasha, but luckily the sight of an unknown car in the driveway pulled everyone’s attention elsewhere.
“Huh,” Callie said softly to herself, looking inquisitively at the vehicle.
David parked next to the silver SUV and looked over his shoulder at Callie, who was in the backseat with the baby, frowning. “Do you know whose car that is?”
“Nope.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t look familiar to me. Maybe Mallory has a friend over?”
“Does she have any friends in town?”
Callie thought about it for a second. “Maybe?”
“Who?”
That was a good question, and one Callie didn’t have an immediate answer to.
“Uh—well, maybe she doesn’t... actually.
I think a few of the girls she used to hang out with growing up still live around here but I’d be surprised if she really kept up with any of them.
” Callie unbuckled herself and then started to undo the straps of Dot’s car seat.
“It’d be the first time she’d reconnected with someone from her childhood in her entire adult life, but I guess that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. ”
“Oh, maybe she has a boyfriend!” Sasha said, smirking. “Do you think she’s dating anyone?”
David and Callie shared a look.
“That would be… surprising,” David said.
“How diplomatic of you,” Callie joked. “I’d say it would be shocking if Mallory had a boyfriend. But hey, stranger things have happened, I guess.” She got the baby the rest of the way out of the seat and scooped her up. “Does anyone want to take bets before we go in and find out?”
Sasha laughed but nobody actually took Callie up on her offer. Instead, they all filed inside, with Callie and Dot in the lead. “Mallory?” she called out. “Are you home?”
“Uh, yeah. One second!” Mallory sounded distinctly frantic.
Callie handed the baby off to her mother and headed down the hall in the direction of her daughter’s voice.
She was at the door to David’s office when it swung open and a tall, strapping man stepped out carrying a laptop under his arm and smiling.
He had a strong jaw and thick, dark hair.
His glasses were a little clunky, but that style somehow seemed to frame his face well—like Clark Kent.
Callie stepped back and gawked at him. Was Sasha right? Did Mallory have a boyfriend?
“Hi,” she said, stretching onto her tip toes so she could see Mallory standing behind the man. Mallory appeared flushed and more than a little nervous. “What—”
“Mom,” Mallory said, coming around so she was in front of the man.
“Hey. Sorry for the surprise. This is the computer repair man. I accidentally spilled some coffee on dad’s laptop, and he was kind enough to try to fix it.
” She looked down to the end of the hallway and winced.
“Dad—I’m so sorry, but I don’t think it’s going to be salvageable. ”
“Well, never say never,” the repairman chimed in. “There are still a few things that I can try, but I need to take it back to the shop where I’ve got more specialized tools and parts. If that’s okay with you, sir?”
David nodded and forced a smile, but Callie could tell he was a bit disappointed.
“Regardless,” the man added. “I should be able to get most of the files off. The hard drive is still intact, and I don’t think there’s any coffee inside it.
I’ll upload everything onto another device first thing, that way it’s safe and you don’t have to worry about losing anything while I’m tinkering around. ”
David visibly relaxed. “Okay, great. That’s really all I care about. The laptop itself is pretty old and nothing special, I just care about all my vacation stuff. Plus, I have a lot of photos on there.”
The man smiled. “I’ll do my absolute best not to lose anything.”
“Thanks again,” Mallory said before waving the man onwards and starting down the hall passed her mother. “Let me, just uh, show you to the door.”
As the man walked by Callie, however, she was overwhelmed by the distinct impression that she’d seen him before. She touched his arm so he would stop. “Wait a second.” She cocked her head to the side. “I feel like I know you. Do you live in town?”
“One town over,” he said. “But the store is in town, so I’m in the area a lot.”
“You’ve probably seen him around,” Mallory said. “There’s not that many people in Ferndale...”
“Can I ask your name?” Callie asked. “Maybe I know your parents.” The man seemed to be about Mallory’s age, but Callie didn’t frequent electronic repair shops, so she figured she knew the man through a family member or something.
“James,” he answered with a knowing gleam in his eye. He shot Mallory a little smirk as well. “James Harris.”
“Harris?” Callie furrowed her brow, then looked to David. “Wait a minute. There was a Harris in Ariel’s class, wasn’t there?”
David shook his head. “No, I don’t think it was Ariel’s class. I thought it was…” Then David laughed and looked accusingly at his daughter. “There was a Harris in your class. If I’m not mistaken, James Harris was valedictorian the year you graduated.”
“That’s right!” Callie gasped. “You two were in the same grade! Why didn’t you say something before?”
Mallory avoided eye contact with both her parents.
“I wasn’t really thinking about it, I guess.
But yeah. We did go to high school together, not that it’s a big deal.
Anyway, James is super busy, and he has to get going now.
” She grabbed James’ arm and tugged him down the hall.
“We can’t keep him here when he’s got a lot of work to do on dad’s laptop.
If we want it fixed, then we have to let the man get cracking. ”
“Oh, it’s really nothing you need to worry about immediately," David said. He and Sasha stepped out of the way for Mallory to rush past them. “You can take a few days if need be. I can use a computer at the office for anything work related and I won’t need any of my vacation stuff until after Thanksgiving.”
“Yeah, what’s the hurry?” Callie added, catching up with Mallory and James by the door. “Why don’t you stay for a cup of coffee or something, James? I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to since graduating, and I’m sure you and Mallory have a ton of catching up to do as well.”
“We caught up already,” Mallory said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But he’s on the clock, so we shouldn’t be keeping him. He’s probably got a long list of other home visits he needs to be rushing off to.”
Callie tried to continue arguing, but Mallory opened the door before she could say anything and shuffled James outside. A second later, the door slammed shut, leaving Callie stunned on the other side.
“Man,” Sasha said under her breath. “I should’ve taken you up on that bet. I totally would’ve won.”
Callie laughed. “I don’t think James is Mallory’s secret boyfriend.”
“Maybe not yet,” Sasha said with a mischievous grin. “But she’s definitely crushing on him. If you’re still up for a little gambling, I’d put money down on them any day.”
Although Callie would never admit this out loud, it was what Sasha said that made her linger in front of the door and wait until Mallory came back inside.
She never wanted to grow into that over-zealous mother who always stuck her nose where it didn’t belong, but there was just something so exciting about the prospect of Mallory having met someone she liked.
It didn’t happen often. And for there to be a possible love match right there in Ferndale—with a nice young man she’d gone to school with?
It was almost too perfect.
Callie lingered in the entryway for a while, but clearly, Mallory was onto her.
About five minutes after going outside, Callie’s youngest tried to sneak back in through the side door.
It was a valiant attempt at escaping notice, but Callie heard the door hinges squeak over by the kitchen, and she ended up cutting Mallory off as she tried to dart into the living room.
“Hey, wait a second,” she said, sounding a bit more aggressive than she meant to. Mallory gave her a look. She cleared her throat and smiled as casually as she could. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just want to talk to you for a second.”
Mallory groaned. “Please, mom, I really don’t feel like chatting about the computer. I feel terrible for spilling the coffee on it, and I swear, if dad ends up needing a replacement, I’ll pay for it myself.”
“It’s not about the computer. I don’t care about the computer.”
“Dad does.”
“Not really,” she said. “Besides, it sounds like James is confident he’ll be able to fix it. Or that he can at least get all the important files off it.”
“Either way, this was my fault, and I intend to take responsibility for it. Financially, I mean.”
Callie gave her daughter a look. “You and I both know your father would never let you pay for a new one. The coffee spill was an accident, and it’s like your dad said, it was an old laptop. He’s been needing to upgrade for a while now, so this just gives him an excuse to pull the trigger.”
Mallory seemed to take a moment to chew on this bit of information. “Alright, well, I still insist on paying for the repairs at least. James already said he was going to give me a good discount, so it shouldn’t be that expensive.”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Callie said, again trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing.
“The discount?”
“No. James.”
Mallory frowned. “What about James?”
“Nothing in particular… He looked really good though, don’t you think? If I hadn’t figured out he was in your graduating class, I never would’ve guessed he was a day over thirty-five. Did you know he still lived in the Ferndale area?”
“Nope.” Mallory walked over to the fridge and took out a diet soda. “Not until he showed up to fix the computer.”
“So, you haven’t kept up with him?”
“I haven’t kept up with anyone from high school.” She snorted. “Why would I? All the people I hung out with were deadbeats who accused me of cheating to graduate, which was valid, but it still hurt. And everyone else pretty much ignored me or was rude.”
“But not James!” Callie said, brushing past Mallory’s comment about having graduated by cheating. She hated thinking about that fact or the role she’d played in the situation. “He wasn’t rude to you, was he?”
Mallory shrugged. “I guess not. But we ran in different circles, in case that wasn’t obvious from the fact that he was valedictorian, and I was almost a dropout. My guess is we didn’t say more than a couple dozen words to each other the entire four years of high school.”
“Well, maybe it’s time to remedy that,” Callie suggested. “He seems like a nice guy. You should invite him over for dinner one night.”
Mallory laughed. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’d say no.”
Callie balked. “He has no reason to say no!”
“I disagree.” Mallory folded her arms. “Think about it, mom. He’s a grown man with a nice job and, as you already noted, he’s not unattractive,” Mallory said, listing these things off as if they led to an obvious conclusion.
Callie, however, didn’t know where she was going with this, so she just stared on until her daughter explained herself.
“He probably has a girlfriend. Or a wife. He doesn’t need a dinner invite from some unemployed loser from his high school, and I don’t need the humiliation of asking him and face rejection from a kid who used to get swirlies on a weekly basis. ”
“Swirlies?” Callie didn’t mean to focus on that detail in particular; it’d just been such a long time since she’d heard someone use that word. She didn’t even think kids actually did that to each other, but perhaps James was just that unlucky.
“Yeah,” Mallory said, sucking air through her teeth like she was in pain. “James was a huge dork in school, and he got bullied. A lot.”
“That’s so sad!”
“Sure, it’s tragic, but he grew out of his awkward stage, so I don’t think we need to feel that bad.” She cracked open her soda and took a big swig. “Anyway, this has been a great talk, but I have some errands to run, so I’m going to head out. Is it alright if I borrow your car?”
“That’s fine.” Callie had gotten as much information out of her daughter as she knew was possible, so she decided to quit while she was ahead. “You can have it for the rest of the day. I’m not planning on going anywhere else.”
“Sounds good.” Mallory smiled and swiped Callie’s keys from where they sat on the kitchen counter.
“Text me if you need anything while I’m out, but I won’t be long.
I just need to pick up a few odds and ends.
James also mentioned he might have news about the computer within a couple of hours, so I suppose I might stop by the shop if need be. ”
“If that is the case, then you should at least try and find out if the man is married.” Callie winked at her. “And if he’s not, invite him over. You can tell him that I insisted, if that makes you feel better about extending the offer.”
Mallory rolled her eyes. “If you like James so much, then maybe you should ask him for dinner.”
Callie gave her a coy smile. “You know what? If I see him out one day, I might... just for you.” She winked.