Coming Home for Fall (Ferndale Secrets #5)

Chapter 1

Tired from a long, somewhat chaotic trip to the store, Ariel’s kids sat quietly in the back seat of the car. Becca was fast asleep, Micah was reading a book, and Hannah was content to stare out the window and watch the trees pass by.

Having also been worn out by the shopping experience, Callie took this moment of solitude to consider the words she wanted to say to Sasha.

Ever since she’d caught the young woman rifling through the boxes under her bed, Sasha had been avoiding Callie.

It was obvious that she didn’t want to be confronted, but Callie wasn’t sure how much longer she could let her questions go unanswered.

When she first caught Sasha, there wasn’t enough time to get the full story from her. Mallory had shown up in the doorway less than a minute later, and her other daughter arrived shortly after.

However, it wasn’t like Callie hadn’t questioned Sasha at all.

In their brief discussion, she’d made it clear that she wasn’t happy to find Sasha digging through her personal things.

Why would she be? Not only was it a huge invasion of privacy, but it also validated some of Mallory and Taylor’s concerns.

Reflecting on the encounter now, Callie wondered if she hadn’t been harsh enough.

On that day, when she’d discovered Sasha snooping around in the master bedroom, Callie’s expression paled. “What—what are you doing?” she asked.

Sasha froze and the paperwork in her trembling hands fell to the ground. “Uh—nothing,” she said in a low, shaky voice. “I was just, uh—looking for—”

“Mom?” Mallory’s voice came from downstairs.

Callie furrowed her brow, her breath quickening. “Sasha, what are you doing? Why are you going through my things?”

Shaking her head, Sasha’s eyes darted quickly, as if she didn’t know what to say. She stared down at the box in front of her, starting and stopping a couple of sentences, but never finishing.

“Mom?”

Mallory was coming. Callie couldn’t linger in the hall any longer.

Rushing inside the room, Callie kicked the box back under the bed. “Get up,” she hissed to Sasha, holding out a hand to help her up. “Here.” She handed Dot over as her daughter’s footsteps drew closer. “Don’t say anything to Mallory. I’ll handle this.”

A couple moments later, Mallory appeared, and Callie blurted out the excuse that Sasha “ran out of soap.” She could tell Mallory didn’t fully believe her, but she doubled down and changed the subject as quickly as possible.

She couldn’t tell her daughter that she’d found Sasha going through her belongings, not until she’d given Sasha a chance to tell her side of the story.

As soon as she had the opportunity, Callie intended to clear the air with Sasha, but the young woman had made it impossible to do so.

Callie assumed she was terrified after having been caught, and perhaps she had reason to be worried.

If Sasha didn’t have a good explanation for what she’d been doing, then Callie would have to ask her to leave.

Callie would have to admit to her children that they were right all along.

She wasn’t sure which conversation would be more difficult to get through.

When they were only a block away from the house, Micah announced that he was hungry. Like most children his age, he said it like it was an emergency.

“We’re almost home, sweetie,” Callie said. “When we’re back, I’ll make you one of those noodle cup things.” She stifled a comment about how much sodium those “meals” had in them. They were the only thing Micah would eat these days.

“I don’t want Cup-O-Noodles,” Becca whined. “They’re gross!”

“Well, the good news is you don’t have to have any,” Callie assured her. “I was just offering them to your brother. But we got a lot of stuff at the store, so I can make whatever you want.”

“But I’m not even hungry!” Becca insisted.

“I am!” Micah chimed in.

After a long morning with the kids, Callie smiled with the patience only a grandmother could muster. “If you’re hungry, then I’ll make you something, and if you’re not hungry, then you don’t have to eat. How does that sound?”

Becca made a pathetic sound from the back. “I want ice cream.”

“Okay, you can have ice cream for dessert. But we’re not going to have any before a proper lunch.”

“I want it!” Becca cried out and kicked Hannah’s seat in front of her.

“Hey!” Hannah whipped her head around. “Don’t do that, you little—”

“Becca!” Callie said in a warning tone of voice, cutting Hannah off before she called her sister one of the words Ariel had recently “forbidden,” that included brat, monster, and butthead. “We’re only two minutes from home, guys. Please don’t start any trouble.”

“She always starts trouble,” Hannah muttered. “She always has to cry about something.”

“I do not!” Becca yelled. Callie winced, thinking the little girl was about to kick the seat again, but the impact never came. When they reached a stop sign, a woman crossed the street with three fluffy dogs on leashes that tugged her along.

“Look!” Micah called out, pointing out the window. “They look like clouds!”

“Yeah, that’s Mrs. Steinfeld,” Callie said. “And she told me the breed name once… I think it’s Great Pyrenees? Or are those the fluffy black ones?”

“Newfoundland?” Hannah suggested.

“Could be.” Callie shrugged and then stepped on the pedal again. “Becca, if you had a big fluffy dog like that, what would you name it?”

If there was one thing Callie was good at, it was distracting rowdy kids and steering them away from a potential squabble.

Thankfully, swapping potential names was enough to keep the kids occupied for the rest of the ride and all meltdowns or fights were avoided.

Callie sighed with relief when she parked, and Ariel met her in the driveway.

“How’d it go?” she asked as Callie stepped out of the car.

“Not bad, but I think everyone’s a little cranky.”

Ariel nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure they’re hungry. I’m on it.”

Callie went around to the trunk and started unloading the groceries.

After Ariel grabbed her youngest from the car seat, she sent all her children inside and then helped her mom with the rest of the bags.

“I’m just going to leave these at the door,” Callie said, setting down the last load of bags onto the concrete steps. “I have to run back into town.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna pick up some lunch and bring it to Sasha,” she said. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

Ariel shifted her weight back and forth on her feet. “Okay…”

“Are you alright?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” She waved a hand in the air. “I’m fine. There’s just—well—never mind. I’ll talk to you about it later.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “Have a nice time!”

Callie promised she would, but she had no idea what she was walking into.

She was about to bombard Sasha at work and demand that she explain what had happened.

Who knows what kind of reaction Sasha was going to have?

It was a risky move, but Callie couldn’t wait any longer.

Now that all three of her kids were back in Ferndale, she had to field questions about Sasha from multiple suspicious parties.

It was only a matter of time before they discovered that Callie was hiding the truth about what had happened the other morning.

Not to mention, if Sasha was up to no good, Callie needed to know about it.

*

“Callie?” Kate smiled when her friend walked through the entrance of the bookstore. “What a surprise! I didn’t know you were dropping in today.”

Callie held up a plastic bag full of food from the Mexican restaurant down the street. “I come bearing gifts. I’ve got enough food to feed a family of five, so I hope you and Sasha are both pretty hungry.”

“Ooh, great timing. I could tell my blood sugar was starting to drop. Hey, Sasha!” she called into the back room. “Callie’s here. She brought lunch.”

“Oh—uh—okay.” Callie could hear the worry in Sasha’s voice, but Kate didn’t seem phased, unaware of the tension between the two women. “I’ll be right there.”

Kate moved some books and paperwork off the counter next to the register. “We can lay it all out here.”

“Perfect,” Callie said, unloading the food. When Sasha emerged from the back room, she kept her head down and offered Callie a muted hello. Callie figured the food could act as both a peace offering and a way to ease into the conversation.

The three women loaded up their respective paper plates with food and dug in. Kate chatted casually about everything she still had to do to get ready for Friday. Callie half listened, too caught up in her thoughts about how she could talk to Sasha alone.

Why did I corner her at work?

This was the least private place for this conversation, and there didn’t seem to be any inconspicuous way to ask Kate to leave her alone with Sasha.

Then again, the bookstore was the only place where Sasha couldn’t dodge Callie.

It wasn’t like she could just walk out of the shop without a good reason.

Callie felt a little guilty using Sasha’s need for a job against her, but she didn’t know what else to do.

“And Sasha’s a very fast learner,” Kate said, going on about how the onboarding process was playing out. “She’s already got the online ordering system down, and that’s the hardest part.”

“I just have to figure out how to do returns.” Sasha smiled shyly. “I messed it up last time I tried, and I gave a customer a refund for twice as much as they actually paid.”

“Thankfully, it was Mrs. Quincy—the middle school principal.”

“Thankfully?” Callie laughed. “I’d think she’d be the last person you want to make a mistake with. I had to have a handful of meetings with her back when she was vice principal and Mallory kept getting into trouble. She was… what’s the nice way to put it? Very strict, I guess.”

“Definitely,” Kate agreed. “She’s honestly terrifying. But being such a stickler for the rules, she came back when she realized Sasha’s mistake and we got it all figured out. No big deal. If it had been someone else, they might’ve kept the extra money and never said anything.”

“I got lucky.” Sasha pushed some rice around on her plate. “But I’ll make sure I get it right next time.”

Kate beamed. “I know you will. I’m not worried.”

They all ate in silence for a few seconds and then the phone rang in the back room. Sasha jumped to her feet. “I’ll get it.”

“No, no, you sit,” Kate said. “Finish your food. It’s just the shelving guy calling me back. I need to talk to him about a rush job on a couple shelving unit replacements.” She smiled at them. “He and I have a rapport, so I’m hoping to use that to my advantage.”

Sitting back down slowly, Sasha was visibly disappointed to have her escape thwarted. Callie waited until Kate was in the back office before clearing her throat. “So, uh… I need to come clean. I didn’t come to the bookstore just to bring you lunch. I also came to talk.”

Sasha inhaled sharply, not meeting Callie’s gaze. “I had a feeling that might’ve been the case.”

“I’m sorry to bother you at work, but I didn’t know what else to do.” She let out a soft, nervous laugh. “It’s pretty obvious you’ve been avoiding me the last two days.”

“I haven’t really been avoiding you…” Sasha set her plate on the counter and folded her hands on her lap. “I’ve been busy with work and Dot stuff. Plus, your family’s all together. I didn’t want to be in the way.”

Callie sighed. “Sasha… We both know that’s not the full story.

We haven’t talked at all about why you were in my bedroom the other day and if we don’t clear the air…

” Callie paused, she’d never been good at giving ultimatums or threats.

Still, she hoped Sasha would be able to glean from her tone that this was serious.

Sasha kept her eyes on the floor and said nothing.

“Look,” Callie went on, “I know my coming here might seem kind of aggressive, but I promise, I’m not angry.”

Sasha snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“It’s true. I have no reason to be angry yet, because I don’t even know what’s going on.

And I can tell you’re nervous, but you’ve got to understand, whatever you were doing is most likely not as bad as what scenarios are running through my head.

This is your chance to explain yourself. I really think you should take it.”

Sasha rubbed her hands together for a few seconds and then seemed to make up her mind.

She pushed her long hair out of her face and squared her shoulders.

“Yeah, okay,” she said, finally meeting Callie’s gaze.

“I’ll talk. I’ll answer all your questions.

Just let me go tell Kate that I’m taking my break and then we can go for a walk.

I don’t want to be interrupted while we’re having this conversation—especially not by my boss. ”

Callie gulped, not being too comforted by this request, but she nodded. “Yeah, of course,” she said, forcing a smile. “I’ll wait for you outside.”