Chapter 12 - Callum
Monday morning, I made my way to the Foggy Basin Public Library and stood out front, my stomach in knots as I waited for Paxton to show up.
Charlie had begged to come with me, but I’d shot him down, telling him this was strictly a work field trip, nothing interesting.
He’d sighed and resigned himself to finding something to do on his own, and I’d left with plenty of time to spare.
The anxiety was eating me alive. We’d kissed. He’d kissed me, and I’d said “thank you” of all things. Who did that? And now I had to face him, knowing I’d embarrassed myself and bailed on him the minute the kiss was over.
After pacing out front for a while, I decided to head inside, but just as I did, Paxton’s voice called my name. I looked up to see him jogging across the street, a huge smile on his face.
“Sorry I’m late. I had to check on some of the batches of mead in the brew room and I got carried away.”
I shook my head and waved away his apology. “You’re not late. I’m early.” We looked at each other, my chest heating and the anxiety settling down inside me, knots loosening. I cleared my throat and rubbed my stubble absently. “Should we go inside?”
I followed Paxton into the library and we sat next to each other, working on the public computers to research available grants.
I had books and printed articles and sample grants spread across a table.
I hoped it would all help us to write a few grants successfully and save the property next door so we could expand the meadery and taproom.
I blinked a few times when that thought rolled through my mind. We? Who is we? I asked myself. We’re not together. This is his project. You’re just helping with the paperwork.
By the time I felt confident we’d found a list of grants that we—he—would qualify for, my stomach was growling. I was starving. We were sitting next to each other at a table, heat radiating from Paxton’s body onto my shoulder, and my breath hitched when I leaned in to speak to him.
“Hey,” I murmured to Paxton. He looked up from the article he’d been reading and raised his eyebrows, so I continued. “Are you hungry?”
His smile, warm and bright as always, made my breath catch again. He nodded. “I could eat one of these books right now.”
I laughed, probably louder than appropriate for a library, and leaned against him. Paxton froze for a moment before his shoulder relaxed against mine and he leaned in, too. “Let’s get food,” I said, standing and starting to collect the resources we had scattered across the table.
The rest of the day went much the same—after a quick lunch at the Blue Star Diner, we made our way back to the library to keep researching and completing applications. Eventually, the librarian made his way over to us. He was a tall guy, stocky, with a shaved head.
“Hey, guys. We’re closing up shop for the night. You have about ten minutes.”
We both nodded and when the librarian sauntered away, I turned to Paxton. “We should probably pack it in, huh?”
He nodded, his lips turned down into a frown. “Unfortunately. I told Tommy I’d be by to relieve him tonight anyway.” He hesitated a moment. “Do you want to… come by the taproom for dinner?”
I did. I really did. But I’d promised Charlie I’d be around for dinner with him, so I had to decline. “I can’t. I promised Charlie I’d do dinner. Do you remember him?”
Paxton nodded. “He’s the cool one, right?”
“The only cool one.”
“Except for you.”
I laughed softly, shaking my head. “Hardly, but thank you.”
We both lingered a bit longer, cleaning up our space slowly, until the librarian came back around and tapped his watch a couple of times.
With a sigh, I turned to Paxton. “Looks like we’re being kicked out.”
“Apparently so.” He hesitated for a moment. “When…” He swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing, and took a breath. “When do you want to meet up again? Do you have family stuff coming up I can help with?”
“I’ll spend the week working on these and getting them submitted. We could plan on Saturday. It’s Family Field Day.”
He raised his eyebrows and chuckled. “How could I say no to that?”
Another moment passed between us, a little awkward, neither of us wanting to say goodbye. The librarian cleared his throat from the circulation desk.
“Okay. Saturday,” he said finally, with a nod. “See you then.”
I watched as Paxton disappeared through the library doors before I headed to the circulation desk, thanked the librarian, and went outside to my car.
It didn’t take me long to get back to my parents’ house, where I found Charlie running around outside, playing tag with two of the younger cousins.
When I pulled into the driveway, he stopped the game and waved at me.
“Alright, you little terrors, I have to leave,” he said, ruffling their hair. They both groaned in disappointment before scurrying inside and Charlie made his way over to where I was standing by the car door. He knocked twice on the roof and grinned at me. “Where to?”
“You know this place better than I do these days.”
“How do you feel about tacos?”
“I am very pro-taco.”
He laughed. “Excellent.”
Fifteen minutes later, we’d made our way to Garcia’s Taco Stand, on the outskirts of town in the opposite direction than we’d explored previously. We grabbed our tacos from the stand and settled down at a picnic table to eat. Of course, Charlie also took the opportunity to grill me.
“So,” he said without hesitation. “How’s the boyfriend?”
My face heated. “He’s not—we’re just—” Charlie waited while I stammered an explanation. “Look, he’s just doing me a favor, standing in as my boyfriend for the reunion.”
“Oh?” Charlie smirked.
“We’re friends. I’m helping him with some grant writing and in exchange, he’s helping me dodge Jacob.”
“Well, he’s a hot friend.”
My face heated and I looked at my tacos intently. “Is he? I haven’t really noticed,” I murmured before taking a huge bite of my taco.
Charlie snorted this time and rolled his eyes. “Sure you haven’t.” When I didn’t answer right away, he leaned in. “Have you spent any time together that doesn’t involve our family?”
I swallowed and sighed. “He took me out to see the farm where he gets his honey, and then we had brunch. That’s all.” My cheeks burned with heat from the memory of his lips against mine.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not telling me everything?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Lies.” Charlie waited for me to keep talking.
I tried very, very hard to keep my mouth shut, but eventually I crumbled. “Okay, fine. He kissed me, okay?”
“Called it. Did you, I don’t know, kiss him back?”
“I… did. And then I said thank you.”
Charlie cackled. “You said what?”
“I know. I panicked.”
“Clearly.”
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked miserably.
Charlie shrugged casually. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. We just met. We barely know each other.”
“Do you like him?”
“I mean, yeah. But like I said, we barely know each other.”
“Then get to know him,” Charlie said, sounding exasperated, before his expression turned to a smirk. “And while you’re getting to know him, get to know him, too.”
I rolled my eyes. “We’re not going there.”
Charlie shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“I did invite him to the Family Field Day, though.”
“Fuck yeah, you did.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He smirked again. “You’ll get to see each other’s competitive sides, and get all sweaty doing stupid family games, and then you’ll need to, I don’t know, shower it off or something.”
“We’re hardly going to get too sweaty playing dizzy bat and running three-legged races.”
He shrugged casually and finished a taco. “You never know.” A beat passed. “There’s a new category of games this year, too.”
“Oh?” Dread threatened me.
“Water games. Balloons, races, relays. The whole nine yards.”
I put my hands in my face and exhaled slowly, letting it sink in. “Delightful.”
“So not only will you and your new boyfriend be getting sweaty together, you’ll also end up with wet shirts, at the very least, and you’ll need to peel them off each other for the aforementioned shower you’ll need together.”
I flipped him off. “Please get your mind out of the gutter and away from my fake relationship.”
Charlie shrugged again. “You know I’m right. Just wait and see.”
Whether it was a good thing or bad, I suspected he was exactly right.