Chapter 13 Caleb #2
Abi, dressed as a Disney princess—I had no idea which one—complete with a tiara in front of her two tiny space buns, immediately clapped her hands to my cheeks and pressed her forehead to mine, staring into my eyes, breathing through her mouth like a locomotive because she had a cold.
“Unca Cal Cal, Alex had an accident in his car seat on the way here, and it smelled bad. Mommy said a bad word.”
Alex, wearing Paw Patrol sweats and cowboy boots, pushed his face in front of Abi’s. “I didn’t.”
“Mama, Alex telling fibs again.”
“I’m not,” Alex said. “Unca Cal Cal, guess what?”
“What?”
“Rubble is the one who pooped in my car seat!”
I raised my brows. “Rubble, the yellow Paw Patrol pretend dog who drives an excavator even though he’s a dog and doesn’t have opposable thumbs?”
Alex nodded vigorously.
“Alex, baby,” Kiera said across the table. “Remember what you’re supposed to do when you’re telling tall tales? So that everyone knows you’re making something up?”
Alex beamed. “Yes!” He tapped his own nose.
I grinned at him, this tiny human with the Colburn-hazel eyes and strong opinions and stubbornness, whom I loved with all my heart. “Alex, guess what.”
“What?”
“I once got to drive Rubble’s excavator.”
“No way!”
“Way.” Then I tapped my nose.
Alex set his head down on my shoulder, smearing the ketchup on his face all over my sweatshirt, but it was worth it for toddler snuggles.
I yawned so wide, my jaw cracked, and actually, my head was starting to hurt.
I’d forgotten to take the migraine meds.
Hugging Alex, I leaned back and closed my eyes for a moment…
Then jerked awake and sat up straight.
The booth was empty, and Kiera was crouched by my side. “Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” she said teasingly, but her eyes were serious. “You okay?”
“Wha—” I looked around. “Where did everyone go?”
“Meal’s over. They’re all loading up in the parking lot. There’s a big storm moving in. The news threw around words like cyclone bomb and atmospheric river. You need to go back to bed.”
“Can’t.” Not only did I have Hank, if the storm was as big as predicted, I needed to go by our ongoing jobs to ensure the guys had tarped all outside equipment and materials, that they’d put out sandbags and netting where they’d been prepping for concrete work, and—
“You’re getting a migraine, aren’t you?”
“Me? Nah.” An easy lie. A self-preservation lie, because if I admitted it, she’d call in the cavalry.
The entire family would descend upon my house.
Ryder would bully me into taking more meds than I wanted—I hated the wooziness they caused.
Tucker would take over the job for me, or whatever I had on my plate.
Kiera would cook for an army of thousands and force-feed me.
Then they’d sit on me until they deemed me better.
“I’m taking Dad with me for a few days,” she said.
I shook my head. “No, you don’t have to—”
“Caleb.” Even though Kiera barely came to my shoulder, she pulled me upright and out of the booth. “It’s happening. Don’t worry, you’ll pay me back in babysitting.”
I couldn’t joke about this, not when the look on her face that day I’d left for college, that brave, solemn face, still haunted me. “Ki—”
“I want to know this Hank,” she said softly.
“I know I fell apart when Auggie died, and you guys stupidly dealt with Dad’s strokes and the fallout on your own because you—also stupidly—didn’t want to burden me.
But I’m good now. Or at least I’m getting there.
” She paused, met my gaze. “I need to feel like I’m a part of this family again. ”
“Ki, you’ve always been a part of this family. You don’t have to do this for me.”
“I’m doing it for me. And you’re going to let me.”
I nodded reluctantly, and she nodded back.
“So go home and stay there. The storm’s due to hit in an hour. Eighty-mile-per-hour winds, torrential downpours, the whole works, and given how drenched the ground is from the past few weeks of rain, trees are going to come down. Power’s going to go out. And there’ll be flooding.”
Shit. I knew for sure we hadn’t prepared the Henderson site for torrential rains.
“Caleb.”
“Yeah, I’m going home.” Eventually…
Half an hour later, I’d gone by every job I felt was in danger except the Henderson project. I was halfway there, happy to have it be my last stop because my head was killing me, when Tucker called.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded.
“Uh…driving?”
“You’re heading to the Henderson job. Kiera said you promised to go home.”
“How do you know where I’m headed?” I asked. “Because after you stole the Colburn fantasy football trophy from my house a few months ago, I dumped your sorry ass from Find My app.”
“Wrong question.”
“You hacked my phone.”
“You looked like shit at breakfast.” Tucker’s voice was clipped. His worried tone. He might be the youngest brother, but his hero complex went deep, and he liked to keep track of all of us. Always had. “And I know having Hank at your place is wearing on you—”
“I’m fine.”
“I also know Ryder’s been on your ass since he gave you the reins on some of the business things, as well as the Henderson job.”
“Yeah, well, he’s a control freak,” I said.
“But you’re not the Energizer Bunny. You can’t just keep going and going and going in order to avoid shit. You’re going to give yourself a migraine. It’s already late afternoon, so go the fuck home.”
“I’m not avoiding shit. I never avoid shit.”
“Yeah, right.” He paused. “I already knew this, but you should know a little birdie told me you’ve got a crush on our architect.”
“You seriously going to call Ryder ‘a little birdie’?”
“Well, not to his face.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Is this going anywhere?”
“Look, if it helps, I’ve caught Emma staring at you when you weren’t looking.”
“Because she dreams of strangling me.”
Tucker laughed. “Serves you right. All your life, women have fallen at your feet. Welcome to the real world, where the rest of us have to actually put forth some effort.”
“Wow.”
“So…are you going to put forth effort?” Tucker asked carefully. “With Emma, after what Ryder said—”
“You do realize I heard him the first thousand times, right, Mom?”
“Fuck you. Sideways.”
“Right back at ya.”
“Turn around, Caleb. Go home.” And then he disconnected.
I didn’t turn around, even though the drive out to the jobsite got harrowing once I left the main road.
Heavy winds battered my truck, knocking it from side to side on the narrow, curvy road.
Overhead, gunmetal clouds churned, threatening to let loose.
And as I parked in the circular driveway, it did just that—no warning drops, just sheets of rain suddenly coming down hard and heavy.
No surprise. But what was a surprise was the faded-green Subaru I’d parked behind.
The wind howled like a banshee as I slid out of my truck, the storm hitting me with the force of a thousand icy fists.
The world had shifted into a blur of gray, and I was instantly soaked to the bone.
Fighting to stay upright, I peered into Emma’s car.
Empty.
I staggered to the front door, but before I could pull out my keys, I was yanked inside.