Chapter Eight
Caleb
I loved living in a small town. Wouldn’t trade it. The shitty part, though? It was small, making the chances of running into people I didn’t want to sky high.
The Grocery Barn was a veritable hotbed for such occurrences. I avoided it as much as I could, but I needed to eat, and my parents and grandparents would eventually get sick of me if I kept showing up at their door, begging for dinner.
I was pushing my cart down the dairy aisle when a cart bumped into mine. I looked up, frowning at the man.
“Hey, Caleb. Sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
Recognizing Kent, Shelby’s boyfriend, my frown deepened. “No problem,” I grunted, aiming to continue on my way without getting stuck in a conversation.
No such luck. He swiveled around, falling into step with me. “While we’re in the same place, I thought I could talk to you. You know, man-to-man.”
I threw a block of cheddar into my cart. “If it’s about Denver, I’ve already spoken to Shelby. The subject’s closed.”
Kent was a little guy, the top of his curly brown hair barely reaching my shoulder, but he kept up with me. In his button-down tucked into belted khakis, he looked like he’d stepped out of a real estate ad. Something about his easy grin put me on edge. It rang false, calculating.
“Look, I get that. But I don’t know if Shelby imparted how much we’re willing to do to make this work. I’ll personally drive Jesse up here to spend every weekend with you. You won’t ever have to make the drive.”
I stopped walking to look down at him, my chest gripped by something hot and clawing.
“So you, a man whose last name I don’t even know, who I’ve exchanged a few sentences with, get to spend all week with my son?
Have him living in your house, and I should be thanking you for the scraps you’re willing to throw me?
No, Kent, that’s not gonna happen. Jesse’s not going. ”
He put his hand on my arm. “You really need to think about this, Caleb. I love Shelby, and Jesse’s great—”
I shrugged him off, cognizant as ever we were in public and I couldn’t toss him to the ground like I wanted. “I know my son is great. I don’t need you telling me that.”
“Of course you do.” He held his hand up as if placating me. Like I was some wild bull and he was the levelheaded one, talking me down. “I didn’t mean to imply anything. My point is, I’m willing to work with you. Shelby won’t go without Jesse, and if—”
“It’s a done deal, Kent.” I threw in a tub of cream cheese and kept on walking. “You want to move to Denver, go ahead. You can drive up on weekends to see Shelby, if that’s what you want. That’s none of my business.”
He cleared his throat, glancing around to see if anyone had overheard. “All right. I can tell you’re not listening. We’ll talk later, when heads are cooler.”
I left him in the dairy aisle, but my blood kept simmering long after my exit.
My foul mood clung to me on my way to pick up Jesse, and I hated it.
My boy was the brightest part of my life.
Always had been. I’d gotten lucky with him, and I knew it.
How he’d turned out had little to do with Shelby or me.
He was…good, all the way through. Smarter, too, than any thirteen-year-old had a right to be.
I sat in the library parking lot, engine idling while he finished up inside. That place had been his after-school haunt for years. As soon as the final bell rang, he’d walk over and spend a couple hours getting his homework done before disappearing into some book.
According to him, I wasn’t allowed inside. It was his place, and he didn’t need his old man embarrassing him. Fine by me. I’d never been much of a reader anyway. I read the paper, kept up with what was going on in the world, but I’d never gotten lost in a book the way Jesse did.
A few minutes later, Jesse came jogging out of the library, a smile stretching across his face. All long, gangly limbs, he made it to my truck and threw open the door.
“Hey, Dad.” He tossed his backpack in the back seat and yanked the door shut, still grinning.
“Hey, bud.” I reached over, ruffling his shaggy hair, and made a mental note to get him into the barber, reminding me I needed to see to my own hair. He was getting as scraggly as I was.
“Good day?”
“Yep.” He had a stack of papers clutched tight in his hand. “Ms. Clark told me about the coolest thing. I really want to do it, and I need you to keep an open mind.”
I’d been about to pull out, but slid the truck back into park and turned to him. “I’m already not liking the sound of this, bud. Why don’t you come out with it instead of trying to hype me up?”
“Okay, but listen before you react.” He shoved the papers at me.
“Ms. Clark found this robotics summer camp she thinks is perfect for me. It’s for kids my age, and it’s three weeks long.
I’d stay in the dorms at U of Wyoming, which is really cool.
Technically, I could come home on the weekends, but they do stuff like going to baseball games and amusement parks, so I might not want to.
But I could if you miss me. And it’s in August, so I’d be home all of June and July to help on the ranch.
It’s not even that expensive, Dad, and it sounds like I’d get to do a lot of hands-on work—”
I cut him off. “Ms. Clark told you all this?”
His mouth slammed closed, and he nodded. “Yeah. She found this camp for me. I missed the cutoff date to apply, but she spoke with the director—”
“She spoke with the director?” I ground out.
“Uh…yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Dad, why are you getting all red? Did I say something wrong?”
I turned the truck off. “No. You didn’t do a thing wrong. Stay here while I go speak with Ms. Clark.”
“No—what?” He put his hand on his door. “Dad, you don’t need to talk to her. It’s okay. I won’t—”
“Stay here, Jess.”
Good as he was, he listened without argument, though he didn’t want to.
He had a special affinity for the librarian.
Probably thought I was going to rip her head off or something.
I was pissed, but he didn’t have to worry about that.
I was going to have a conversation with this woman who thought it was okay to talk to him about something that was never going to happen—to set him up for disappointment and make me the bad guy.
I slammed the truck door a little harder than I meant to and stalked across the parking lot, my boots crunching over gravel. The automatic doors slid open, letting out a waft of that dusty paper smell I’d always associated with school.
Inside, it was quiet as expected. A couple kids were bent over laptops, an older man was reading a newspaper, and a mom was trying to corral her toddler near the kids’ section.
I spotted the front desk and made a beeline, scanning for what I imagined would be a stern old librarian with a tight bun and even tighter mouth.
Instead, what I found stopped me short.
Standing at the counter, sliding a stack of books into a bin with smooth, practiced motions, was a woman I recognized instantly. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, a soft lavender cardigan rested over her white T-shirt, and dark blue jeans hugged her legs.
Alice.
Alice Clark.
My brain short-circuited. This was Ms. Clark?
The Ms. Clark Jesse had been talking about for years?
The one who sent him home with stacks of books she knew he’d like, helped him with his homework, found websites and projects that would interest him?
Alice had been all that for Jesse, and I’d had no idea.
She glanced up, and when she saw me, her eyes rounded. “Caleb?” she said, her voice quiet in the hush of the library. “Hi. I didn’t expect to see you.”
I blinked at her like an idiot. “You’re…Ms. Clark?”
Her lips quirked, a hint of amusement in her eyes as she tugged on the end of her ponytail. “That’s what they call me around here.”
Of course they did. Because that was her name. I scrubbed a hand over my beard, trying to shake off the confusion, leftover anger simmering under my skin. Right. That was why I was here.
“We need to talk,” I said gruffly.
Her brows lifted, and she tilted her head to the side, studying me. “About Jesse, I assume?”
“Yeah. About Jesse.”
“Okay.” She gestured toward a small side office off the front desk. “Let’s step in here so we don’t disturb anyone.”
I followed, my eyes catching on the sway of her ponytail as that same spicy scent mixed with a hint of old books wrapped around me.
I tried not to get swallowed up in how good she smelled.
I didn’t have time for those thoughts. I was here to put a stop to whatever idea she’d planted in my kid’s head before he got his hopes up about something he couldn’t have.
As soon as she closed her office door, I tossed the papers she’d given Jesse onto her desk.
“You shouldn’t have told him about that camp. That wasn’t your place.”
She glanced down at the papers then back at me. For once, she didn’t have any trouble holding my gaze.
“I would have brought it up to you or his mother, but neither of you ever comes inside.” She tapped the stack with a well-manicured fingernail. Did she always have polish on her nails? I’d never noticed.
Christ, I was getting off track. Alice was talking, and I was looking at her nails.
“—told me about his robotics club, and I knew he’d love this camp. I’ve spoken with the program director. He graduated from MIT—”
“I don’t doubt it’s a great camp,” I interjected before she got too far. “The fact of the matter is, you overstepped your bounds. You’ve got it in Jesse’s head he’s going to be going away for nearly a month. He’s only thirteen. What thirteen-year-old leaves home for that long?”