Chapter Two #2
"So, what do they do when you're away?" she asked.
"They stay with some friends of mine. Well, they're more like family than friends. I've known them all my life."
Callie got a kind of prickly feeling. Was this where he was about to tell her that the friend he'd known all his life was a woman? A woman he had history with?
She wasn’t normally this suspicious. Usually, she took a guy at his word. And she’d done that with Ollie — until today. But something was off. She just knew it.
When they came out of the elevator, Peanut and Butter flanked Callie as they crossed the lobby.
The guy at the front desk eyed them warily and didn't seem anywhere near as friendly as he had when they came in.
That made Callie feel even worse for the dogs.
It was bad enough that they were cooped up in such a small space, but now it seemed they lived in a building where the guy out front didn't even like them.
And she guessed they'd have to go out several times a day to pee if nothing else.
It wasn't like Ollie could just open the back door of the apartment to let them out into a yard.
She glanced at him, but he had his gaze fixed on the door and seemed eager to get out of there.
"Where are you parked?" she asked once they were out on the street. "I'd offer to drive, but I don't know how Xander would feel about the dogs in his truck."
When she was a kid, the farm dogs used to ride in the bed of the truck around the farm, but she didn't think that would work here.
"It's okay," said Ollie. "I'm parked just over there."
He pointed to a fancy-looking SUV parked a little farther down the street. When it beeped and the lights flashed, the dogs strained against their leashes.
"They know they get to go out and run now, don't they?" she asked Ollie with a smile.
"Yeah," he said, finally looking a bit more relaxed. "They love to run. So do I." He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you?"
"Run?" she asked. "I used to, yeah. I never felt the need when I still lived on the farm, but when I moved into town, I used to run every morning. Needed to do something to still feel alive since I was sitting on my ass behind a desk all day."
She loved the way he narrowed his eyes at her.
"You're going to have to explain this. I thought you went straight from being a farm kid to talented ceramicist. I never knew there was a time when you used to sit behind a desk. But come on, let's get these guys loaded up. You can tell me on the way."
She watched in wonder as he opened the back of his SUV, and the dogs jumped in. They had the perfect setup back there, and there was plenty of room for them. In fact, she'd guess they were probably happier there than they were in the apartment, but it seemed rude to say so.
Once they were settled, he walked her to the passenger door and opened it for her. She climbed in and settled into the seat, closing her eyes briefly and snuggling down into it as he walked around to the driver's side.
When he got in, he gave her a puzzled look. "Are you okay over there?"
"Okay?" she asked. "I think I might have died and gone to heaven. This has to be the most comfortable seat I've ever sat in. And I don't just mean a car seat. I mean, like, no armchair could ever compare to this. What kind of magic is this?"
He laughed. "Yeah, it is comfortable, isn't it?"
"Understatement of the year! Comfortable doesn't even begin to describe it." She looked around. "This is a really nice vehicle. What is it?"
Just when she'd felt as though they were starting to relax with each other, he went all stiff again, gave a little cough, and looked uneasy as he said, "It's a Cullinan."
"A what now?"
"Cullinan," he repeated.
"Never heard of it." She glanced around. "It's not American-made, is it? This is where I embarrass myself. But if we're gonna be friends, you should know what you're dealing with."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you should know that — well, you already know where I grew up.
It's not the same mentality as it is out here.
Especially on the farm. It's the heartland, you know.
" She let out a laugh. "And if it's not American-made — in fact, scratch that.
If it's not a Ford or a Chevy, it's not worth a mention.
And no one would ever spend good money on it. "
She looked around the plush interior. "I bet this cost a lot of money too, didn't it?"
He cleared his throat, and his cheeks turned pink. "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have splurged on it — it was kind of expensive."
The pink cheeks surprised her; as far as she was concerned, he didn’t need to feel guilty about how much money he'd spent on his vehicle.
She wasn't gonna give him a hard time over that.
She understood though — she felt guilty when people asked about her kiln.
She'd spent far more on it than she should have.
But it was her indulgence. If this fancy SUV was Ollie's, then good for him.
~ ~ ~
As they approached the estate, Ollie's heart was pounding. He needed to just come out and tell her, and he needed to do it before they reached the front gates. He couldn't exactly pull up there, press the remote, and wait for them to swing open without explaining himself.
"It's pretty out here, isn't it?" Callie stared out through the windshield. "I mean, everywhere around here is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but..." She pointed through the window. "Is this place one of the big estates?"
He nodded.
"Yeah, I thought so. I like it. It seems even prettier than the rest of them." She turned to glance at him. "I bet you know the people who live there, don't you? Did you grow up here?"
He gripped the steering wheel tighter and decided to answer her second question, hoping she'd forget the first one.
"I did," he said with a forced smile. "I went to school with most of the guys."
She chuckled. "Reaves's dad said that you two have known each other since kindergarten. I bet you were a pair of cuties when you were small."
He relaxed a little. "What do you mean, when we were small? We're still cute now, aren't we?"
She rolled her eyes at him and slapped his arm. "You know what I mean. When you were little kids."
"Yeah, we've been best friends since the day we met. He's a good guy."
A rush of warmth filled his chest when she said, "Seems to me that you are, too."
Then the warmth turned to ice when he wondered if she'd still feel that way about him when he told her the truth.
"What about the wine people? Do you mean you went to school with Jacob and Bentley as well?"
"I did. And the rest of them. Xander and Slade.
And of course, the girls — Willow and Tori and Hannah.
" He paused. "And I was trying to keep it to the people you know.
But you've met the others as well, haven't you?
The Hamiltons — Chelsea and Cameron. And their older brother, Smoke.
And the DiGiovannis, Marcos and Antonio.
And Marcos's wife, Molly. She grew up here. "
"What about Antonio's wife, Mary Ellen? I liked her."
"No, Mary Ellen came here for a job a few years ago. She works for Cameron Hamilton. Well, she works with him. She's his assistant. But even Cam says she's as responsible for the success of Hamilton Groves as he is."
"Oh. I would have guessed that she was from a wine family."
He made a face at her. "Then you'd be wrong. She's from suburban Ohio. So, take that, Kansas farm girl."
He was glad to see her laugh. "Fair enough."
"They're not so different, you know," he ventured. "The wine families, I mean."
She shrugged. "I can see that. I don't mind admitting that I was wrong about them. They're really good people, aren't they?"
"They are."
"But I still feel out of place with them."
His heart sank. He'd been hoping to worm his way around to explaining his own background.
"Aren't we all different in our own ways? Doesn't how we get along as people matter more than where we come from?" he asked.
She turned to look at him. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh, wow. Look at that."
His jaw clenched when she pointed to the gates at the entrance to the estate.
"Whoever lives there might just be regular people in their own way. But I can't see myself ever fitting in with them. Can you?"
He let out a sigh as a heavy weight settled in his chest. "I'd like to think that you could."
As he said it, he drove right on by the gates.
It was hardly the right time to explain. Instead, he took the next left turn and drove up past Rosa and Luigi's cottage, all the way to the far end of the property, where he finally parked. They could still walk the vines from here, but he wouldn't have to explain the house or himself.
And hopefully, they wouldn't run into his caretakers.