Chapter Eight #2
"No, but we have to make the most of what we have."
Alara yawned, and then Zia yawned and stretched. "Mommy's gonna tell me to go to bed soon, you know."
Callie smiled. "I should probably get out of here and let you guys get on."
Zia shook her head rapidly and reached up to kiss Callie's cheek. "You should stay with Mommy for a little while. I'll go to bed and be quiet. Mom needs a friend too, you know."
Alara turned to them from the kitchen where she was rinsing the dishes.
"I'm going to bed now, Mom."
Alara raised her eyebrows.
Zia raised hers right back and went to her and wrapped her arms around her mom’s legs. "I love you."
"Love you too, Z. I'll come in to check on you in a little while, okay?"
"Okay." Zia turned back and blew a kiss to Callie. "I'll think of you whenever I see the moon."
Callie had to swallow around a lump in her throat. "I'll think of you too, my little forever friend."
After Zia closed the bedroom door behind her, Alara came to sit with Callie.
"She's a good girl."
"She's wonderful," Callie agreed. "And she's lucky to have you."
Alara nodded. "I'm not so sure about that sometimes. I'm lucky to have her, but I feel like she didn't do so well in the parent lottery."
"Don't say that. You might be struggling a bit at the moment, but she's such a wonderful little person, and that's because of you. Things will come together. I know they will."
"I'm glad you have faith," said Alara. "Mine's starting to run out."
"Well, listen, if there's anything I can do — I don't have anything going on for the next few days. If you want, I'll drive up there to Oregon with you."
Alara's eyes widened. "You'd do that?"
"I would. I'd love to be able to do more than that. I'd love to be able to help you figure out how to stay here, how to not have to take a job. But since I don't have any of those answers, I'll do whatever I can to help you take the only option that's available."
Alara reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Thank you. You know I can't accept the offer though, don't you?"
Callie nodded sadly. "I figured as much. But you have to promise me that if you need me, you'll call me, okay? If there's anything I can do, I want to do it."
"Thank you. I really will keep in touch. But for now, I should probably go and make sure that Little Miss gets to bed."
Callie got to her feet. "I'll leave you to it."
She held her arms out, and as Alara stepped in for a hug, Callie noticed just how frail she felt. There was genuine affection in that hug. Alara's eyes shone with tears as she stepped back.
"Thank you. I'll call you and let you know when we're settled, okay?"
"Okay." Callie gave her arm a squeeze. "Or call me if you need me, promise?"
Alara nodded.
And it was only as she drove away that Callie realized that Alara hadn't actually promised.
~ ~ ~
"Guys." Ollie gave Peanut and Butter a stern look when he came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist after his shower to find the dogs sitting on his bed, panting eagerly. "You know you're not supposed to be up here."
Peanut gave him a guilty look, but Butter gave a sharp bark.
"All right, all right, I know what you're thinking.
You keep your word — or at least do as you're told.
Play by the rules when I keep my end of the bargain.
And I haven't lately, have I? Sorry, guys.
I said I'd spend more time with you after the wedding was over.
" He chuckled at himself for explaining himself like this to the dogs.
But that was just the way things worked around here.
"Yesterday I got to hang out with Callie.
I didn't know that I'd be gone so long. But we have today, and Reaves is coming over. "
Peanut gave a contented little whine.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you guys both love Reaves. It seemed to me you were taken with Callie as well."
Butter barked again.
"You almost blew it for me though, you know. Running back here the way you did."
That guilty feeling settled in his chest when Peanut growled at him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's not your fault that I'm hiding something, is it?"
He continued talking to them while he finished getting dried and dressed. "It's not as though I'm just hiding something though, is it? I'm hiding everything."
Butter came and leaned against his legs.
"Okay, so I didn't hide the most important thing; I didn't hide you guys. But I have to tell her, don't I?"
They both barked at that.
Ollie had to wonder what other people would think if they could hear this conversation — and in his mind it really was a conversation. He felt as though the dogs understood every word, and from the way they answered, it seemed that they did.
When he was ready, he grabbed his phone and wallet from the dresser. "I wish you guys could tell me how to do this. I need to do it soon. The longer it drags on, the worse it's going to get."
The dogs ran downstairs ahead of him, their nails clicking on the wide, curving staircase.
Ollie looked around as he went. How the hell was he going to explain this place to Callie?
He knew what she'd been thinking when he took her to Reaves's apartment — that he was an asshole for keeping the dogs in such a small space.
But when she saw the house, that was probably going to be even worse.
He had to tell her though. And soon.
When he reached the kitchen, he smiled when he saw a glass casserole dish on the counter covered in foil with a note stuck to the top. Rosa's handwriting.
I made breakfast casserole this morning for Luigi and the guys.
This one's for you and Reaves. But you won't get another
until you come see me to tell me how things went with Callie
when you explained your situation to her.
Xxx
He stared at the three kisses at the end of the note.
When he'd gone to collect the dogs from her last night, she'd been disappointed in him when he told her that he hadn't come clean with Callie yet.
He liked to think of himself as upfront and honest in all his dealings, and the guilt of deceiving Callie was weighing heavily on him.
Rosa's disappointment only made it worse.
He was going to talk to Reaves this afternoon about what he should do. He'd told Callie that he'd call her today. He wanted to talk to her in person, but she'd said she didn't know what her plans were for the rest of the week.
He looked over at Peanut and Butter, who were sitting at attention, gazes fixed on the casserole dish on the counter. "I'd give you the whole damn thing, guys, if you could tell me what to do."
Butter barked three times and Peanut lay down and covered her nose with her paws.
It made him laugh, but he had no clue what she meant. "Thanks for the advice," he told them. "I can't give you the whole thing because even though you tried, you didn't really help — and Reaves wouldn't be happy with me if I did anyway. But you'll get some treats later, okay?"
He no longer had their attention as they both took off toward the sliding doors that led out onto the terrace.
"Calm down, guys," he told them. "It's Reaves."
The way they were barking and throwing themselves at the glass, looking like they wanted to get out there to tear the intruder to pieces — he could understand why people thought they were ferocious.
But when he called, "Peanut, Butter, get back here and sit down," and they did, looking a little ashamed of themselves, he had to laugh.
Maybe it was a good thing that only he and a few others knew that they were more like marshmallows than monsters.
He watched through the window as Reaves climbed out of his truck and made his way up the path toward the kitchen door. He waved when he spotted them, and Ollie beckoned for him to come in.
"Okay," he told the dogs, "you can go see him."
Reaves laughed when the dogs bounded over to him, greeting him with wagging tails and happy whines. He made a fuss over each of them before looking up. "How did the rest of yesterday go? I hope you and Callie had a good time when I finally stopped harassing you about Alara and Zia."
"We did," Ollie said with a smile. "We went back to her place."
Reaves's eyebrows shot up.
"Not like that! I mean she showed me her home.
It's this really cool little cottage, and there's a shed out back where she does her pottery.
It's kind of tucked away in the redwoods.
" He smiled, remembering the way the cottage and her workspace out back both felt like Callie, even though they seemed to represent different aspects of her personality.
"You liked her place?" Reaves looked a little surprised.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
"I don't know. And sorry, I'm not trying to be an asshole.
It's just that, like we talked about before you went to pick her up, I wasn't sure if she was going to be some kind of hippie, granola-type chick.
I couldn't imagine what her place would be like.
I tend to think of that whole coast area being a bit more, I don't know, earthy and damp. "
Ollie had to laugh. "Yeah, I can see what you mean.
I kind of felt the same way, but it's not like that.
It's just..." He looked around the kitchen as he searched for the right words.
The contrast between this house and Callie's home hit him hard.
He met his friend's gaze. "I don't know where this came from. And you can laugh at me if you like."
He glanced back through the open doorway to the library. He rarely ever set foot in there, but his father's books still sat on the shelves. Looking at their pristine, uncracked spines, he knew that was where the image had popped into his mind from.
He pointed, and Reaves came closer to look. "You see those big old leather-bound books in the glass cases?"
"Yeah." Reaves gave him a puzzled look.