Chapter Ten #2
"I don't." Ollie took his phone out. "But we know lots of people who do. It won't take long to get it. Unless you want to run the idea past your dad first."
"No, let's just call her. Just get an idea first. We're not asking her to do anything.
But we can explain the situation and see what she thinks.
She might tell us we're wrong and we need to go in a different direction.
And then we don't need to bother Dad with it at all. Who are you going to call anyway?"
Ollie pulled up his contact list and smiled when he saw Willow's name. She'd texted him the other day about flight details for the sales team. "Let's start with Willow."
~ ~ ~
Callie sat back in her chair and stretched her arms above her head, surprised when she looked up through the skylight to see that not only was it light outside, but the fog seemed to have mostly cleared.
She checked her watch — ten thirty in the morning already.
She had no idea that she'd been out here for this long.
She should go and check on Alara and Zia, see how they were doing.
She hoped that they were settling in well.
The move up here had gone fine. She'd been a little worried about Alara driving, but they'd arrived without incident, and Callie had been impressed by the way she maneuvered the camper into the spot behind the trees.
She'd never really given that area a thought after she bought the cottage. The realtor had walked her up there, and there was a concrete slab — which she could now see made sense. The ground was so soft and muddy that a camper would probably sink if it were parked directly on it.
Alara had known what she was doing with the hookups, too. Apparently, it was something standard — the camper had a specific setup in terms of electrical hookup, water pipe, and waste pipe — and Alara had it all set up in just a few minutes.
As Callie had expected, Zia had been absolutely enchanted by the whole property.
She loved the cottage and the cabin, although Alara had warned her that she wasn't supposed to go by herself.
Callie didn't mind if Zia wanted to come visiting but felt like she should make that clear to Alara without little ears listening. She didn't want to undermine her mom.
She stood up and stretched again, reaching up toward the skylight as if she were a plant seeking light, before bending back down to touch her toes.
She really needed to start getting more exercise.
She loved that she could spend as much time as she liked sitting out here in her workspace, but she needed to balance it with movement — and probably some human interaction occasionally, too.
Although that part would be taken care of for the next.
.. she didn't know how long with Alara and Zia staying here.
She was looking forward to it. Normally she guarded her space carefully.
She'd made a few friends here in Fort Bragg — there was an artsy community — but she hadn't made the kind of friends she invited over, and that was a deliberate move.
Alara and Zia were different, though. Not just because they needed a place, but because Callie genuinely enjoyed them.
She was super curious what Alara's story might be — how she'd ended up living in a camper, whether Zia's father had ever been in the picture — but it didn't seem right to ask.
Alara had enough on her plate at the moment.
Callie made her way to the door. She wanted to do whatever she could to help them get back on their feet, and for now, all that meant was going to check in with them.
When she was almost to the camper, the door flew open and Zia appeared, waving madly. "Lady Sunshine, you're here!"
"I sure am, little miss. How are you? Did you sleep well?"
"I did. I like it here. It's peaceful. I think there are some fairies who live in the ferns and the big old trees are looking after us."
"I'm glad," said Callie. "I like that about this place, too." She looked up. "I've loved these trees since the first day I met them. How's your mom?"
Zia glanced back over her shoulder. "I think she's feeling a little better. She's in the shower. Do you want to come in?"
Callie didn't know if she should intrude, but relaxed a little when she heard Alara call, "I'll be out in a minute. Stick around if you'd like to."
She looked at Zia before calling back, "Is it okay if Zia comes with me to the cottage? You can come and find us when you're ready."
Zia nodded eagerly, her eyes wide as she waited for her mom to answer. It took a moment or two before Alara called back. "You don't need to. She's okay here, I..."
"I know," said Callie. "I just thought you might like a little time to get ready. And I was coming to invite you guys to the cottage for a snack anyway."
"Please, Mom," Zia called.
Alara popped her head out of the bathroom door, her hair dripping around her shoulders. Callie thought she looked a little better this morning. Maybe.
"Okay, you can go. But stay close to Callie and do as she asks, okay?"
"I will. I promise I'll be good."
Zia ran to the bathroom door, caught hold of Alara's hand, and kissed the back of it. "Love you, Mom. We'll see you soon."
Alara smiled at Callie. "You're sure you don't mind?"
"I'm sure. I'm happy to. Take your time. We'll be fine in the cottage, won't we?"
"We will," Zia agreed.
As they walked away from the camper, Zia caught hold of Callie's hand. "I knew you were Lady Sunshine, and I was right, wasn't I?"
"I guess so."
Zia twirled around, looking at the trees that loomed over them, blocking most of the light. "This place could be dark and scary if you weren't here," she said. "But you shine bright and light it up. You make it warm and happy. You're like the sunshine."
Callie's hand came up to cover her heart. "Aww. That's such a sweet thing to say."
Zia shrugged. "It's the truth."
"What about you, little miss? Do you have your own name?"
It struck Callie that the girl bestowed names on pretty much everyone she met, but she didn't have one of her own.
Zia shrugged again but dropped her gaze. "Mom calls me Z," she said after a little while.
"Yeah, I noticed that," said Callie.
Zia looked up with a smile. "And you call me sweet pea. And sometimes you say I'm your forever friend."
"I might only say it sometimes, but I mean it always," Callie assured her.
"Oh, I know." Zia dropped her head again. "Mom's people called me bad names."
Callie's breath caught in her chest, wondering who exactly Mom's people were, but not feeling like she should ask.
Zia looked up at her. "But that was a long time ago now. I don't really remember."
"That's good," said Callie, feeling a little relieved even though she wondered if she should ask for an explanation.
Before she decided whether to, Zia had run on ahead toward the cottage, looking back over her shoulder and calling, "Did you say you have snacks? I like snacks. What kind of snacks do you have?"
By the time Alara joined them, she looked better. Her hair hung loose around her shoulders, her cheeks had some color and she looked brighter. Zia spotted her through the screen door and waved for her to come inside.
Alara hesitated, but Callie called out, laughing, "You need to get in here and eat some of these grapes before this young lady has them all."
She loved the way Alara smiled and seemed to relax as she came inside. She went straight to Zia and tickled the back of her neck. "I hope you're not eating all the snacks."
Zia shook her head happily. "Only some of them. I'm only a small person."
Callie laughed. "You might be small in stature, my little friend, but you have a huge personality."
Zia stopped with a grape halfway to her mouth, looking worried as she asked, "And you don't mind that?"
"My goodness, no. I'm saying that's a wonderful thing. One of many wonderful things about you."
Alara shot her a grateful smile, and Callie was even more curious to know about their background.
"We won't stay long," Alara said. "I don't want you to feel like you need to host us the whole time. It's so good of you to let us park here, but we don't need to invade your whole life."
"You're not invading it. Would you like a drink? Zia and I have orange juice, but there's apple juice as well, if you like that better."
"I'm fine with water, thanks," said Alara. "But really, we can go soon." Her face fell. "At least we can go back to the camper, out of your way. I don't know..."
"Hey." Callie reached out and touched her arm. "You're not in my way. I keep telling you — I'm glad you guys are here. It's nice for me to have the company. I promise. Do you think there's any chance you can just accept that and relax a little?"
Alara nodded slowly. "I'll try."
"That's fair. Better than making a promise you can't keep anyway," Callie said with a smile.
Zia crunched her way through a handful of cashews before looking up at Callie and asking, "What would you be doing if we weren't here?"
"Probably exactly what I'm doing right now, only by myself. I woke up early, so I went out to the cabin and I've been working. I just got finished and thought I'd come to check on you guys."
"Do you just work when you want to?" Alara asked with a wistful look on her face.
"I do, and I love it."
She felt bad as soon as she said it; Alara probably knew exactly how that felt, but she didn't have the luxury of doing it — at least not right now.
She gave her a puzzled look. "Do you do any... I don't know, just regular flower arranging? Or do you only do events like the wedding and building the arch?"
Alara shrugged. "I take any kind of work that comes my way.
I've been lucky that I've mostly done weddings and other events for the last couple of years.
I did one big wedding in San Diego, and from then I did pretty well on word of mouth.
I've managed to work my way farther and farther north, just based on people telling their friends.
Weddings pay the best, but you'd be surprised how many event organizers want to include a floral design. "
Callie didn't know if she should suggest that Alara could follow up on the contacts she'd made at Jacob and Becca's wedding.
There were plenty of people there — people with money — who would no doubt love to hire her.
But at the same time, she didn't know if Alara was well enough to do that kind of work.
Alara glanced at Zia. "Is there a coffee shop here in town or anything? I could put up some flyers."
"Yeah, there's a great coffee shop. Maybe we can go down there this afternoon. Will you advertise to do your usual kind of work?"
Alara shook her head slowly. "I don't think I can just yet. If you really don't mind us parking out back for a while, I'll see if I can get any jobs doing anything. I mean, of course I'll do floral arrangements, but..." She blew out a sigh. "I don't really know what else."
She looked a little defensive as she added, "I'm not totally broke or anything. I do have enough money to keep us going for a while. The only reason I was in such a hurry to get to Portland for that job was because—"
She stopped short and glanced at Zia. But Zia was busy rearranging the pile of mini pendants that Callie had given her.
She'd laid them out on the coffee table by color, starting at red, working all the way through to indigo so that they formed a perfect rainbow arch.
As Callie watched, she took out the little pot of glitter that she carried everywhere and shook some over the rainbow.
Callie looked back at Alara and nodded. She didn't need to explain about health insurance out loud, and Zia really didn't need to hear it.