Chapter 14 – Sunshine/Kaitlyn
FOURTEEN
SUNSHINE/KAITLYN
I stopped in the middle of the town square, struck dumb and motionless in front of the replicated hangman’s platform that was the town’s signature statue.
I’d forgotten this stupid statue. All the stupid statues, really.
I’d tried so hard to forget I’d grown up in a death-themed town. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was the death of my family members that was part of the theme. I mean, no wonder I tried to put this place far behind me.
But here was the town square – the middle of the town, the community focus, reminding me that being a Calloway in this town meant more than having red hair. It meant we were folklore. Myth. We were part of the town’s identity.
We were something the town was invested in. Felt ownership of.
Both families – the McGraws and the Calloways, had a responsibility to this place.
The gallows, as they must have stood over a century ago, had been recreated and bronzed to represent our history of hanging folks .
They didn’t call the town Last Hope Gulch for nothing.
“Oh, Sunshine,” Mom said, standing in front of the twelve-foot stand with a town community board attached to it.
We came into town together and had been heading over to Amity’s place for lunch.
The community board was covered with advertisements, announcements, dates and times for the next town meeting, street cleaning, and upcoming art performances in the town square. The school bake sale.
Very typical stuff.
And there, in the center of the board, was my picture. My professional picture from the Berkley and Brothers website.
The caption underneath read:
Wanted: Sunshine Calloway to come up with a plan for saving the Swinging D.
“What?” I cried. I was stunned by so many things, I didn’t know what to be outraged about first. Who? How?
My mother squeezed my waist. “Sorry. I should have maybe warned you. It’s just how the town gossip spreads. Don’t pay any attention to it.”
“You’re saying someone puts up wanted signs on the announcement board to stir up shit?”
“Yeah, it started when Leroy died and your sister and Ethan got engaged.”
“And no one does anything about it?” I cried, my voice climbing to an impossible register. Dogs were going to start howling.
Mom shrugged, like there was nothing to be done. This was taking the quirk factor up into invasion of privacy levels, but… fine. Last Hope Gulch was just that ki nd of place.
“So, everyone in town knows I’m here to save the Swinging D?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Looks like it.”
“No pressure,” I muttered.
“Let’s go.”
We continued on our way to the Last Meal Café.
Amity knew we were coming, and for the first time, I found myself nervous about seeing my younger sisters.
Since the disastrous family meeting at the Lodge, when the truth was revealed that I was only half-Calloway, we really hadn’t had a chance to catch up.
Tag was right when he said the reason I wasn’t close with my sisters was because I left Last Hope Gulch so young.
Amity and Bliss were close in age, but they were four and five years younger than me.
When I left, we really had nothing in common.
I’d been in high school, while they’d both been in elementary school.
I was applying to advanced mathematics classes, and they were learning TikTok dances.
Then I was gone.
But, we also weren’t close because I didn’t come home. Because I didn’t do more to create a relationship with them. I was close with Harmony because Harmony did all the work.
I was the older sister who sent fat checks on their birthdays. Who paid for the prom dress they had to have, when Mom said it was too expensive.
But, it wasn’t enough. And now, after everything that had gone down, it felt like I was another half step removed from them.
Would they see me differently, now? Would it even matter that I was no longer just an absent sister? But instead, an absent half-sister ?
Walking through the square, my mom’s arm around my waist, I was wearing Harmony’s jeans and boots, but with a bright red Sezanne silk blouse I’d brought from home. The shirt that cost more than everything Mom and I were wearing, combined – and Mom had really good boots on.
Still half country girl, half city girl.
Half Sunshine, half Kaitlyn.
Half Calloway. Half McGraw.
One hundred percent confused.
The only thing, and I do mean the only thing, that made sense, was what Tag and I did in the barn last night. That’s how upside down my life was.
“See how it all just stays the same?” Mom said, as I followed my mother across the square, past the statue of the Calloway bootlegger who’d been shot dead by the McGraw Sheriff, and into my sister’s café.
Same kind of weird…yes.
“Sunny!” Amity cried out, as soon as I opened the door to her cafe. She bounced out from behind the counter where she’d been taking orders, oblivious to the customers she’d left behind. That wouldn’t go over well in New York, but here most folks understood the concept of patience.
Folks?
When did I start using words like folks, again?
I didn’t know what to expect, so when she tackled me with her little body into a full-body hug, some of that nervousness I’d felt earlier vanished. But, Amity was always the easier and sweeter of my two youngest sisters.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be at the house last night to welcome you home, but I was up all night smoking brisket,” Amity said, pushing her deep red hair away from her green eyes. She smelled a little like that brisket. Delicious.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Mom and I needed to talk anyway. ”
“Good talk?” she asked, her face bright with hope and understanding. I felt, in that moment, more connection with her than I ever had, and it seemed like there might be a way forward for all of us.
“Good talk,” I said, honestly.
She let out a sigh of relief and squeezed my hands. “None of this changes anything,” she whispered. “You know that, don’t you?”
I nodded. But some things needed to change. “I haven’t been the best older sister,” I confessed.
“Don’t be silly,” she said, wrapping her arm through mine. “You’ve always been there when we needed you.”
“Financially,” I added. I’d always been there financially. Which seemed cold, and frankly had been the easiest option.
“People express their love in the best way they can,” she said, so much wiser than her years. She gave me some serious side-eye. “You do love me, right?”
“Of course I love you!” I cried, sick she would think my distance was about anything other than my own bullshit.
Then she leaned in toward me, her eyes sparkling. “More than Bliss though, right?”
Oh! She was messing with me. I pulled her into my arms and squeezed her as hard as I could. “I love you both equally.”
“But she can be so difficult,” Amity chuckled. “You’ll need to see her after you leave here. She’s going to want to know that everything is settled with you and Mom. Bliss has a hide-until-the-coast-is-clear mentality.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” I said, and Amity looked at me like I couldn’t be more wrong. She opened her mouth like we were about to engage in some top shelf sister gossip right here, in the middle of her café, with every customer watching us.
That was something I did not need.
“We can talk about our sister later. You have some customers waiting.”
“I’ll wait forever for Amity’s smoked brisket,” one man said. I didn’t recognize him, but there weren’t a lot of people here I would recognize.
“Why, if it isn’t Sunshine Calloway. I swear, I never thought I’d see the day.” The older woman’s voice echoed in the café as Amity went back to taking orders and my mother got in line behind two cowboys.
I turned to see someone I would recognize, no matter what. She looked exactly the same. Same dark hair laced through with, perhaps, a bit more silver. Same bright, intelligent eyes and friendly, welcoming smile.
“Hello, Mrs. Diaz,” I said, as my former math teacher approached me.
She’d been the first to understand me and champion me picking and choosing math courses that would challenge me. She’d also encouraged me to graduate early and head out into the world to see what I could accomplish.
She wrapped me up in her arms and squeezed me tight. Tears, hot and unexpected, burned behind my eyes.
“You know you can call me Fanny now that you’ve graduated. I tell that to all my former students.”
Mrs. Diaz might have been older, but her energy made her seem larger than life.
“And how many former students take you up on that?” I asked her.
“Now, that I think about it, none. But, you’re a big deal city girl whose come to save the day, so you can buck the trend. ”
“Save the day?” I repeated. Did everyone know? That stupid wanted sign.
“I have total faith in you, honey.” She squeezed me again and walked back to her table, leaving me looking around at everyone in the restaurant wondering if everyone knew.
I slid into the booth across from Mom, feeling the eyes of the place on me. I felt like that kid again, different and strange.
“Relax, honey,” Mom said, and that didn’t help.
Oddly, the only thing that helped was imagining what Tag would say.
Let ‘em look. You’re gonna save all their asses.
True or not, it allowed me to lift my head and roll my shoulders back. Amity came by and slid two plates in front of us.
“I ordered us the special,” Mom said.
The plate was heaped with fries and a beef brisket sandwich on ciabatta bread the size of my head.
“This is…” I stopped. There were a million different ways I could finish that sentence. Too much food for two people, much less one. Half a cow. Seven thousand calories. Not food I ever ate anymore.
But, I felt my sister watching me, and I beamed up at her.
“Amazing,” I finished.
Amity sighed, like she’d been holding her breath, waiting for my opinion. “Enjoy,” she chirped, and whirled away to see to other customers.
“You don’t eat like this in the city?” Mom asked, digging into her fries. Mom always ate her fries first, she said they were the best part.