Chapter 18 Zandra
EIGHTEEN
Zandra
Operation Stay Away from Callum was well underway.
Callum and I had gone back to carrying out our Hearthstone duties separately. But this time, there was no animosity behind our enforced separation. More like self-preservation.
If I was calling vendors, he was working on the schedule and handling employee issues. If I was going over menu changes with Alice, then Callum was troubleshooting the brewing operation with Russ. We were polite and professional, but nothing more.
Anything to avoid being alone with him. Or, heaven forbid, talking about what had happened.
Because part of me did want to do it again. I couldn’t stop thinking about how good he’d felt. How he’d made me shameless, and it had been more satisfying than any sexual experience I’d ever had. No wonder he’d had an endless parade of women through his bed even in high school.
Callum was…ugh. Dangerous.
Hard to say which scenario would be worse. That we’d keep hooking up and then Grandpa—and the rest of Silver Ridge—would find out.
Or that Callum would lose interest, and I’d be the stupid girl panting after the town’s most notorious man-whore. Such an offensive term, I know. But it was true.
I couldn’t trust myself around him.
At least we were a month into the trial period. Halfway through. I could make it through another month of this, right? Another month of keeping my distance. Not sharing jokes and morning lattes and cooking lessons. Four more weeks of pretending I didn’t miss spending time with him.
After one of us got the job, then that person would be the boss. And this ridiculous pull I felt toward Callum would have to end.
The following Sunday after the storage room encounter, I pulled into a familiar gravel driveway. My tires crunched over the small stones that led to Grandpa’s modest ranch house.
The place wasn’t fancy by any means, but it sat on nearly ten acres of pine-dotted land that stretched back into the foothills. The nearest neighbor was a quarter mile away, hidden behind a stand of aspen trees. Grandpa had always valued his privacy.
He’d gone home from the hospital weeks ago and was now terrorizing his in-home nurse instead of the hospital ones. He’d even made a couple of visits to Hearthstone, putting the team through a surprise inspection, though it had exhausted him.
I was here today for our standing Sunday visit, which was also a convenient way to avoid Sunday dinners with my parents. Win.
I usually brought chicken nuggets, sometimes bringing Rosie along with me. But today it was just me, and I’d brought something different for him to try.
The door was unlocked as usual, so I went ahead inside. “Grandpa? I’m here.”
I heard his voice coming from the living room. “Zandra! Finally, someone I want to see.”
His nurse streaked past me, heading for the kitchen. She gave me a long-suffering look. Sorry, I mouthed on my way to the living room.
“How are you feeling today?” I set my purse down and walked over to kiss his forehead.
“Like hell. I’ve been thinking about hiring someone to come redo my walls so I can watch the paint dry. It would be better than the crap they put on TV anymore.”
I hummed understandingly. As I always did when he made this same exact speech. “Sounds rough.”
“They’ve got me shuffling around on that infernal walker when I’d rather take a nap. Can’t go by myself to the toilet to move my bowels in privacy. What’d you bring me? Nuggets?”
I held up the container with a grin. “Brownies.”
His face fell. “Brownies? Where are my nuggets? You know Sunday means nuggets.”
“Enough about the nuggets. I made these yesterday. Dark chocolate.”
“As long as they’re not health food,” he grumbled, but he was already reaching for the container. Of course, he nodded appreciatively after he took a bite. “Not bad. You made these?”
I decided not to reveal they were gluten free. “Don’t sound so surprised.”
“What inspired the baking? Was it Rosie’s idea?”
Callum’s smile appeared in my mind. The way we’d both laughed while splattering each other with brownie batter. How he’d stood behind me, holding my hand to show me how to fold the ingredients…
“I felt like trying something new,” I said, my heart squeezing.
So stupid.
For about five minutes there, Callum and I had actually been friends. And I was the one who ruined it by kissing him. Twice. Callum had been an active participant in us fooling around, but I doubted he would’ve crossed the line if not for me crossing it first.
Talk about a shocker. I had corrupted him.
The craziest part was how much I missed him.
Grandpa took another bite. Chocolate crumbs gathered in his whiskers. “It’s been a month now. Halfway through your and Callum’s trial period.”
I brushed lint off my pants. “Yep. I’ve had my eye on the calendar.”
“Well, time for your unvarnished opinion. Off the record and confidential. What do you really think of Callum’s performance? What are his weaknesses? Go ahead, rip him to shreds.” Grandpa waved his hand impatiently, like he hadn’t just asked the impossible.
The muscle in my chest squeezed painfully again.
I chose my words carefully. “He’s very capable. Good with the employees and customers, and he’s quickly getting to know the business inside and out. He’s still less comfortable with the numbers part, but he’s learning.”
Grandpa’s eyes narrowed. “And that’s exactly the vague kind of drivel he said about you. How is that supposed to help me make my decision on which of you to hire?”
I sighed. “I don’t know, Grandpa.”
“Where’s your competitive fire? Where’s the passion?”
Where Callum was concerned, passion was exactly what I needed to avoid.
Grandpa kept muttering about young people these days, but I managed to change the subject and talk about Russ’s next batch of beers. Then Grandpa got to ranting about his hatred for hop water, and the conversation was on far safer ground.
As I left my grandfather’s house, a text buzzed my phone. My breath caught when I saw it was from Callum.
Z, could you cover for me behind the bar tonight? Emergency came up and I can’t be there for bar manager duties
Of course. Hope everything’s okay
Thx!
I stood outside my car, tapping my phone on my palm and wondering if I should write something more. Should I ask if Callum needed anything else? Was the emergency about his family?
But I stopped myself. Professional distance. That’s what I needed.
At Hearthstone, Winnie was on the schedule tonight. She nodded to me when I arrived, heading straight for me after she finished serving a customer. “So you heard about the fire?”
“Fire?” My stomach swooped. “What fire?”
“That’s why you’re here, right? To fill in for Callum?”
Russ appeared, joining our huddle. “Any updates?”
“I don’t even know what’s going on,” I said loudly, my anxiety rising. I felt Russ and Winnie staring, plus some regulars at the bar.
But I wasn’t feeling calm and collected at the moment.
As I got a rundown of the fire up on Copper Road on the west side of town, my dread only grew. “Started as a grass fire earlier this afternoon,” Winnie said.
Russ cursed. “Red flag warning today.”
She nodded, flipping her blond locks over her shoulder. “Yeah, high winds. It’s not threatening homes yet, but the situation could change fast if they don’t get it contained. That’s where Callum is.”
The volunteer firefighters had gotten called to the fire. He was in danger.
“I didn’t get any notifications on my phone,” I said, pulling it out to check. Nausea swirled in my gut. I couldn’t believe all this had been going on, and I didn’t know.
Why hadn’t Callum told me the emergency was a fire and he was heading toward it?
Because was a fighter. A warrior. A flipping hero, and that was just what he did.
“There’s an app you can download,” Winnie said. “I’ll show you. But a lot of the updates are on group texts with my neighbors, you know? The Silver Ridge gossip grapevine.”
As the evening wore on, there was no real news. Not what I wanted to hear, anyway. That all the firefighters were completely safe and everything would be fine.
“Hey Zandra, you sure you’re okay to finish up without me?” Winnie asked after closing, grabbing her purse. She’d already told me she had a date tonight.
“Yeah, go. I’ll be fine,” I assured her, though my voice sounded steadier than I felt.
I went through the familiar routine of wiping down the bar, running the dishwasher, counting the till. The tasks helped keep my mind occupied, but every few minutes I found myself checking my phone for updates about the fire.
In the kitchen, the last staff members finished up their work and said goodnight, one by one.
Finally, I locked the doors and headed for the back parking lot. It was a cool summer night, and without the warmth and high energy of the brewpub around me, I shivered in my short-sleeved top.
Main Street and the surrounding neighborhood were quiet. Calm. A couple of bright lights shone over the parking lot, so there was no reason for me to feel nervous.
Maybe it was knowing Callum was risking his life right now. It made everything feel more fragile, more uncertain. I knew what it was like to lose someone who mattered to me.
Oh. The realization dawned. Oh, wow.
Callum mattered to me a lot. He wasn’t my best friend like Jessa had been, yet the thought of anything happening to him was enough to steal my breath from my lungs.
Somehow, I had to see him tonight. Had to make sure he was okay.
I was halfway to my car when I saw movement near the far end of the lot. Smelled tobacco smoke. There was someone standing beside a dark sedan, just lurking there in the shadows. The end of a cigarette glowed red.
My steps slowed.
The figure turned, and I recognized him. Thinning hair, sunken eyes. A harsh smirk. His athlete’s build had gotten softer over the years, but he was still tall and broad.
Tommy Pickering.
“Hey, Zandra. Heard you were back in Silver Ridge.” The words were harsh. Sarcastic. “Seen you working the bar.” He flicked his cigarette butt to the ground.
I crossed my arms over my chest, gripping my keys in my hand. “What’re you still doing here, Tommy?” I tried to keep my voice light, casual. “We closed a while ago.”
He shrugged, not moving away from the car. “Didn’t have anyplace better to go.”
“Are you safe to drive?” The question slipped out before I could stop it, though I hadn’t even seen him drinking at Hearthstone tonight.
“You offering to take me with you? We could go somewhere if you want.” Tommy’s gaze wandered down to my shoes and up again. His smirk slid into a knowing leer. “The creek?”
I inhaled sharply, taking a step back. “You need to leave. Right now.”
“Still an ice-cold little princess, huh? You were even more of a prude than Jessa was.”
“Leave,” I shouted. “Get off my grandfather’s property before I report you for trespassing.”
My whole body was shaking. I couldn’t breathe all the way until he finally got into his car and drove away, his taillights disappearing around the corner.
Tommy had brought up Jessa and the creek to provoke a reaction from me. I knew that. But he’d still gotten to me. Just like he had with his lies back in high school.
Lies I still didn’t understand.
I took an unsteady breath, walking quickly toward my own car. I’d come here straight after leaving Grandpa’s, so I hadn’t walked from Rosie’s.
As I approached, I noticed something tucked under my windshield wiper. A piece of paper. Probably an ad for a local service, or a notice about some upcoming festival. I almost crumpled the paper in my fist.
But something made me unfold it.
What I saw there made my blood turn to ice, terrible memories flooding my mind from every direction.
Someone had scrawled in blood red: Murderer.