Chapter 16
Caleb
The doorbell rang,and I knew it was Aneka, which made me smile. I put off my trip to New York for a day to spend some extra time with her. Opening the door, she charged in, leading with a hug, which I returned with a kiss. Had it only been a few days since I’d seen her?
“Come on in. I’m just getting started.”
Aneka followed me back into the kitchen, and we fell into an easy rhythm, chatting as we made dinner. I loved cooking, but I rarely did it for myself. Having her with me made it feel special.
“Good news,” she announced. “You are looking at the new development director in the mayor’s office.”
My heart leaped. “That’s fantastic! I knew Tom was looking for someone. You’re staying here full time, then?”
“I am.”
I pulled her into another encompassing hug.
“That’s the best news.”
“You know, I found an old journal entry from high school. All I wanted was to have an adventure. I never thought that adventure would be back in Bliss, but here I am,” she chirped.
Aneka’s eyes flashed, and she pulled a carrot from my dicing pile and munched.
“We’ll probably get to work together,” I said.
She snickered and knocked my hip with hers. “Can you handle it? I’m a tough negotiator. My old team used to call me a barracuda.”
“You had your vendors that scared?”
“Only the ones who didn’t come correct. The others loved me. They sent me cookie baskets during the holidays. I’m tough, but I’m sweet,” she said, bumping my hip again while I finished the salad.
I bumped back before spinning around to the stove to stir the bolognese simmering for hours. I dipped a tasting spoon into the meat sauce and turned back around.
“Taste.”
Aneka’s lashed fanned at me as she closed her lips over the tip of the spoon, tightening everything in my body below the chest. She moaned, and I almost forgot dinner altogether.
“Delicious. How’d you learn to make bolognese?”
“Cooking classes with my first wife. Both of us were helpless in the kitchen. My grandmother could fry chicken and pork chops and make Hamburger Helper. That was about it, and she never taught me to cook growing up,” I confessed.
The classes were one of my ex’s many attempts to get me hooked on domestic life. I thought it was working because I was home every weekend to cook for her, but it turned out she wanted me there every night, trying to make babies. You know the marriage is in trouble when even the fucking becomes a chore.
“This is delicious. Send me the recipe.” Aneka lifted another lid on a pot where I had the pasta staying warm in a colander.
“At this point, I don’t use a recipe. I go by feel.”
“Now you’re just showing off.”
The naked admiration on her face lifted my shoulders.
“Come earlier next time, and I’ll show you.”
“I will,” she said and picked up another small spoon, dipping it into the sauce and tasting again. “Yum.”
A bit of sauce dribbled down her lip, and she darted her tongue out to lick it. I couldn’t help but slide next to her and claim my own quick taste. She melted into my kiss, and even though we both were a little garlicky, the sensation was satisfying, easy, and making me forget about dinner.
“I love this, but I’m still starving,” Aneka murmured.
As if on cue, her stomach grumbled loud enough to rattle the dishes. I doubled over, laughing.
“We better feed the beast before it starts a revolt,” I teased and went back to blending a vinaigrette for the salad. “When does your job start?”
“In a couple of weeks. Tom has meetings set up with the telecom company and the college,” she said.
“Oh, yeah. He’s trying to get the infrastructure expanded beyond the center of town.”
“And to get the company to provide support for a technical training curriculum. We have to see what commitments they’re willing to make. The customer base here is still not that strong,” Aneka said.
“I’m sure his new barracuda can get it done.”
“Thank you.”
She lifted her water glass, and I waved her off.
“We have something better than that. Hold on.”
I went to the wine fridge in the pantry and grabbed a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck. A few twists on the cage, and I had the bottle open with a soft pop. Aneka got two flutes out of the cabinet and set them on the counter. I poured and lifted my glass.
“Now, we can celebrate. Cheers to your new job.”
“Cheers.”
We clinked and drank, and it hit me that I was getting more domesticated by the day. But with Aneka, I didn’t mind, and she didn’t mind my midweek travels. I hoped she might come with me on some of my trips soon.
“And cheers to you officially moving back to Bliss,” I said.
We knocked glasses again, then filled our plates and moved to the kitchen table.
“Now I need to find a place to live,” Aneka said.
“You have a whole house.”
“It’s my parents’ house, and they’ll be back in a couple of weeks. I’m thinking I should get a place of my own before then—unless you want to run into my father in the hallway on your way back from the bathroom. That’d be fun,” she joked.
I winced. “A real party.”
“I’m looking at apartments next week. I’ll do a short lease until I settle the divorce and sell the house down in Houston,” she said.
The invitation for her to stay with me was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it with my last sip of bubbly and opened the Barolo I picked for dinner.
Aneka wouldn’t want to move in until her divorce was final, and even after, we were still getting our footing. Cohabitation would rush things.
Even if the idea of repeating this scene every day I was in town was alluring.
It was too soon.
“Most of those are kind of small. The Barnett place might be available for rent,” I suggested.
Claudia Barnett lived near the high school and had a recent fall. Her kids moved her to an assisted living facility in Tyler. Her son Matt was at the Fodder a couple of weeks ago. He and his wife planned to move back to Bliss as soon as their daughter finished high school, but in the meantime, they wanted to rent out his mom’s house.
“I’m not sure I want a rental house. One of those new apartments sounds more appealing. Freshly redone. No yard to manage. The building at Main and Sycamore has some two bedrooms and a gym with a pool,” she said.
“You can get those at the community center. I know a guy who can hook you up with a free membership,” I said and winked at her.
“Is your membership free?”
“Of course. I refurbished the building and gave the city an endowment,” I answered.
“We may have to talk about that. You’ve been very generous, but a full-price membership is thirty dollars a month plus ten for pool access. The city can’t afford to let people skate on forty dollars. I need to have a chat with Tom.” She shook her head and winked back.
“Barracuda is already nipping at my ass. Not fair.”
“How else can we offer the family and senior discounts?” She twirled pasta around her fork and took a healthy bite. “Seriously. Your kitchen skills are on point.”
“Talking with your mouth full. I’m appalled,” I said, doing the same.
I’d outdone myself. Sometimes I took shortcuts with the sauce, but I got up early to make sure it had plenty of time for the flavor to develop, wanting to impress her my with skills.
“I’d say I’m ashamed, but I’m enjoying the food too much. I like you being all domestic.”
“I try,” I answered, more pleased than I let on.
“How long do you think you’ll stay in Bliss?” she asked.
“What do you mean? This is home.”
“Even after all the development stuff is done?”
“It’s why I’m doing all the development stuff. I want to make Bliss the perfect enclave for people who want a comfortable life at a slower pace without sacrificing opportunity,” I explained.
That had been my vision since my first trip back after college. The dairy was in trouble, and the bank foreclosed on the building next door to the diner and the bar. More bankers and more foreclosures had the town on the brink of extinction by the time we sold the company.
“I never knew you loved the town so much,” she said.
“This was the first place I ever felt safe.”
A lump rose in my throat. I hadn’t admitted that to anyone before. When I spoke to Tom or the college president or anyone else about Bliss, I talked about leaving my mark on the world and revitalizing the city as a point of pride for me and everyone who lived here.
The story was an easy sell.
I took a deep breath, remembering the encounter that had changed everything for me. “When I first came back to Bliss, I was only planning on buying some buildings downtown and helping Mayor Tom redo the community center. But then I met this boy living in the trailer park.”
Aneka’s eyes widened. “The one off Route 12?”
I nodded. “This kid was about twelve, but he had such an attitude. So I asked him why he was so angry.”
I paused. The boy’s words still rang in my ears.
“He said, ‘You’ll put your name on the building just like you see Bliss on everything and then take off. No one worth a fuck actually stays here.’”
“That’s harsh. And sad. He was twelve?” Her voice pitched.
“Yeah. But he was right,” I admitted. “I planned to swoop in, throw some money around, and then leave. But he made me realize I had to do more than put a Band-Aid on the problem.”
Aneka placed a hand on my arm, her touch grounding me. “The town is lucky to have someone like you looking out for kids like that and all the other people who need Bliss to thrive.”
“I hope so. I saw him the other day. He wants to apply to the aircraft mechanic training program when he graduates high school next year,” I said.
The airlines based in Dallas had sponsored the certification through the community college. That was the work Aneka could help with in her new position with the city.
“I’ll never forget how Mr. Gardner helped me. He let me work at his shop and gave me something to do besides get in trouble. All it takes is for someone to show you a path out,” I said.
Aneka tilted her head sideways, eyes intent. “Did you ever want kids?”
I shook my head. “Never felt the drive to have them, and none of my relationships were ones where I wanted to introduce a child.”
She smiled softly. “I love being a mom. It’s the best thing to come out of my marriage. Impacting others is powerful. However that shows up in your life. For you, it shows up differently.”
“I don’t talk to my mom much, but she always asks me when I’m going to give her grandkids.”
“Where does she live?”
“Akron, last I heard. She moves a lot,” I explained, wishing I had a more definitive answer but knowing that wasn’t up to me. “I don’t know why she’s so hot to be a grandmother. She wasn’t much of a mother.”
“Maybe she wants a do over.”
“I’m still here. It’s never too late for a do over, but I’ve let that go. Mom is Mom. And I suppose it’s hard to start over with a forty-six-year-old son.” I took a bite to cover the bitterness seeping in.
“Parenting grown kids is a whole other thing,” Aneka replied with her special brand of diplomacy. “You want to fix things, but even with my kids being still young and needing me a little, I can see how they’re kind of...baked.”
She laughed and shook her head.
“But they still call you. They ask for advice.”
“Advice they don’t take,” she said with an eye roll. “I guess that’s not true. Sometimes they listen to me.”
“Perhaps they’re not familiar with you as the barracuda,” I joked.
“Oh, they’re familiar.”
We laughed.
“I miss the kid phase. And the baby phase. Raising little humans was fulfilling in a way working never quite matched. But I’m glad I had my own income. Having a full resume made get divorced much less scary,” she said. “And when the investigators looking into Elijah came knocking, I could tell them the money in my accounts was mine and show receipts. I was proud of myself.”
I smiled. “Knowing you have your own back always does that for you.”
“So does knowing someone else does, but it sucks when that turns out not be true. Betrayal is a...” She trailed off to gather her thoughts. “It makes it hard to trust others, and hard to trust yourself. You think, ‘How could I be so stupid to put my faith in someone who would do this to me?’ All that maudlin shit.”
Her hollow laugh carved a hole in my chest.
“Is everything okay with Elijah?”
She squared her gaze with mine. “You mean with the health stuff?”
“Yes. It sounded serious.”
“I think so. I haven’t heard from him. Neither have the kids,” she said, frowning. “I don’t know why he said anything to them when he had no information. And he asked them not to tell me. The whole thing is strange.”
I wanted to ask her if he was the type to play things up for sympathy, but that seemed harsh. She knew him better than I did, and Aneka wouldn’t let him take advantage of her.
Not anymore.
“But you told him to call you if he needed anything,” I prompted.
“You heard that?”
“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. Sorry.”
She smiled and waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure if he needs something, he’ll come running. Especially now that he doesn’t have Tyffani.”
“I wonder what happened there.”
“God only knows.” Aneka laughed. “Enough of that. This meal and this wine are too outstanding to waste on speculation.”
She took another bite with a sip of wine and raised her glass.
“To Tyffani dodging a bullet.”
I chuckled and extended my glass to hers. “Really?”
“Yes. I feel a little sorry for her.”
Aneka took a taste of wine and savored it, rolling it in her mouth before swallowing. I reveled in the pleasure at play across her face. It ignited a different kind of hunger, but I couldn’t very well sweep all the dishes to floor and ravish her on the table, tempting as that was. Besides, I wouldn’t waste a whole day’s worth of cooking.
We turned the conversation away from her ex and his ex, and after dinner, as Aneka gathered her things to leave, I felt a pang of disappointment. I had to be up incredibly early for my flight, but I didn’t want the evening to end. She thanked me for dinner with a sweet, hot kiss that left me wanting more.
“I feel like myself when I’m with you,” she said.
“I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
“I know.” She smiled and sighed and the softness in her eyes made me wish she could stay the night.
The invitation was on my lips, and she chuckled. “If I don’t get out of here, I won’t leave, and I’m not waking up at three a.m. with you.”
I moaned. “It’s not so bad.”
I kissed her again.
“Stay.”
“I can’t. But when you get back to town, expect a warm reception.” Her mouth spread into the sweetest smile as her hand slid down my chest, settling at my waist.
I needed a cooldown.
“Good night. Have fun in New York,” she sang as she left me horny and happy at the door.