Chapter 3 #2
He’s been quiet for so long, I think he’s not going to answer. “Because Mrs. Donovan cornered me outside the hardware store yesterday and told me I should talk to you.”
I can’t stop the laughter that bubbles up and spills from my lips. “Mrs. Donovan? She’s still meddling in people’s lives?” And here I thought I only had to worry about Marth and Gloria.
“Apparently.” A small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “She said you could use a friendly face.”
The laughter dies. “I don’t need your pity.”
“It’s not pity. I don’t know what it is, but when I saw you across the street yesterday, it was like...” He trails off, shaking his head.
“Like what?”
“Like no time had passed at all.”
The admission hangs between us, loaded with memories and regret.
“Well, time did pass,” I whisper.
“I know.” He takes a step closer, and I can smell his cologne again—a pleasant masculine scent that wasn’t in his repertoire as a teenager. Back then, it was Axe, over-sprayed and overconfident, like every teenage boy who thought smelling like a spiced armpit counted as grooming.
I back away from him, needing space to think. “You can’t just walk back into my life and expect—”
The front door squeaks loudly as it opens, reminding me that the hinges need grease.
Rachel’s voice calls out, “Callie? You in the back?” She always comes through the main entrance.
And most days, not long after she arrives, Martha and Gloria show up.
I don’t know why those two like to be the first in line.
They’re both retired, both widows, both gossips. Okay, I guess I understand why.
Which means they’ll be here soon. Thank you, Lord, for the well-timed interruption.
“Coming.” I’m grateful because this conversation is starting to go down a path that is too emotionally charged. I glance at Luke, who’s watching me with an unreadable expression. “I have to go to work.”
“Right.” He nods, already stepping toward the door he came through. “I should go anyway. I’m supposed to meet with the mayor about the sheriff’s position.”
“Sheriff? You? That’s why you’re here?” I don’t know why I didn’t consider that. It’s not uncommon in small towns to pass the job down to a family member who works in the same field. And I don’t know why I’m experiencing such a stab of disappointment. It’s not like he’d come back because of me.
“Not sure yet.” He pauses before turning away. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry. About Harper, about Kirk, about... everything.”
And then he’s gone, leaving me standing in the middle of the library with my carefully constructed walls feeling dangerously unstable.
“Callie?” Rachel comes around a shelf just in time to catch sight of his back and stops in front of me, her eyebrows raised. “Who was that? It looked like the man we saw the day before. The sheriff’s son, right?”
The thing about small towns is that, regardless of whether a person knows somebody or not, they know the story.
They may not have the names or the relationships memorized, but they know enough.
And a new face in town doesn’t happen that often, meaning everyone hears about it.
It’s like there’s this gossip bee that buzzes by every ear in the city and whispers the news.
Rachel would know. She was the newbie a couple of years ago.
I sink into my desk chair, suddenly exhausted. “Unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately?” She comes closer, studying my face with those sharp eyes that miss nothing. “Honey, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Something like that.” I rub my temples, feeling a headache beginning to build. “He came to apologize for Harper.”
“And?”
“And nothing. He tried to apologize, I told him what really happened, and he left.”
Rachel doesn’t seem convinced. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.” I turn to my computer, hoping she’ll take the hint and drop it. But this is Rachel we’re talking about. The woman who moved to small-town Texas, found love, and decided to plant roots. She’s not dropping anything. She’s totally invested.
“You know,” she says casually, settling into the chair across from my desk, “Travis mentioned that Luke, that’s his name, right? That he was quite the heartbreaker back in the day.”
I freeze, my fingers hovering over the keyboard. “Did he now?”
I shouldn’t be surprised. In Cupid’s Creek, gossip never stays buried for long.
“Mmm-hmm. Said he was trouble too, but the kind of trouble that made smart girls do stupid things.”
“I’m not a kid anymore,” I say firmly. “And I have no intention of doing anything stupid.”
“Of course not,” she agrees, but there’s a knowing smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Because that would be crazy. A successful, independent woman like you, falling for her first love all over again? Totally ridiculous.”
“Rachel.” Her sharp eyes miss nothing, but the speed with which she’s put two and two together rattles me. Is she just that perceptive, or has this been town lore all along? Did Harper say something years ago that spread like wildfire?
“I’m just saying, sometimes the universe gives us second chances for a reason.”
“And sometimes,” I counter, “the universe is just cruel.”
But even as I say it, I can’t shake the image of Luke standing in my back room, looking at me like he’s seeing something he thought he’d lost forever.
To appease my best friend’s wishes, I spent over a decade getting over her big brother.
And what did it get me? If I’d only stood up to her back then, she might have realized I loved Luke.
She might still be my best friend. Then she could have had Kirk all to herself from the time he arrived in town, and we’d both be happy right now.
But she used my loyalty to her as my best friend against me, not trusting that my relationship with Luke had nothing to do with her own. And she didn’t blink twice when Kirk came into the picture. What happened to the friendship code when she and Kirk got together?
Maybe it’s time Harper realizes there is no code.