37. Caleb
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Caleb
“I’ll take two pounds of Littlenecks, please,” I say as I point to the display case. The woman behind the counter nods and pulls out a large mesh bag.
Thursdays are market day in Menemsha, when the catch is the freshest and most plentiful. All the shops have something different to offer. Luckily, we do not have to compete with the restaurants—only the locals and the occasional tourist when they figure out the schedule.
This store in particular always has a line out the door, but I refuse to buy my clams anywhere else. It seems like the whole island has the same idea today. I was starting to get nervous that they would run out before it was our turn. This is our last stop, and I refuse to go home empty-handed.
“You sure two pounds is enough?” Parker asks, both of us watching the woman place clams in the bag one at a time, the weight on the scale slowly increasing with each one.
“For me and Marnie? I would hope so.”
“Wait, I’m not invited?”
“To my romantic dinner with Marnie? Hell no.”
“You’re telling me that I’ve spent the past half hour waiting in line for these specific clams, and I don’t even get to enjoy them?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. She needs a nice relaxing evening. We both do.”
Marnie is coming over for dinner tonight and I promised her a nice home-cooked meal—a steaming hot bowl of clam chowder.
After everything that happened in the past week, plus Marnie working almost eighteen-hour days to make sure all the last-minute exhibit details were done, she deserves a night off.
The woman finishes packing the ice and rings me up. As we exit the shop, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I slide it out, expecting it to be from Marnie.
My heart begins to race as I read the text message.
Rick Hansen
We need to talk
Fuck.
“Is that Marnie cancelling?” Parker calls over his shoulder. “If you’re not going to need all those clams after all, I’d be happy to take them off your hands.”
“No,” I grit out. “It’s my father.”
“Oh, shit. Is everything okay?” Parker asks.
I stare at my phone for so long the screen goes dark.
He clears his throat to signal me and lifts his eyebrows, silently repeating his question.
My arm extends out so he can read the screen.
Parker’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “What’s that about?”
“No clue.” I don’t bother texting back. I open my call list, scroll until I see his name from our call a few weeks ago, and dial. It rings several times before he finally picks up.
“Caleb,” he greets. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? I should be asking you that.”
“What do you mean?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and inhale deeply before responding. “You can’t just send a cryptic message like that and not expect me to assume something is wrong.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come across like that. We just haven’t spoken in over a month, and I’ve barely seen you around the office. After how we left things at dinner . . .” he trails off, not finishing what he was about to say.
It’s not surprising that he’s having a hard time acknowledging what happened at dinner. I know that date is always hard for him. It is for both of us. But I’m done letting him off the hook about it now.
The line is silent for a near minute. If he wants to have a civilized conversation like adults, fine. I’ll hear him out, but?—
His voice picks back up again in the middle of my thoughts. “Listen, I know this is kind of out of the blue, but what are you doing tomorrow? Would you have time to come by?”
“Yeah, sure. To the office?”
“No, to the house. I have something I’d like to discuss with you, and it’s better we do it face-to-face.”
Here we go again. He just doesn’t let up. And here I thought maybe he’d be apologizing for the way he acted at dinner and how he treated Marnie. I should’ve known better.
Despite our differences, I always wanted to see the best in him.
He’s hurt me over and over again for years, but I got over it.
Learned to live with it because he is the only family I’ve got.
Sure, I have Parker and Linny, and now Marnie, my chosen family of four, but I’ll always be tied to him by blood.
An entire month of radio silence from my father is not unheard of with how busy work tends to keep me.
Between travel, overseeing job sites, meeting with clients, and managing the staff, there were a lot of times where we barely saw each other for months at a time.
However, we’ve never had something looming in the background like this before.
As much as I want to avoid this interaction altogether, I know I can’t. This is something I need to do, and I’d rather do it when Marnie is not around so I can feel out how this is going to go.
Marnie is heading into the city tomorrow to confront Irene.
They haven’t spoken since the article was published.
It’s been stressing Marnie out, but this was the soonest she could get away to do so.
She’s taking one of the first ferries off the island and will be gone most of the day since she is also going to lunch with Gwen.
Tomorrow is my last day of exhibit installation and there isn’t that much left, so I’ll just be alone all day until Marnie gets home in the evening.
I pinch the skin between my brows tightly. “I’ll be done with the last of the installation around noon, so I can come over after that. I can be there by one.”
“One is great. See you then.” He doesn’t wait for my response before hanging up.
Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of it, but there’s something different this time. His tone when I agreed to come over was more upbeat than I’ve heard in years. Happy, even.
He probably thinks that because installation is done tomorrow that he can talk me into taking on a new job or that my schedule is finally freeing up enough to rehash the conversation about one day taking over.
That he can put last month’s dinner fiasco behind us and move forward like nothing happened.
I shake my head, already feeling a migraine coming on.
I slip my phone back into my pocket and finish the trek across the parking lot. Parker is leaning against the passenger door of my truck, waiting for me. I wonder how much of that he overheard. Judging from the look on his face, he either heard everything, or he can read my expression like a book.
He pushes off the door and pulls the handle. “Wanna talk about it?”
The rocks kick under my feet as I walk around the back of the truck to the driver’s side. “No, not really.”
I’ve been looking forward to tonight’s dinner with Marnie all week. I’d like to enjoy the rest of my day preparing for her arrival without my father dampening the mood.
Parker nods and I throw the truck in reverse.
The roads heading out of Menemsha and up towards the north end of the island are surprisingly quiet with little traffic despite how busy the market was.
It reminds me of times when Parker and I would just go for a drive as teenagers, neither of us needing to say anything to know we had each other’s backs.
Just the windows down, the stereo blasting early Def Leppard, and the bags of seafood on ice in the back seat. Just how we like it.
I drop Parker off at his parent’s house, the same one next door to my childhood home where my father still lives.
My house is only a few minutes up the road, so we say our goodbyes and I run home to put the clams in the fridge. I take a quick inventory of the pantry for the things I still need for dinner, make a list, and check the time.
Marnie will be here around six, so I have plenty of time to run out and make it back before I need to prep dinner.
I shoot her a quick text asking if she has any dessert preferences. I’m feeling particularly creative tonight. She responds after a few minutes as I’m loading into my truck.
Arnie
Anything with chocolate!
Me
You do realize that covers most desserts, right?
Arnie
Then there’s no way you can go wrong
Me
Can I at least get a hint?
Arnie
Surprise me!
Me
I thought you hated surprises . . .
Arnie
I do, but I can make an exception for chocolate
See you in a bit :)