Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
The truck was warm with heat and basking love as they all were together, taking the kids to school the next morning.
All was peaceful in the stillness of the moment.
Evie turned around and looked at Olivia sleeping with a teddy bear on her lap, too tired to really care that she was on her way to school.
Zack had respectfully kept his tablet off and looked out the window.
She looked at him and saw him entrenched in his thoughts.
She was still brimming with elation and gladness from the early morning situation with Caleb, and so she wanted to help his son, too. “You okay, buddy?”
“Yeah,” Zack answered slowly.
“What’s the matter?”
“I didn’t remember my lines for my play.”
Caleb looked in his rearview mirror as his son looked down.
Evie asked, “How many lines is it?”
“Five.”
“Oh, that’s not bad! Get your paper out and write them down until we get to your school. That helped me a lot. Then, we can rehearse them together here in the car.”
Caleb looked at her and chuckled with a smile.
Zack lifted his head and pursed his brows. “You’d do that for me?”
“Well sure! And if you’re alright with it, I’ll come and watch it. If you forget your lines, I’ll mouth them to you.”
Caleb about put a stop to that. He always taught his children to stay strong and be independent, but it was Evie’s way of trying to bond with his son. And so, he tried to take a back seat as hard as it was.
Evie looked at Caleb with a smile. “That’s if it’s alright with your daddy. Don’t wanna make him madder than a wet hen.”
Caleb chuckled and held her hand. “It’s alright with me.”
Zack scribbled his lines down and began practicing them with her.
Caleb looked out at winter’s presence with the gray skies and wet roads.
Somewhere the little critters of the wild countryside would be burrowed and warm.
The cows they passed by lay down like large lumps of coal.
A minute later, the windshield wipers came on for the little drops that started to fall.
They dropped off his children and, on the way out, he was quiet.
Evie wasn’t even worried that he was mad. He was deep in thought. That handsome face leaned on his knuckles with his elbow resting on the door. His adorably warm company sweater that she helped him find that morning was snuggly looking on his tight muscles.
But instead of going to drop her off at home, Caleb took a left turn and headed straight into Laysville town center.
Evie panicked a bit and sat forward. “Where are we going?”
“The Songbird Café.”
She looked around, perplexed. “Why?”
“Because,” he began in that thick honey accent, glancing at her, “I want people to see us together.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek, stroking it lovingly. Even though he kept looking at the road, fixed in thoughts and emotions, he could see her gazing into his eyes out of his peripheral vision.
The way she always looked at him burned his roots to the ground.
She turned his rotten roots into beautiful fruit.
Ashes to ashes he fell into her love. He couldn’t stand properly when she looked at him, so passionate and focused, as if her looking at him gave him the very breath he needed to breathe.
Caleb couldn’t understand how she was so satisfied with him.
And perhaps, he never would. But she would remind him every day.
He hadn’t had a quiet ride to his kids’ school in ages.
And just like that, Evie had brought within their family a quiet and calmness they all so desperately needed.
They reached the café and parked, but before Evie could get out, Caleb told her to wait. He leapt out of his truck and grabbed an umbrella in the back, opened her door, offered his hand, and shielded her from the rain.
He was covered in true and unbound happiness, and no one could come into his world but her because of it.
Her pale face glistened as she looked up to him. And they kissed with her hands to his stomach. Caleb pulled her by the waist closer to him and pressed her against the truck while trying to shield them both from the rain.
If the world would burn, let it.
If the sky would fall, let it.
If a wave crashed through the town, they wouldn’t even know.
She whimpered as she was pressed against that big pickup truck and reached up to pull him closer.
She lifted her leg to his hip. He let go of the truck and grabbed her leg to hold it for her.
The rain fell hard and racked against the umbrella in percussive notes, drumming in rhythm with their hearts.
The people inside the café all stared outside the window, but that didn’t stop Evie or Caleb.
They were in love.
Falling deeper into more passionate kisses, Caleb dropped the umbrella in the rolling stream of the side street and clutched her with both arms; his right arm around her neck and the left around her lower back.
Their lips were wetter than before, but their heat kept them warm.
Evie’s hair clung to her face, and the brief shock of the cold rain made her gasp a bit, but Caleb crept his large hand on top of her head as if still trying to shield her.
She squeezed her eyes tighter together and could feel in his kisses that his eyes were tightly closed as well. They were.
She let out a gasp and clutched his wet sweater sleeve and for a moment, they stopped to look at each other. He saw the rain glistening against her full lips, and her large eyes expressive as if in sadness, but she was simply moved. He whispered to her, “I love you, Evie.”
Her jaw shook from the cold and the emotions, the muscles in her temples tight. “Caleb,” she stuttered looking at him.
I’m here. What is it? he thought, never looking away. He cradled her face and watched her lips, then gazed into her eyes.
The words tumbled out of her mouth in one breath of longing, “I love you.”
He pulled her in hard and kept her warm.
And the patrons inside watched.
Joey had stopped pouring a cup of coffee for the local Navy veteran Donald Eaton, who was smiling at the young couple. He nodded. Another veteran stopped plucking at his old acoustic guitar on the comfortable chair by the window to look.
Sandy and Kelly stopped in mid-gossip and stared as their pastry flakes fell from the pastries in their hands. Sandy tried not to grin.
Myla Marr smiled and took a sip of hot cider.
Deputy Hunt, Hawkins, and Martin tried not to look.
Sarah watched.
Joey finally walked over and threw open the door. “Hey, you two lovebirds! Get yer asses in here where it’s warm before I get a switch on ya!”
Caleb and Evie laughed with all of their hearts.
He picked up the umbrella and held Evie’s hand to walk inside.
Joey held the door open for them as they walked by her old iron bistro tables outside.
“I was gonna say! Take any longer and I’ll pull your britches down and embarrass y’all further in front of your friends! ”
Upon getting inside, Sandy sneered in playful jest, “Y’all looked like two rats in a sock out there.”
Evie raised her brows and flashed a smile.
Kelly gawked.
Sandy winked.
The sound of the café was still quiet as Caleb and Evie walked in between the motley of tables and people staring at them. Donald Eaton stood up and saluted Caleb with a weak smile. “Good to see you back in town, Mr. Wright.”
Evie stopped and watched him salute Mr. Eaton back, smiling. They shook hands and then Evie and Caleb heard Joey call from behind the counter, “C’mon, you guys! Y’all are off like a herd of turtles! Evie, I only got one bagel left and it’s got your name on it!”
She giggled, and they made their way to the front. Joey asked while she frantically began preparing Evie’s go-to order, “If you can see, I used your designs, and people love them, but I hate them.”
Evie laughed and tilted her head in a good-humor smile, knowing Joey’s behavior. “Why is that?”
“Because it’s not mine, and I can’t take credit for it. Y’all’s breakfast is on me today. I never got to pay ya for it.”
“Don’t worry about it, Joey. You’ve been nothing but nice to me.”
Joey said loudly in her normal voice, “What? You were mad at me the last time you saw me!”
“I know, but please understand why. It’s all water under the bridge now, right?”
Brooks and Dunn’s “Brand New Man” played on the radio suddenly.
How fitting, Caleb thought with a smile.
Joey gave Evie a high-five. “You know it, girl. But look!” She pointed to her fun and trendy spring menu up on the board behind her and added the lighting Evie recommended.
There were photos by the local photographer that showcased an aerial view of a rustic country table setting with a closeup of little flowers, strawberries, leaves, pineapple, a bowl of honey, a blue ceramic coffee pot, and the main attraction was a pie done in three segments showing off her three seasonal pies of strawberry, apple, and lemon custard.
The actual café menu had been switched over to a tone of faded yellows, soft greens, and subtle blues for a softer feel. The font had been designed to be more legible and simpler.
“Aw, Evie babe.” Caleb smiled, looking up. “You designed all of this?”
“I did! And you encouraged me.”
Joey cocked her hip with her hand on the counter and the other on her hip. She sarcastically and spiritedly said, “Thanks, Caleb, for encouraging someone to point out how much I suck at things.”
“Oh, no one need that to be pointed out. They already know how much you suck at things,” he teased.