3. Cale
cale
“You’ve been hiding out.”
The words are thrown at me as soon as I step into my parents’ house.
I haven’t even got the door shut behind me before my sister is standing here, watching me with a disapproving glower that would make my mother proud.
She’s got her hands propped on her hips, and one foot taps out an irritated beat.
Jaz is just two years younger than me, but it’s a sight I’m all too familiar with. She has always believed it is her mission in life to keep me on the straight and narrow, and as a teenager, I thought my mission in life was to annoy the snot out of her.
Still not what I expected to walk into tonight.
“What?” I ask as I close the door, eyeing her like she’s a predator about to lunge.
She huffs dramatically, like just sharing air with me reverts her back twenty years, annoyance filling her just because I breathe a little too loudly.
“This is the first family dinner you’ve bothered to come to since Lanie and I moved back.
Are you actually going to tell me you haven’t been avoiding this place? ”
“Why would I be avoiding you?” I ask easily, giving her a cocky smile. “You got rid of the dead weight. He’s the only reason I’d be avoiding you.”
Her eyes flare wide before she cranks her neck around, staring up the stairs. I follow her gaze, but there’s no one there. When I look back at her, she slices me with a look so vicious, I’m surprised I don’t start bleeding.
“Watch your mouth,” she hisses. “Lanie doesn’t need to hear you shit-talking her dad.”
I grimace apologetically. I might have been physically absent, but the family group chat has been popping off, and it’s impossible to miss the chatter about Lanie’s difficulties since they moved back to Sterling Creek and in with our parents, leaving Jaz’s ex-husband behind.
I lower my voice, saying, “Sorry, Jazzy.” And I mean it. My Lanie is good people, and the last thing I’d ever want to do is hurt her. I fucking love that they’re back here, rather than stuck in some snooty-ass cookie-cutter suburb in a city over four hours away.
They never belonged there, and Wyatt Halford never deserved them.
My sister’s eyes soften as she steps toward me. “You’d be doing me a favor,” she says quietly, “if you came around more often. She…” Jaz inhales deeply, her eyes lost. “She’s really struggling, Cale. And one of the highlights to moving back was knowing you’d be around.”
“I don’t have any more out-of-town assignments for at least six months.” I hook an arm around my sister’s neck, dragging her in for a hug—or a headlock, depending how you look at it. She immediately struggles, squawking like a parrot and swatting ineffectively at me.
“I’ll do better,” I say over the noise. “And I’ll talk to her.”
Jaz scrambles back, getting away from me, her expression horrified. “Do not talk to her.”
I throw my hands up in exasperation. “Make up your damn mind! You just told me to show up.”
“Yeah, show up. Not talk. I do not need my sweet angel baby turning out like you.” She screws her face up. “I want to keep her as innocent as possible for as long as I can.”
I’m pretty sure I should be offended, but I’m having too much fun getting under her skin. “I remember you at thirteen,” I say thoughtfully, raising a brow. “You were anything but innocent.”
“God, you’re such an asshole,” she grits out, jaw clenched and face going a beautiful shade of red. “Do not give Lanie ideas.”
There’s a knock on the door behind me, and I open it, grinning at Garth. “Just in time,” I tell my best friend. “Jaz was about to murder me. I need a shield.”
His navy eyes flicker between me and Jaz, eyebrows arched, a distinct lack of surprise on his face.
“You probably deserve it,” he guesses, stepping inside. I shut the door behind him, clucking my tongue.
“No loyalty,” I criticize. “After everything I’ve done for you.”
He eyes me. “Like what?”
“Cale? Is that you?” Mom calls through the house.
My smile widens as I throw a thumb over my shoulder, walking to the kitchen. “Oh, too bad. Looks like I’m being summoned.”
Garth rolls his eyes just as I spin around and hurry away with a chuckle, leaving the two of them to catch up.
I’ve been friends with Garth since middle school, so he and Jaz have known each other for just as long.
They got pretty close in our senior year, but everything changed after Garth and I enlisted together.
By the time we came back home, Jaz had already moved away, and Lanie existed.
Mom is standing in front of the stove, oven mitts in each hand, her eyes already on me. “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” she says, giving me a long look. Dad is sitting at the kitchen table across the room, a crossword puzzle book in front of him and a mechanical pencil clutched in his hand.
“Hey, Ma.” I close the distance, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “You working hard, Pops?”
He peers over the top of his paper at me. “I go near her stove, she starts whacking me with utensils,” he gripes. “I’m better off where I am.”
“I wouldn’t need to whack you if you didn’t keep trying to overseason my food,” Mom says archly before looking back at me.
“What about you? You torturing your sister? I don’t know what it is about you two, bickering before we’ve even sat down.
” Her mouth twitches with amusement as I give her my most innocent look.
It’s ruined when Jaz marches into the kitchen, announcing, “Cale has a crush on his neighbor.” Garth is right on her heels, looking guilty as all hell, and I shoot him a dirty look.
“I do not have a crush on my neighbor,” I mutter, heading to the table and clapping Dad on the shoulder as I sit down next to him.
“That’s not what I heard,” Jaz sings. “Garth said you called him to go and fix her house and told him to invoice you.” The man in question comes and sits on my other side, wisely remaining silent.
Bit fuckin’ late.
“Is there anything you didn’t tell her?”
“I didn’t know it was a secret,” he countered.
“You need to leave that woman alone, Cale,” Mom chides, making me feel like the unruly seventeen-year-old who got caught making out with Justine Smythe behind the dumpsters when I should’ve been in class. “A single mama like Melanie Daniels doesn’t need anyone chasing her tail.”
My mouth pops open. “I’m not chasing anyone. All I did was make one phone call.”
Jaz snorts as she pulls glasses and cutlery out of the cupboards to set the table. “You’ve got a crush, which is so unlike you. You’re more the hit it and quit it type.”
“This is why I avoid you people,” I grouse.
“She’s not wrong,” Garth interjects, dodging the elbow I aim at his side. “Been a long time since you’ve looked at anyone twice.”
Dad lowers his paper to the table, clucking his tongue. “You aren’t helping your case, son. You’re supposed to play it cool. The more annoyed you get, the more they’re gonna bait you.”
“Maybe if my pops jumped in every now and then, you know? Defended me? Got the womenfolk off my back?”
His fuzzy gray brows dip together. “Now, why would I do that? They’d just start picking on me.” The newspaper goes back, hiding the smirk I can hear in his voice. “I’m a fast learner, unlike some people.”
“No loyalty in this place. None at all.”
Mom huffs with amusement as she brings a casserole dish over, setting it down in the middle of the table. I jump up to get the vegetables as Jaz disappears back through the door, presumably to find her daughter.
“We got loyalty for days here, my boy,” Mom tells me as we finish laying out the food. “I’d just have more loyalty for someone who wasn’t out to kid themselves.”
I bite my tongue when Jaz reappears. A few seconds later, Lanie comes in, her head down and brown bangs hanging over her eyes. She’s already scowling, but I give her a bright grin.
“Hey, Birdie,” I tell her as she takes Jaz’s seat across from me.
“Hey, Uncle Cale,” she whispers, not quite looking me in the eye. I frown, sliding a questioning look toward my sister. Jaz just tilts her head back at me, her expression screaming, See? Look what you did.
“Hi, Lane.” Garth leans across the table, catching her eyes.
Her expression doesn’t change, but I swear there’s a slight softening to the scowl. “Hi, Garth.”
I nudge my toe against Lanie’s shoe, bringing her attention back to me. “I was thinking,” I say slowly, “that you might want to come hang this weekend. Just me, you, and some video games.”
She peeks at me through her hair. “Yeah?” Her voice is full of enough hope that my throat goes tight. “You mean it? Just the two of us, right? Not Mom?”
I cover up my laugh with a cough as I catch sight of Jaz’s expression. “Yeah, Birdie. Just the two of us and some Mario Kart.”
The rest of dinner goes smoothly enough, with Lanie coming out of her shell as time passes—and with every barb Jaz throws my way.
I don’t mind it when I can see the tension in my niece’s shoulders easing with every smile she lets out.
By the time we finish dessert—homemade brownies and vanilla ice cream—she’s chattering away to everyone, seeming more like the girl she was before her family went to hell in a handbasket.
Dad and I work together to clean the kitchen while Garth watches us, sipping the beer in his hand.
“There’s a leak at one of the supply-line connections,” he’s telling us. “It was a slow one, but it’s been going on long enough that the floor is going to need to be replaced.”
I cast him a look. “That won’t be cheap.”
“No,” he agrees. “You sure about taking the invoice?”
Dad hums quietly. “He’s got enough put away to cover it.” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “Not sure how your neighbor will feel about you interfering.”
I rub the back of my neck. “She’s in a tight spot. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Doesn’t mean she’ll appreciate it.”
After we finish up, Garth and I head out, but we only make it to the front porch before Jaz appears, grabbing my arm and tugging me to a stop. My friend keeps going, giving us some privacy by heading toward his truck.