Chapter 34
Thario was happy to hear from Calla. She wanted to talk, so he invited her over for lunch. He wasn’t sure what to prepare, so he heated a casserole he’d picked up at the store.
Elowen dropped her off but didn’t come to the door with Calla. He waved as she drove off.
“I could have come over and picked you up.”
“Elowen needed to head into town.”
"Next time, I can pick you up."
“Thank you.”
“I put a casserole in the oven. It should be done—” the timer rang, and he turned toward the kitchen. “I guess it’s done now.”
“Cool. I’ll help you get it out.”
“Thank you. You don’t have to. You are my guest.”
“I feel useless not helping.”
Thario nodded. “I get that. I hated not doing things after I got out of the hospital.”
“I bet that was tough.”
“Yeah. Almost killed me. Frog helps a lot. Without him, I’m sure I would have been totally depressed.”
“Depression is weird.”
Thario put the dish on a doubled-over kitchen towel and then grabbed plates.
“It is weird. A dog saved me, but talking to people made me more depressed. It took a certain group of men as friends to bring me back.”
Calla served herself a small portion of food, and he wanted to tell her to eat up, but she was small, and she probably couldn't eat a huge meal.
Instead of piling his plate full, he only dished up about half of what he normally would, so he would remember to offer her something to eat in a couple of hours.
They sat at the table that the previous owners had left. It was awkward for a moment, but then Calla started speaking.
“I appreciate you and your friends helping me so much.”
Thario didn't know what she was getting at. He hoped this wasn't a brush-off. She'd had therapy the day before, and maybe the therapist had been smart enough to tell her not to get involved with him.
“We like helping. I’m glad we were able to get you to freedom.”
She nodded. “It is nice having a place to go, but what is better is-um—“ Calla took a sip from her water. “Gosh, this is hard.”
"It's okay." He was preparing himself for her rejection. So many people had rejected him since he'd been injured. He should be used to it, but this hurt.
She met his gaze and then stood and moved closer. He glanced up, and she took his hand.
"I don't know much about relationships, not real ones. But I want one with you. I know it's too early. I know we don't know each other, and you probably—"
He stood, and she took a step back, but he pulled her closer again.
“I want that with you. I know you’re going through a lot with therapy, and they won’t want you to get wrapped up in me, but I want you to know I’m here for you. I’m not going to push you, but I’m not stepping away.”
She cupped his cheek, running her thumb over his stubble. It was rough and made noise as she moved her thumb. It felt good touching him, and she liked how his beard tickled her hand. She wanted his arms around her and to feel his lips on her, but she couldn’t rush this.
“I’m going to go slow. I don’t want to overwhelm you. If you need me to back off, ask.”
“I’m not going to need you to back off.”
"Just remember, I can slow down even more if it gets to be too much."
“Thank you,” Calla said as she pulled him in for a close hug.
This was better than she’d expected. She and Thario were going to get together.
Being with him was better than she’d expected.
He was very kind and sweet, and he didn’t freak out when she said she wanted to be with him.
Maybe they wouldn’t make it, but she was going to try.
Thario couldn’t believe Calla wanted him. She wasn’t requiring him to jump through any hoops or make changes. She accepted him as he was.
It had been a long time since he felt something like this. Together, they could end up having something great.
After a moment, they sat down, both of them laughing. They ate lunch, not really talking about anything important.
Thario glanced outside. "The weather is great now, but I wonder how much it snows here." Normally, he would have investigated something like that, but the move had been so fast he hadn't even cared. Being closer to Calla had been more important.
Calla met his gaze and smiled. Warmth spread through him. He really liked it when she smiled at him. It made him feel special, and he hadn’t felt special to someone in a long time.
“Elowen said it didn’t snow much, and it melted fairly quickly on the roads. Deep in the woods, where the shadows stay for most of the day, snow will build up there.”
“That makes sense. This isn’t too high up in the mountains. I think it can get bad in the high passes.”
“Yes. Griz said something about that.”
“I guess I don’t need to get snow tires.”
“Is that really a thing?” Calla asked.
"In northern areas, yes. Like in Minnesota, they do snow tires."
"Minnesota," Calla said the word slowly, then shook her head. "I've never left California. I've never traveled anywhere."
“I like California, but there are a lot of other places we can go.”
She bit her lower lip. “What about Brent? I don’t want him to find me.”
Thario felt guilty since he hadn’t found him yet. “I started searching this morning, but I still have to monitor my time on the computer so my head doesn’t hurt too bad, but it’s much better.”
“Maybe I could help.”
“Sure. It’s not hard to learn. It may be intimidating at first, but most of it is just reading through information.”
"It has been a while since I've done stuff on a computer. I mean, I had the session with the therapist this morning, but Elowen set that up for me."
“I’ll help you get set up. The main thing is don’t stress about it.”
“I don’t want to slow you down.”
"Don't worry about that. Honestly, there are some sites that are a bunch of reading, and that stuff slows me down. You could dig into those sites and the information, while I do some of the quick search sites."
She shook her head. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“Don’t worry about it. If you need to know, I’m sure you’ll learn.”
Laughter from Calla filled the room. “You have a lot of confidence in me. I’m not sure I deserve it.”
“I can tell from talking with you that you pick up on things real fast.”
“Thank you. You’re too kind.”
He took her hand and squeezed. “No, I’m not. You deserve more than just a little kindness. You are a wonderful person.”
She looked uncomfortable, and that was the last thing he wanted for her. He wanted to make her feel good.
“Hey, you are a good person.”
“I don’t know. I didn’t do anything to stop him.”
“You were young. And how much could you have done?”
“I could have fought harder.”
He shook his head. "Don't let survivor's guilt get to you. When my friends died, I felt awful. I didn't know why I survived and they died."
“He took women and traded them for money and stuff. I don’t know how he could have done it.”
Thario blew out a breath. “We will always have evil in this world. People do crazy stuff that is awful. There isn’t much we can do about it, except fight. Even with as much as I do to find traffickers and predators, it’s not enough. I miss some. People die.”
She squeezed his hand. “It’s not your fault.”
"No, it's not, but I still feel it. There have been people we've been looking for, and when we find that they aren't alive, it crushes me. I hate that they don't make it. I'm glad we found you alive."
She nodded. “I was still useful to him. I cooked and cleaned and took care of him. He used me.”
“He did. And it was awful.” He squeezed her hand, then wove their fingers together. “I think our future will be good together because we’ll work to overcome whatever evil he had planned for you.”
A smile spread over her lips. “I do, too.”
Thario didn't doubt it would take a lot of work to make their future happy. Calla still had a lot to get through. Her life had been altered because Brent had held her captive for so long, but from the terrible things, they could build something good.