Ick. Kalista didn’t want to know what she was waiting on. Or for. Double ick.
“Kalista, I have to go,” Daddy said. “I’m glad you got a job.”
“But—”
“Talk to you later.”
She stared at the receiver. She had heard those words from him many a time. Later almost never came. He was paying attention to her now, somewhat, but it was all wrong. He should be giving her things, not taking them away.
Viv walked in with the bags looped around her wrists and arms. “Did you get ahold of him?” she asked, setting everything on the table.
Kalista put the receiver back in its cradle. “Yeah,” she whispered.
“Good. Thanks for getting the groceries. You can tell me all about your interview while you help me put these away.”
She almost rolled her eyes again. If Bo had such a big farm, couldn’t he afford a maid? But she complied, answering Viv’s questions with short ones of her own. If she noticed Kalista’s distant mood, she didn’t say anything. When they were done, she said, “I’m going to help with the hoedown setup in the barn.”
Kalista held her breath, waiting for Viv to ask her to help. She’d never been in a barn before, and she didn’t want to go in one now.
“Why don’t you stay here and relax a little? You’ve had a busy couple of days.”
Oh, thank goodness. She nodded as Viv left the kitchen, and a few seconds later, the back door banged shut. Kalista was tempted to go to her bedroom and take a nap. A long plane ride, having to get a job, and discovering she couldn’t use her cell phone anymore was exhausting. Oh, and she’d gotten up at a tragically early hour. She huffed. Tomorrow would be worse.
Now that she had a minute to breathe and bemoan her circumstances, Jade suddenly came to mind. Kalista hadn’t exactly been polite to her when she left the diner after parting with the last six dollars in her wallet to pay for her salad. But Kalista was always the one who treated others to lunch, like her friends and Ryan. And other boyfriends. She was the big spender.
And now she was one hundred percent broke and stuck in a tacky old house where the air-conditioning barely worked. Fanning herself with her hand, she glanced at the telephone on the chicken-and-egg wallpapered wall. Hmm. She might not haveherphone, but she had access to one.
Kalista picked up the phone and dialed Ryan’s number. Whenhe didn’t answer—again—she left him a message. “Hey, it’s me. I’m missing you so much. Give me a call when you get a chance. I’m in the worst place ever—”
Beep.
She scowled. Ryan needed to fix his voicemail. It always ended too soon. She dialed Abbie’s number.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Abs.” Kalista leaned against the wall. Finally, a sympathetic voice, other than Viv’s, of course.
“Oh, hey—”
“You can’t believe how messed up everything is.” Kalista wound the cord around her thumb.
“I thought you were on your dad’s yacht.”
“Huh?” Then she remembered that she’d told her friends she was on vacation. “Ah, right. Yeah, his yacht is, um, messed up. We’re docked, waiting for it to be fixed.”
“That’s nice. Listen, I have to go.”
Disappointment coiled inside her. “Okay. Hey, have you heard from Ryan by any chance?”
Silence. “Um... sorta.”
Kalista frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I... I’m sorry, Kalista. We were going to tell you.”
She gripped the receiver. “Tell me what?”
“Like, he said you two weren’t seriously serious, so when he asked me out—”
