That alone guts me more than any other part of today’s interaction.
When I turn back to check on Caleb, he’s watching me, a hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun and worry deepening the lines on either side of his mouth.
Her words shouldn’t cut me, but they do. And she’s right in a lot of respects. I’m not proper, nor do I come from a good family. In the past, her words might’ve been enough to have me breaking things off, but I’m stronger now, and Iwon’t let a woman who’s so obviously miserable in her own existence dictate how I feel about myself and those around me.
I walk over to Caleb, who engulfs me in a hug when I get close.
“What’d she want?”
Chin resting on his chest, I give him a small smile. “Nothing important.”
His eyes flit across my face like he’s trying to read me. “You sure?”
My chest pinches at the concern there. “Yep.”
“Halle?” he prompts, clearly unable to let it go.
With a sigh, I say, “It wasn’t nice, but it doesn’t bear repeating. I know how you feel about me and I’m not going to let your mother get in my head.”
He sags. “You shouldn’t be trying to keep peace between me and her.”
I bristle, straightening. “She’s still your mother.”
With a kiss to the top of my head, he heaves out a breath. “You’re too good for me.”
He’s wrong. It’s the other way around. But I keep that to myself.
Though I didn’t grow up in the best of places or under the best circumstances, IknowCaleb is my person.
I meet his eye, ensuring he can see the truth behind my next words. “I love you.”
For an instant, he stiffens, his eyes going wide, but as the words sink in, he groans and presses a kiss to my mouth, his hand warm on my cheek despite the chilly air. “’Bout damn time you got on the same page as me. I love you too, baby.”
CHAPTER 36
HALLE
With the floors ripped out like this, the house looks even worse than it did before the damaged carpets and linoleum were pulled up. Though on occasion, I get the urge to regret the purchase, but it fades quickly each time, because it brought me to this town. To Caleb. To Cynthia and Thelma. Even to Salem and Thayer.
This is where I’m meant to be.
Men dressed in bright t-shirts and stained jeans haul the damaged flooring and floorboards out of the house and toss each piece into the dumpster out front.
Thelma had some choice wordsfor me when the ugly dumpster arrived. When I told her that I couldn’t do anything about the look of it, she went off on a tangent about starting her own dumpster company. If she did, apparently she’d paint them pink and make them glittery. As long as my brothers aren’t stealing paint for her again, then she can do whatever she wants, and I wouldn’t put it past her to start a dumpster company in the near future. Eventually, she ran out of steam and waddled back home to do more research into the matter.
At the sound of a soft cry, I whip around and scan the street. Seda, head bowed, darts up the steps into Caleb’s house.
“Seda?” I hurry after her, the floors a secondary concern now.
I don’t catch up to her until she’s throwing herself across her pink bedspread.
“Seda, sweetie, what’s wrong?”
She wraps her arms around her pillow, her face damp with tears.
“He… h-he was k-kissing another g-girl,” she chokes out between sobs.
“Who was, sweetie?” I smooth her tangled hair back from her forehead. She looks like she ran all the way here from her bus stop at the end of the block.
