* * *
The moment the bell over the front door jingles, Callie leaps from her spot behind the counter of the café to wrap me in a hug. “I can’t tell you how excited I am that you’re here! It’s been so slow this morning. I need the company.”
She pulls back and returns to her spot behind the counter, ducking down and plucking a blueberry muffin from the glass display. She sets it on a plate. “I just baked a fresh batch of muffins this morning. Want to split one?”
“Did you just hire me to hang out with you or am I actually going to help you with work?”
“Would you be mad if I said I mostly wanted the company?”
“Not really.”
“Good.” She sits down at the same table we sat in when I first met her. “There are some chores I could use help with sometimes, but things don’t get too crazy around here since Roots is such a small town.”
I join her at the table, and she instantly pounces on me. “Tell me all about your day with Rhett.”
“What?”
“I’m dying to know what you two did all day together! I know Rhett pretty well compared to most people in this town, but even I don’t hang out with him. I want to know what he’s like in the wild.” She sets her elbows on the table cradling her chin in her palms, looking at me intently.
“That was a week ago. Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. Tell me what you two did.”
I take a moment to compose myself, carefully masking my excitement. “We got lunch at the barbecue joint in town. Best barbecue ever! Oh my god!”
“I know. Texas does a lot of things right, but the barbecue is definitely at the top of the list.”
“Can we also take a second to talk about the name? I don’t know whether it’s cute or disturbing.”
She chuckles as she tears a chunk off the muffin. “PorkScrew? It’s meant to be a pun, like corkscrew. If you knew the owner, Ray, you’d understand. He’s just the most wholesome old man you’ll ever meet.”
I eagerly take another piece of the muffin and take satisfaction in the feeling of a warm blueberry bursting when I bite down on it. “We also went to Copper Hill and rode horses. There’s this trail with an incredible view at the top.”
“Oh yeah, I know about it.”
“You do? How?”
Her guard seems to go up as she crosses her arms and says, “I know about everything in this town, which leads me to my next point: You and Rhett have been living together since before I met you. Why didn’t I know that sooner?”
“I haven’t exactly felt the need to broadcast that knowledge to people in town. My mom only found out this morning. How did you hear about it?”
“Rhett told me.”
“He did? When?”
“I don’t know, earlier this week when he came by. Anyway, how did this happen? Rhett wouldn’t tell me much.”
“It’s just because a pipe burst in the cottage.”
“You could’ve just stayed with your parents though, right? Did Rhett even suggest that?”
I open my mouth to tell her he did, but then I realize that was never something that was brought up. “To be fair, he knew I didn’t want to stay with my parents. That’s why I was supposed to stay in the cottage.”
“But letting you stay in a separate house on his property is a lot different than letting you stay in his guest bedroom. Who knew Rhett had a soft side to him anymore.”
“Soft side?”
“Yeah, he’s turned into mush since you came to town, adopting a dog and letting you move in with him.”
