The weather does little to untangle the knots in my stomach, but I manage to loosen a few of them when I realize that Sonny and I both survived the fire. That’s all that really matters.
“Okay,” I say, addressing my little trooper with an action plan that is bound to be a success. “Tonight we will stay in the Maple Crossing motel, and on the way there we will stop and get you another Boeing airplane. All I want you to focus on tonight, buddy, is getting a good night’s sleep. Can you do that for me?”
Sonny’s eyes peel wide at the mention of a new toy aircraft.
My heart skips a beat as I regard the innocent joy in his eyes. I’d bankrupt myself for his happiness, which, come to think of it, I’ll probably be doing tonight, since I’m prepared to blow savings on a motel room.
I’d rather do that than stay with Caleb.
Jess spills out of the coffee shop with an iced coffee for me and a juice pouch for Sonny.
“I seriously cannot go back there,” I pull her aside to say. With Sonny fixated on his juice, I use this time to bring up Caleb. “What caused you to change your tune? Granted, he’s supernaturally good-looking—looks like the son of Zeus or some shit—but what the hell, Jess? I’ve slept on your couch countless times over the years and developed no back issues.”
“You’ll thank me later.” She winks, popping the straw between her lips to slurp up some coffee. “You were meant to see him again.”
“Says who? The crystals you charged last night on your windowsill?”
“Rose quartz should not be underestimated.” She clutches the pendant around her neck that sits in line with her heart, and continues, “Look. I get it. I really do. You helped me recover things with Jason when I was in denial about that whole fiasco, so now it’s my turn to help you.”
“You already have,” I say, heaving up the two bags of donated clothes.
Jess toys with the coffee straw, regarding me. “I’ve never seen you like that before.”
“Like what?”
“How you were nine years ago. With him,” she whispers, mindful of Sonny being in earshot. “There was something in your eyes that lit them up like the night’s sky.”
“I appreciate the compliment and the simile, but now’s really not the time to get poetic, Jess. Caleb pretty much left me for dead, remember? For a job in the New York City Fire Department. Why would he move to New York only to move back up here years later for the same thing?”
Jess bites her lip in thought. She always does this before telling a truth I might not like. “I don’t think that’s the full story.”
“Jess—”
“I’m serious, Piper.” And she really must be if she’s clutching her rose quartz pendant instead of slurping coffee. “I saw the way he was around you. From an outsider’s perspective, trust me—it was like watching a movie. Summer love. Trees in full bloom. The two of you kissing each others’ faces off during sunset at theharbor. Y’all saved me from my writer’s block. I could write a whole-ass novel on the way you two looked at each other.”
“And now?”
“Book two is in the works.” She winks again and finishes the rest of her coffee, meanwhile I’m letting the ice in mine melt as I stand frozen, listening intently.
“There’s too much history.” I take my first sip of coffee and shake away any lingering delusion. “I have Sonny now. And he can never know who Caleb really is. Give or take a few years, Caleb will do his usual and leave for New York City again.” I look Jess dead in the eyes and say, “I seriously will not live to see another day if I’m left to pick up the pieces a second time.”
The coffee shop door flies open behind us, revealing Caleb and his boss.
Ryan says, “An agency will come around this afternoon, Miss Hart, to retrieve any property that was undamaged by the fire.” His gaze deepens more than I’d like it to. “Just how did the fire start?”
Anxiety threatens to burst through the seams, which I’m lucky enough to play off as trauma. For the time being. “I was cooking on the stove, turned around to grab something from the pantry, and suddenly things got way out of hand.”
Ryan nods, understanding. He and Caleb take sips of coffee—black, of course. Nothing has changed there with Caleb. Only the most hardcore people drink their coffee black without cream and sugar.
Although in the bedroom, I know that Caleb likes his girls to be extra sweet…
And innocent…
“I understand you have a lot on your plate at the moment, Miss Hart. But I wouldn’t wait to get in contact with insurance.”
Believe me, I intend to go straight to the phone as soon as I get a second alone.
Ryan bids us goodbye, thanks Jess for the Americano, and leaves us alone with Caleb.
