“It’s a fixer-upper,” Caleb states, slipping the house keys from his pocket.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“That’s because it’s been my project for the past two months.”
“So, just to confirm—you’ve been living in town two whole months, and this is the first time I’m seeing you? The town is?—”
“Small, I know,” he says, cutting the conversation short to walk across the lawn.
He hasn’t yet carved a path between the front door and the drive, but the well-cut grass makes the long walk up to the porch quite pleasant.
I grab Sonny’s hand. I have a higher chance of losing him in this huge yard than I do in any house fire, considering that he’s already eying up the perimeter. Great place to play aviation. The distance from drive to porch is probably not much less than an actual landing strip.
“Stay by my side,” I murmur to him. “I need you to be on your best behavior, okay?”
“This place is huge!” he exclaims, and I fight the urge to agree with him in case Caleb overhears.
How dare he come back here after nine years of nothing—with a house and more acreage than me? Does he actually know what it’s like to lose?
I step in through the front door and remind myself that he never had any real feelings for me. He wouldn’t have left so suddenly if he did.
“Wow!” Sonny says, loosening his grip on the toy plane. “I like it.”
Don’t get too used to this rustic heaven,I feel like saying to him.We’ll be out of here in a few days, tops.
“Decent setup you have here,” I say. Silence would just show him that I’m jealous as fuck.
His house is not just unburnt, but cool as hell, and looks even more impressive on the inside than it does on the outside. The walls are finished with polished planks of wood that give it a real country feel.
“Cool,” Sonny says as he admires it with me.
“This way.” Caleb guides us into the next room with an air of sheepishness about him.
That, I can understand. He wasn’t exactly planning to welcome me back into his house.
Or life.
“I was trying to tell you earlier that I have a?—”
“Hey.” A girl’s head pokes out from around the wall of the living area.
And I swear my heart does a backflip.
He has a…?
“Ellie,” he says, introducing Sonny and me to hisdaughter.“This is Piper and her son, Sonny…” He allows a pause, clearly caught up on the play on words that I still find amusing, even today. “They’re gonna stay here temporarily, upstairs in the two spare rooms. Their house sadly burned down yesterday.”
Sonny hides the toy plane behind his back and straightens up. “Ellie,” he repeats. “The new girl.”
“Not anymore.” She pouts, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s been two months.”
“Ellie,” Caleb interrupts, softly nudging her side. “Go and say hello.”
Turns out it’s not just me who obeys Caleb whenever he gives an order.
Ellie takes off from the wall and offers me her hand. In a polite, clear voice she says, “How do you do?”
Taken aback is an understatement.
