She picked up the phone again, thumb hovering. Her pulse thudded in her ears.
You dismissed him. You didn’t even look at him.
With a sigh, she set the phone back down. Whatever she had to say deserved more than a rushed voicemail. And if, when she could finally apologize, he didn’t accept it—well, that’d be on her.
She swallowed hard.
When Caleb returned, she’d fix this.
She’d make time and stop pretending she didn’t care.
And she hoped that it wasn’t already too late.
CHAPTER 20
Sunday came and went.
No Caleb.
By Monday morning, the silence felt heavier.
She called him anyway, even though part of her already knew the answer. Straight to voicemail. Then again, midafternoon.
Busy, she told herself. Another job. Or Brotherhood stuff. There had to be a reasonable explanation.
But the guilt and self-doubt pressed in. The barn felt too quiet. No workers’ voices, no Roy stomping around, her thoughts loud enough to fill the space anyhow. The way she brushed him off. The look on his face when she hadn’t even tried to meet his eyes.
She kept moving, kept working, kept pretending it didn’t matter.
But it did.
Tuesday morning found Mia exhausted,the memory of brushing Caleb off lingering more heavily than it should have.The sun hovered just above the treetops, with a light breeze moving the branches. Birds chirped. It should have felt peaceful.
It didn’t.
She hadn’t slept the previous night, worried about Caleb. Hoping he wasn’t hurt. Or angry. Or worse, Caleb deciding she wasn’t worth the effort. Praying he wasn’t blowing her off. She kept circling back to the same hope that at least she’d get a chance to apologize.
No matter. She had a catering job coming up and food to make. At least one part of her life was moving forward.
Snapping at someone wasn’t her. Dismissing them even less. She believed in common courtesy, in showing up, in owning mistakes. So why had she done that to Caleb?
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sank into a chair at the small table in the kitchen barn. The mug felt warm against her hands.
Her dad asked her at breakfast if something was wrong. Mia had brushed it off with a smile and a shake of her head. It was nothing, she told him. Just tired.
There was no reason to worry him.
A timer dinged, and Mia sighed. No more feeling sorry for herself. She had work to do.
She was just pulling out a tray of parbaked rolls when a truck rumbled down the drive. Slowed. Stopped. A dog barked.
Her heart kicked.
Could it be? She crossed to the window and spotted Ranger leaping out of the cab, his tail going a mile a minute. Caleb rounded the truck and headed straight for the barn.
She didn’t wait.
Mia pushed the door just as Ranger barreled toward her. Mia dropped to a crouch, laughing as she scratched his ears.
