She thinks over my words for a bit. “I don’t either. Pierce has always been…intense. I remember one time he yelled at me when we were kids because I was playing behind one of the barrels. By his reaction, you would have thought I had committed some treasonous crime.”
“That tracks. He’s pissed at me right now because I’m leaving work at the time I’m supposed to instead of staying late.” I take a drink of my hot chocolate. It seemed like a great drink for this evening. I never really kept any in the house until now. I know she liked it when we were kids. And Lexi mentioned it one night during the ice storm. “It’s kind of annoying. The only people he comes down hard on are me and Piper. It’s like he doesn’t care what anyone else does as long as he can keep his thumb on us.”
“That sounds about right. I see not much has changed with him since our younger years.” She snuggles closer into my side as we watch TV. I don’t know what we’re watching, but it’s basically background noise at this point. “Any other exciting news at Starlit Fields?”
“Other than my dad retiring? Not really.” I shrug. It’s still business as usual in regards to everything else. “I know we’ll need to hire more people soon for the weekend crowd. Most of us can handle the few hours we’re open during the week, but the weekends are busier than they’ve ever been, thanks to Piper.”
“That’s good. Who knows maybe I’ll apply. The extra cash couldn’t hurt.” She laughs as soon as she says so I know she’s not serious.
“Believe me, you do not want to work under Pierce. I feel sorry for whoever we hire. Thankfully, they’ll spend most of their time with Piper unless she has a tasting event. Then they’ll report directly to Pierce.”
“Yeah, no thanks. I love your siblings. Well, most of them. But I would butt heads with your big brother, so much.”
“You’re not the only one.”
Callie pulls a blanket off the back of the couch and pulls it over the both of us. “I need to figure out what time the bus runs out here. As much as I appreciate Eric and his partner, I can’t rely on them to get Lexi home every day.”
“Has she ever ridden a bus?”
“For school trips.” She shrugs her shoulders. “But it’s not like she’s five. She’ll figure it out.”
“What time does she get out of school?”
“Almost four, I think.” She shakes her head. “I really need to get on the ball with getting her a license.”
“Lexi,” I call. I don’t know if she can hear me because she probably has her headphones on. I’m moving the blanket when the door down the hall opens, and she hurries down the hall.
“Yeah?” Why does she look guilty? It’s not my job to parent her. I’m sure if anything’s amiss Callie will call her out on it.
“Do you want to ride the bus after school?” The face she gives in response is the only answer I need. “I’ll pick her up, then.”
“You don’t need to leave work early to pick her up.” Callie argues.
“I won’t be. I get off around three.”
“What?” Callie shrieks. “Miles told me you work late all the time.”
“By choice, not because I have to. It’s not like I had anything better to do. Miles is always busy at the ranch and I didn’t have anyone waiting at home with me.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Lexi gives me a thumbs up and walks backward to her room without making a noise. I guess she thinks we have it from here.
“And what about when we can go back home? Will you still work late?” She’s waiting to see what I say, as if the answer is very important.
“No. Just because you’re not at home doesn’t mean I won’t hurry to see you and Lexi.” She doesn’t realize how important she’s become to me. How important both of them are. “I told you, I’m all in. Last night wasn’t a fluke.”
Callie breathes a sigh of relief and leans her head against the couch. “Okay.”
I turn toward her and cup her face with one hand. “What the hell happened in your marriage that you even have to ask that?”
She doesn’t have to tell me, I know that. But I hope like hell she opens up. I can’t reassure her if I don’t know what the core problem is.
“He cheated…a lot.” She takes a deep breath. “Everything was fine-ish in the beginning. Even after we had Lexi. Then he’d start working late and not even come home sometimes. I put up with it for a lot longer than I should have. But Conrad, and his family, made it clear I couldn’t raise a child on my own. That I couldn’t make it without them. I was young and hopeful he would change every time he said he would.”
“But he didn’t.” I don’t phrase as a question because it’s not. I can tell by the pain that his behavior continued.
“I changed so much about myself to make him want me. To come home to me instead of someone else, but it was useless. He was going to keep cheating and I either had to deal with it or leave. It took everything in Miles not to beat the crap out of him when he’d visit. But I wanted to keep the peace. For the past year Miles came up at least once a month to help me with lawyers and find a house down here. I needed to be with family. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Now all of Miles’s trips out of town make sense. I thought Colton was sending him places on ranch business. The whole time he was helping his sister get out of a shitty situation.
