“Yes, please.”
Serenity smiles. “Adorable and polite. Very nice. What can I get you all to drink?”
“Do you have faffle fries?” Amelia blurts then points to Carter. “He said you have faffle fries like Chick-fil-A.”
“Absolutely,” she says without hesitation. “Our chef can make anything. Including faffle fries. Now what would you like to drink, little lady?”
After Serenity leaves to fetch our drinks, I’m introduced to a few restaurant patrons as they pass our table on the way out. Someone calls to Carter from across the room, but Carter waves him off, looking annoyed. A much older lady leans over the booth behind Carter and Amelia and studies me before sinking back down behind the booth wall.
I lean in and whisper. “Do you know everyone here?”
He glances around. “Pretty much.”
I shake my head. This is all so strange. I grew up in the city. A city of eight million people. A place where days would go by without seeing a single person you know, even when you’re out and about. Even when entering your own apartment building.
I worry that this isn’t a good thing for Amelia and me. If everyone knows everyone else, it might not take long for word to get around that a new woman and her red-headed child are lurking about. Looking around the place, I study the faces of those studying me and hope it won’t become an issue.
Drinks are placed in front of us and we place our orders. Serenity gives Amelia a full box of brand-new crayons and a thick coloring book of Disney princesses.
Amelia’s eyes go wide and I’m delighted when her manners make another appearance and she thanks Serenity profusely.
I watch Serenity walk back to the bar and get kissed by the bartender.Calloway. Her name belatedly sparks recognition. “Is Serenity one of the Calloways of Calloway Creek?”
“Yes and no. That’s her husband Cooper Calloway behind the bar. His ancestors and my ancestors got in a fight over the town after the founder of the town, Lloyd McQuaid lost a bet to his friend Samuel Calloway and the town was renamed from McQuaid Plat to Calloway Creek. My family, being more closelyrelated to the McQuaids, have always sided with them. Other prominent families in town, like the Montanas and Ashfords, side with the Calloways. The feud goes back to the mid eighteen hundreds.” He laughs. “The funny thing is, we’re all related to each other in one way or another.” He points to the guy behind the bar. “Cooper is my fourth cousin.”
Wow. Small towns are so different. And kind of interesting in a morbidly curious kind of way.
Amelia’s eyes go wide when she opens the coloring book. “Mommy, look. Ariel!” She looks at Carter. “Mister, do you like princesses?”
“Who doesn’t like princesses?”
She situates the book between them and hands him a crayon. I’m amused when he starts coloring in a starfish.
He glances up at me as he colors. “So, you went to NYU?”
I touch my sweatshirt and nod. “For three years. Until…” I nod to my daughter and shrug.
“What did you study?”
“I was a science major. Emphasis on evolutionary science.”
His eyes narrow. “That’s rather specific.”
“Yeah, well, when you grow up in an ultra-conservative household and your dad is a pastor, you start to question things. And maybe I was suffering from a bit of teenage rebellion and did it just to piss off my father. Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have done something more practical. Like business.”
“Your dad is a pastor?”
I laugh. Maybe a little too maniacally. “Oh, my dad isn’t just a pastor. No, no, no. My father is… Well, did you ever see the movieFootloose?”
“Sure. It’s an 80’s cult classic.” He cocks his head in realization. “Surely it’s not that bad.”
“It’s worse.”
“No dancing?”
“No dancing. No skirts above the knee or tops below the collarbone. No dating boys unless he had fully vetted them. He didn’t allow me to have a smartphone. He didn’t even want me to go to college. Instead, I was supposed to find a ‘nice man like him’ to settle down with.”
He’s silent for a beat, hesitating before he says quietly, “Are you”—he glances at Amelia and lowers his voice—“scared of him?”
