Winter Storm (9 page)

The phone rang and David got up to get it. Susan smiled awkwardly. Everyone was polite with each other, always, but each of them would need a lot more time for this situation to feel normal. Rebecca wasn’t ready to share cookie recipes yet. It was out of habit that she strained to listen, though the conversation taking place was probably none of her business.

David came back into the living room a few minutes later, his expression irritated.

“It looks like I’m going to drive out to Autumn Leaves as well.”

Susan pressed her lips together and studied her feet.

“Craig is having a rough time.” His gaze met Rebecca’s briefly as if he expected her to criticize him. “He’s my brother. I can’t just sit by and do nothing.”

“Sure. I didn’t say anything.”

“I need to get going,” David said. “Don’t rush. By all means, finish your coffee.”

Rebecca wondered if Susan had met her possible future brother-in-law yet. She couldn’t quite muster so much sympathy for Craig Lowman herself. Granted, he was grieving, but most of the trouble he was in now, he brought on himself.

At the door, David turned.

“Rebecca, I forgot earlier, there’s someone coming to look at the house in two days. I thought you might want to come since they are going to be your neighbors.”

She hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. The thought of strangers moving into these rooms caused a twinge of sadness. Closure would probably take a little while longer.

“No problem,” she said. “I’ll be there.”

* * * *

The temperature stayed low, the air crisp and clear. Rebecca had gone to meet the owners of the restaurant to discuss her ideas while Maggie had sat in her room to do homework. Callie secretly hoped that her help wouldn’t be needed as it looked suspiciously like math.

She had spread out piles of notes on the coffee table, all regarding the earlier volumes of the
Heart Fever
series. Then there were a few stand-alone children’s stories, some ideas that never went anywhere. Asha had backed her up for most of the time, but Callie had also learned in the past year that she wasn’t fond of too many experiments.

Callie wanted something new, something that would credit all the changes in her life. She had written the first of the
Heart Fever
series six years ago and then all through her own more or less successful relationships, Asha, Nicole. If she’d made a new start, a commitment, her writing should reflect that too. Maybe it was something Maggie could help her with, not the other way around.

The doorbell rang, and she heard Maggie get up to answer. She could take some time to distract the girl from her homework and interview her. Maggie went to a weekly group called Little Book Club. With the girls growing older, most of them weren’t that little any longer, but all of them liked to read and so they had stayed together. It would be interesting to hear what this generation needed from their fictional heroes.

“Callie? There’s someone for you,” Maggie said, hesitating, as if she didn’t know if it had been okay to let the visitor in. As Callie looked up at them, she rather wished Maggie hadn’t.

“Oh no,” she said out loud. “This isn’t happening.”

“Didn’t you get my text?” Nicole asked cheerily.

“What text? No, wait. Maggie, could you go to your room for a little bit?” Callie thought it might be good to have a witness for this conversation, but she couldn’t bring herself to draw an eight-year-old child into this mess.

Maggie nodded, giving Nicole a quick sideways glance.
Good instincts.
Callie felt bad for her. Obviously, all the bad things had started with somebody new appearing out of nowhere.
Believe me, I want “stable” just as much.

When Maggie had closed the door to her room behind herself, Callie spun around to face her bold ex-girlfriend.

“What makes you think you can just come here? I said I accepted your apology, not that we would become best friends!”

“Then there is something we agree on, after all. I’m not sure I could be best friends with you. Callie—”

Callie held up her hands. “Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.”

“I was right about her, wasn’t I? Unless that little girl is yours and you’ve been keeping a secret from me all along. Not that it would be the first time.”

“I have a family now, Nicole,” Callie said, keeping her tone as cool as she possibly could. “One that doesn’t include you. I’m sorry, I don’t believe in second chances, once you’ve crossed a certain line.”

“I’m not the same person anymore! I’m better. Callie, I never stopped loving you. I want—”

“I don’t care. You leave this house right now.”

She could tell that Nicole was struggling to keep in character of her new persona. Callie was struggling too. All the distance she thought to have gained seemed to vanish in the face of this unpleasant surprise.

“I’m going,” Nicole said, “but I owe you the truth. I owe myself to try, at least, especially when I see where you are now.”

Callie didn’t take the bait, but breathed a deep sigh of relief when the front door fell shut. She got up, trying to ignore how shaky she felt and went to get Maggie for her intended interview.

Maggie showed her all the books that had been featured recently in the book club.

“Sometimes, when there are girls, they don’t get to do anything.” She frowned. “I don’t like that.”

“Yeah. I never liked that either. The boys have all the fun.” Callie almost hoped that she had forgotten about the visit, and for a moment she entertained the idea of not telling Rebecca about it. This new, reformed Nicole felt strange to her, and in a way, as disturbing as the familiar one. The night when she had made the decision to leave, Callie hadn’t spent a single thought on filing a report or a restraining order. If Nicole contacted her one more time, she’d consider it.

* * * *

Rebecca felt incredibly relieved after her meeting with the Tunisian couple who had opened their restaurant last fall. They had liked her work, didn’t require too many changes, and she had a check in her purse. Life was looking up. She didn’t look forward to the viewing of the house with David, but it had to be done at some point. Maybe they could get away with some cash even after paying David’s mother her share. There was pain in handing over something that contained so many memories. In the end, though, she always known that with the decisions she’d made, there would be consequences like this.

She took her time looking at some dresses in a window, mentally calculating how long this check would last her, and how long until the next one. When she turned, there was someone familiar coming her way. For some time, Betty had changed the sidewalk pretending not to notice Rebecca when they met in town, but it was too late for that now. She had wanted to talk after all.

“Rebecca,” she said stiffly. “I didn’t know you were back in town already.”

Rebecca had been angry at her, especially after she’d learned about the visit Betty had paid Callie last year, ranting about sin and punishment. At the moment, all she felt for her one-time friend was sympathy.

“We were just gone for a week,” she said. “I talked to Roz. Seems like a lot happened while we were gone.”

“Sure did,” Betty mumbled, looking around as if she was trying to see who witnessed her interaction.

“How are you?”

“Fine.”

“Everything all right with Charles and the kids?”

“Of course. Look…Rebecca.” Finally, Betty met her eyes. “I know we have to talk at some point. I don’t like the way things are between us now. You’ve always been a good friend.”

“Okay. You know there’s still brunch on Saturdays. You could come.”

“Are you sure about that?” Betty asked, more hopeful.

Actually, Rebecca wasn’t, but she couldn’t take back her offer now. “It would be a start.”

“I’ll think about it. Can I call you?”

“Please do. It’s going to be the usual time.”

Betty smiled ruefully. “Thank you.”

Rebecca watched her walk away, uncertain if their communication had been a successful one. In any case, she felt even more like spending a little money now.

* * * *

The emotion came out of the blue, a wave that threatened to sweep her off her feet. Callie had shared a late lunch with Maggie since Rebecca hadn’t returned from her meeting yet. Her mind had taken an abrupt trip down memory lane.

“Who is that friend of yours you don’t want me to meet?

“Are you cheating on me?

“Tell me the truth!”

It was during those last weeks that Nicole would yell at her, not caring if the neighbors overheard anything. For a long time, Callie hadn’t seen through her scheming. All she knew was that she was feeling miserable all the time. The last few weeks of their relationship, she was no longer just miserable, but scared.

“Just leave it,” she told Maggie when the girl began to put the dishes in the sink. “I’ll take care of that later.”

In the bedroom, she sat on the side of the bed. Leaning forward, Callie rested her head in her hands as she tried to clear her thoughts. How could she ever handle this? Callie had no desire to go back to Autumn Leaves’ police station. There was a whole different set of upsetting memories waiting for her there. She couldn’t have Nicole show up like this all the time. She should talk to Beverly Wilkins, the new sheriff, just in case. Wilkins had replaced Rebecca’s former brother-in-law Craig Lowman. She was a smart, sensible woman. Callie would prefer to talk to her rather than Craig for a multitude of reasons. She had no idea where to start.

Outside, the sky was starting to cloud over. More snow to come. If it wasn’t for Rebecca, Callie might have considered California an option—no winters like this, and many more miles between her and Nicole. She lay down, wondering if Nicole was honestly thinking they could start over after everything that had happened. It seemed that way, since she was putting a lot of time and effort into the attempt.

Callie needed to go clean up, the living room where she’d left all the papers, the kitchen too. She felt incapable of doing either. She just wished Rebecca would come home.

* * * *

Maybe it was normal to feel a little paranoid after somebody had broken into your house, threatening your loved ones. While putting some gas into her car, Rebecca turned around twice, unable to shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She cursed the men she knew to be responsible, checked one more time, then she went inside to pay. There was no other customer. She shivered.

Rebecca hadn’t planned to stop on the way, but she didn’t want to be stuck halfway without any gas in the tank. There weren’t a lot of people on the road as it was, only the headlights of one other car behind her. It was following her all the way to the exit that led onto the road to her home street.

She sighed a little at finding this morning’s dishes still in the sink, the coffee table covered in notes. A matter of habits, she had to remind herself. Things had worked differently when she’d lived in the house across the street. Work stayed mostly restrained to the office space. She had worked at the kitchen table sometimes, but all would be cleaned up by the time everybody was home. Keeping the home intact, in a figurative and literal sense, had been her main task, down to some minor plumbing jobs. David had never been particularly talented for or interested in these things.

Everything was different now: This was Callie’s house, and if she wanted to spread her work all over it, it was her choice. Rebecca went to Maggie’s room first.

“Hey. Homework’s all done?”

Maggie looked up from the library book she was reading.

“Of course.” Rebecca walked further into the room and sat beside her on the bed. “Everything okay otherwise?”
Are you happy?
She wanted to ask.

“Yes, why?”

It was getting so hard to figure her out, quiet Maggie with her nose always in a book. In a way, she had more in common with Callie than with anyone else in the family. Both of them spent a great deal of time in that place in the clouds.

She might not always understand them, but Rebecca couldn’t imagine her life without either of them.

“No reason. How is school?”

“We got sent home early, because of the snow.” Maggie didn’t indicate whether or not that was a good thing. She was a good student overall, but clearly preferred when she could retreat to her own world. Rebecca hugged her close while getting only minor protest in return, then let her get back to her book, something about vampires as the cover suggested.

Callie was asleep in the bedroom, fully dressed.

Rebecca unpacked her purchases and, as she removed the tags, wondered if they had been really necessary. Maybe it would have been better to just put some money in the bank. There was no way to tell when the house could be sold. There was one piece though she didn’t regret, at all.

She turned around to find Callie watching her.

“I’m sorry. This took longer than I thought it would. Maggie came home early?”