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“Do you still regret moving here?”
“Not so much. It’s better now that I’ve made friends.”
“But you still miss your family.”
She nodded against his chest. “Every day.”
He tightened his arm around her, and she nuzzled her face into his throat. When he held her like this she didn’t feel homesick at all. She felt like she was exactly where she belonged.
“I couldn’t wait to get away from my family,” Caleb said quietly. “I know this place is a dump, but the fact that it’s not on an army post and my dad is a hundred and sixty miles away makes it feel like a resort.”
Penny lifted her head and touched his cheek. “I guess that’s why you don’t have any pictures of your family.”
His jaw tightened. “I do have one, actually. I just don’t have it sitting out.” He shifted her off him and got up. She was afraid she’d upset him until he started rifling through a drawer in the desk. He pulled out another framed photo and handed it to her.
It was from Caleb’s high school graduation. He wore a serious expression with his navy blue gown and National Honor Society collar. His two younger brothers flanked him in ties, looking miserable. Caleb’s father stood a little to one side in his uniform, glowering at the camera. The only one smiling was Caleb’s mother, standing rigidly at the other end of the photo. She was small-boned and petite, with perfectly coiffed hair. None of his family were touching or standing close. They were lined up like grim little soldiers, their postures ramrod straight and their hands at their sides.
“Your dad does look a little like Colonel Kurtz,” she said.
“You said you hadn’t seen Apocalypse Now.”
“I looked it up on Wikipedia.”
Caleb took the photo from her and stared at it. His lips compressed into a taut line. “My dad’s not quiet or kind like yours.”
She slid her fingers into his hand and bit down on her lip to keep herself from asking anything more.
His fingers curled around hers. “He likes to give orders and expects everyone to follow. All that matters is what he wants. If you don’t live up to his expectations, he blows up.”
“He was abusive.” It wasn’t a question. Whether or not his father had laid a hand on him, it was clear Caleb had been left with deep scars.
There was a long silence, during which the only sound was his uneven breathing. She stroked her thumb over his knuckles, trying to soothe some of the tension away.
“Yes,” he said finally. He shook his head like he was trying to shake off the memories. “It could have been worse though. Lots of people have it worse.”
Very gently, Penny took the photo from him and studied it more closely. “You don’t look anything like your father.”
Caleb grimaced. “That’s not what my mother says.”
“You look more like a young Zac Efron in this photo. And Zac Efron could never play Colonel Kurtz. He’s got much too sweet of a face.”
She was rewarded with a faint smile. “Is that your roundabout way of trying to compliment me?”
“It’s not roundabout. Zac Efron is an international heartthrob.”
“Is that an official title? Is there some sort of nomination process or a panel of judges that bestow international heartthrob status?”
She leaned forward and gave him a slow, lingering kiss. His hands came up to cup her face, holding her gingerly. Like she might shatter if he held on too tightly.
Orange afternoon light slanted in through the blinds, picking up the highlights in Caleb’s hair and bathing his skin in a golden glow. He was so beautiful she couldn’t believe he was real.
He was a hero from a Greek myth come to life and somehow she had made him hers—but only for a little while. Their story wasn’t a fairy tale, or even one of Shakespeare’s comedies where the couple winds up together in the end. They were a tragedy. Maybe not as tragic as Hamlet, where everybody dies, or Oedipus, who kicked off a whole cycle of misery and disaster. But they were tragic enough.
Penny knew, as certainly as she knew the sun would set in the west, that she was going to be shattered when Caleb left. And she had no one to blame but herself.
Chapter Twenty
They didn’t go back to Caleb’s house anymore by mutual agreement. Now that Penny had seen it for herself, she could understand why he preferred to spend his time at her apartment.
