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There, lounging around in lawn chairs on the small deck above the garage, is my brother Finn, my cousin Sully, and a man I haven’t seen since high school.
“Callie! You remember my friend, West,” says Finn.
Most of my days are kind of gray. I don’t mean the actual color; I see color just fine. But aside from the dogs and my newfound appreciation for vegan baked goods, everything else seems… kind of distant. Like I’m somehow underwater and the rest of the world is going on close by but just a little too far away. It’s been that way since my parents died, and I’ve learned to live with it. I tried to talk about it a couple of times with friends from school, or the guys I dated. They looked at me like I’d grown a third eye or something. Somebody suggested therapy, but I’d just laughed it off.
I stopped laughing a while ago. Better just to stay busy.
I haven’t left our farm in six months. There’s a tiny ticker in my head, keeping track of the days, weeks, months, since the last time I so much as walked along the main road that runs along the front of our property, half a mile up the driveway.
After our parents died, I had a hard time getting outside myself. We had a court-ordered grief counselor for a while. Finn and Sully and I all finished school at least. Finn didn’t get to go away to college like he wanted, but we both completed our degrees at the community college here in town. We’d been treading water ever since with the kennel, but we took care of it and each other, with Sully fading in and out. He’s another constant in our lives, never too far away.
My life might be a bit gray, but it’s not bleak.
After the relentless gray fog of the last few days, weeks, months, Weston Thorpe shows up in a flash of technicolor; a living, breathing pyrotechnic display going off right here on the roof of my garage.
“Hey Callie,” he says, smiling as he stands up, bending to kiss me on the cheek. “Long time no see.”
My skin bursts into flame when his lips connect with my skin. Every sweaty, steaming, hormone-drenched teenage fantasy I ever had about him flits through my mind. Hopefully, not across my face.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
“West,” I say. Finn’s busy digging beer out of the cooler, but Sully’s watching me with a small grin on his face. Sully had been my confidant when I couldn’t bear to keep my feelings to myself; he knew how bad my crush was back in high school. From the look on his face, he hasn’t forgotten a thing.
“You look good, sugar,” says West, drawling it out.
“You too,” I say. I turn away and clear my throat, ignoring the sugar, trying desperately to keep my cool. “Didn’t mean to interrupt your little bro-bash, but I need to talk to you, Finnegan.”
My brother groans. “If it’s kennel business, can it wait? We’re clear through the weekend, I thought.”
“We are,” I say. “And it can wait, but not long. We need to talk about hiring somebody to help Lucy. Her classes are starting back up in just a few weeks.”
“I know.” Finn tosses me a can, still slick from the ice. I manage to keep it from slipping to the ground. Beer’s not my favorite, but it’ll keep my hands busy. West is watching me and for the love of all that’s holy, I can’t figure out why. Do I have dog slobber on my shirt again? I swear, I’d checked it right before I locked up for the night.
Finn props his feet up on the cooler and points at the chair behind me, so I take a seat facing them all and try my best to pretend this isn’t the most socializing I’ve done in nearly a year.
“Tell you what, Cal,” he says. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“I’m listening.”
“We both know there’s a good chance Lucy’ll take on too much this year and she’ll have to cut back her hours to keep up,” he says. It’s true—Lucy’s a hard worker but every semester so far has played out this way.
“A second part-timer would help with that,” I say, feeling West’s eyes on me with every word. Why is he looking at me? People do that, right? Looking at other people is normal, Callie.
Good God. That man makes it impossible to think. I should not be having such a reaction to him, not after all these years. We barely knew each other back in high school, though he and Finn were inseparable for a while. I know nothing about his life now, apart from the few times Finn’s mentioned him.
Although, come to think of it, Finn said something just a few weeks ago about West’s grandfather. Something about their family business? I’ll have to ask Finn later.
“We can’t afford another part-timer, and you know it,” says Finn, leaning forward to meet my eyes. “You need to get back into town, get talking with the BBB and the SBA. There were people around to help you brainstorm this stuff when you got it all started, right?” I start to agree, but he keeps talking and drops a conversational bomb in my lap. “You haven’t been in town in six months.”
That’s the damnedest thing about having a twin. There are no secrets. Even so, I didn’t realize he suspected something was up. It’s not like we talk about it.
Finn doesn’t give me away altogether. Sully doesn’t realize I haven’t set foot off the property in that long. And West certainly doesn’t need to hear about it.
“You said something about a deal?” I ask, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice and not quite succeeding.
“Yeah,” says Finn, kicking back in his chair. “You come with me to the wedding next week, and I’ll help you figure out a way to get your second employee.”
“What wedding?” I ask, nonplussed.
