“How many do you have to put up?”
“Just two. The others won’t be here for a few days, sadly.” He had tried to buy them in town, but no one had them in stock, so he’d had to order them.
“It’s oka—” His phone ringing cut off my voice. I froze like I had every time his phone rang the last few days. Different officers from the department had been calling daily with updates on if they’d found anything.
“Don’t worry. It’s not work, but please don’t be mad at me.”
I gave him a confused look and tried to figure out why he would be making that request.
He answered the call. “This is Caleb. Yup. Yeah, can you hold on a few minutes?” When he looked at me, I saw a flash of nerves cross his face. He hit the mute button on the phone and walked to the porch swing. “I have a surprise for you.”
I walked over to the swing and sat next to him. “Who is on the phone?” I asked nervously.
“You were sleeping yesterday, and I had a thought, so I looked at your phone to see if I was right.”
I didn’t care if he looked through my phone, so why did he look so nervous? He seemed genuinely worried that I would be upset with him.
“Did you know you had a spam call and text section on your phone?” He reached for my hand and I linked my fingers with his.
I shook my head.
“I found a text from Cierra. She had texted you a few times per month.” My jaw dropped. “Rae, the last time she texted you was a week ago. Ethan sent all her texts and calls to the spam inbox.”
I was facing Caleb, but I was not looking at him anymore. I was shocked. Shehadcontinued reaching out even after I wasn’t allowed to talk to her?
“Is that...?” I pointed towards his phone which sat behind him. Excitement and nerves swirled in my mind. Caleb nodded. “Really?”I asked, trying to wrap my brain around what he’d just told me.
“I know you said you would like to try and reach out to her if I was involved, so I hope it’s okay that I called her when I saw the text.”
I was smiling so much my cheeks hurt and I quickly wrapped my arms around him. “You just did the sweetest thing for me, so of course it’s okay!”
“She’s been waiting for a few minutes, though. Do you want to talk to her now, or should I tell her you’ll call her later?”
“Now, please, but only if you stay with me.” I twisted my hands nervously as Caleb reached for the phone. He noticed and held one of my hands as he took the call off mute.
“Cierra? Hey, it’s Caleb...”
It was amazing hearingone of my best friend’s voices again, especially since I never thought I would hear from her again. The conversation consisted mostly of her telling me about her kids and all they are doing now. I could tell we were getting close to talking about my life recently, though, and nerves were bubbling to the surface.
“So, Rae, tell me...is thattheCaleb from high school?” I could hear the smile on her face as she asked me that.
Caleb had been holding my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze as his eyebrows raised a bit. I giggled at the look he gave me. “Yup. He’sthatCaleb. I wish you could meet him, Cierra.”
“I feel like I know him already...” There was a long pause, but I could tell she wanted to say something. “I will say, though, when I got a call from your number and a guy was on the other end, it made me curious... Listen, Rae. You do not have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. Obviously, something happened, and I have a feeling that it was far from good. I only think that because it was unlike you to not answer when I reached out, and the conversations I had with Ethan were...interesting.”
Caleb sat up straighter than he had been.
Cierra continued. “If you want to tell me anything, you can, but either way, there are no hard feelings.” She let out a deep breath before continuing. “All I want to know is...are you safe and happy?”
I looked at Caleb and smiled before scooting closer to him and leaning my head on his shoulder. “Thank you, Cierra. I am safe now, and I’m happy. I’m happier now than I have been in a long time.”
Caleb pulled me close to him but still seemed restless. I knew it was about her bringing up Ethan. I glanced up at him, and he motioned to the phone and then back to himself, mouthing the words “Can I talk to her?”
“Cierra, can Caleb ask you something really quick? It’s about what you said, about Ethan.”
She agreed.
Caleb’s face turned serious. “Hey, Cierra. When you said the conversations were interesting, what did you mean by that? I’m not only Rae’s boyfriend, but I’m also a cop. I have seen and heard a lot of things in my career, suspects using people close to their victims, stuff like that. And I was just curious about what he said to you.”
