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“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Of course you’d try to make it work.”
“I did try. I tried my damnedest, but she wanted out. She wanted her next adventure.” Didn’t matter that she had a kid. She couldn’t handle motherhood.”
As Callie listens to my story, her face takes on a pained expression. Again, I wonder if it’s empathy for me or identification with the call of adventure.
I don’t ask maybe because I don’t want to know.
“Some people are just built like that. There’s always something else out there to chase. It’s not even about finding it. It’s about the constant hopefulness about what might be there,” she says.
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“I do have a renegade gene. I’ve had…quite a few jobs, a lot of boyfriends. Nothing pans out, probably by design. When things feel too stable and predictable, I start to suffocate. Then I bolt. Probably not my best feature, but why fight the tide, right?”
She smiles, but there’s sadness behind the attempted brightness. Like maybe a part of her wishes she were different.
“At least you don’t pretend to be different,” I say, hearing her loud and clear. My little fake couple proposal is temporarily interesting to her, but she’ll move on once the custody hearing is over. All the more reason for me to keep Scout’s emotions safe, make sure he doesn’t get too attached to her.
“So what now?” she asks. “Do you think Elizabeth can convince the judge she’s different? After her track record of being a lousy parent, I can’t imagine why anyone would even consider letting her raise Scout.”
“She says she’s reformed and deeply regretful of her decisions. Wants to offer Scout the best private school education, and all the sports coaches and music lessons money can buy. Plus her whole family is in LA. Grandparents and cousins for Scout to get to know. I work twelve-hour days and feed him junk food for dinner sometimes.”
She holds up a hand. “Hey, nothing wrong with the occasional junk food item. Some of my favorite things are orange and come in a box. Cheez-Its, Goldfish crackers, mac ’n cheese…”
“Noted. Anyhow, my entire ranch is worth a couple of her diamond bracelets, and she wants to be a stay-at-home mom. I can’t compete with that. At least I couldn’t until you showed up.”
Callie scowls. “That’s some kind of bullshit. She left, and you stayed. Now I’m even more determined for you to win the case. When you know something’s right, you fight for it with everything you have.” Callie takes out her phone and makes a silly face next to me with her tongue out. Snap, goes her phone camera.
She squeezes my cheek and grins. Snap.
She reaches for my hand and interlaces our fingers, then zooms in on only our hands. Snap.
“How long have we been this adorable couple? Six months? A year?”
I’m so caught off guard by her fake gestures and her ease with all of it that I sit there like a lump and don’t say a word.
“Um, maybe nine months?” My words sound choked.
“Nine it is. Should I just hang in your truck with my arm draped outside the passenger window like I’ve been here all along? Like a mirage?”
Something between a grunt and a groan escapes, earning me a smirk from Callie.
“Okay, not that,” she concludes, folding her hands on the counter. “Do you want to take me to the town square dancing night as your date?”
“That’s not a thing.”
“What, the dancing or you having a date?”
“Neither.” I shift on my stool, uncomfortable with the whole conversation. The idea of intentionally conjuring up public appearances is more agonizing than going to court. I consider calling the whole thing off.
“Why not? You don’t date?”
“Nope.”
She nods. “I get it. I was watching my sister with her daughter, and it’s clear how the working parent thing is no joke.”
