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“That didn’t have anything to do with the fire or the vines.”
“Correct.” He picks up his burger and takes another bite.
He is dealing with something, and he isn’t ready to tell me about it. Okay, I can deal with that. I know him. This is Isolated Dale—the term I use when he gets like this.
“I’ll accept that,” I tell him, “until the time comes that I need to know. Got it?”
He finishes chewing and meets my gaze. “Understood.”
Chapter Sixteen
Callie
My little sister, Maddie, hitched a ride home from the city with Gina Steel, Ava’s sister. They both go to Mesa State College in Grand Junction. The Steels always come home for the big parties if they can. Brianna Steel, Donny’s sister, and Angie and Sage Simpson, Marjorie’s twin daughters, also go to undergrad at Mesa. They drove home separately.
So all the Steels, save Diana, Donny’s other sister, who works at an architecture firm in Denver, will be in attendance at the welcome-back-Donny shindig. She must have plans she couldn’t break, or she couldn’t get off work in time to drive or catch a flight. It’s a five-hour drive from Denver.
“Let’s go!” Maddie urges.
“Don’t you know about being fashionably late?” I say.
“I’m starving, and they’ll have tons of food. Plus…”
“What?”
“Steel guys, Cal. Come on.”
One Steel guy in particular has my attention. “Oh? Aren’t they all too old for you?”
“A gal can dream.”
“Spill it, Mads. Which one do you have your eye on?”
“Not Donny, sis. Don’t worry.”
“Yeah, well, he’s definitely too old for you. Which one?”
“Does it matter? As long as it’s not the one you want?”
“I don’t—”
“Spare me, please. I saw how you made googly eyes at him at the last Steel party. Plus, Rory already filled me in.”
“This isn’t you answering my question. Which one?”
“Honestly? I’m not sure. Henry and Brad are both gorgeous, but they’re taken.”
“For now,” I say.
“Oh? Do you have intel I don’t?”
“Not really. There’s a certain blond waitress who I think will be following Henry’s every move tonight.”
“Who?”
“Nora something or other. She’s new in town.”
“Brock, then.”
“Brock Steel? Eminent seducer of women? I don’t think so. Not with my sister, he doesn’t.”
“Your sister is twenty-one. Way past legal. And Brock is sex on a stick. So is Dave.”
She isn’t wrong. All the Steels are gorgeous. Even Talon and his siblings still look amazing at their ages. Marjorie is Jade’s age, and she doesn’t look much older than Rory.
Mom sticks her head in my bedroom. “We’re heading over. Want to come along?”
Maddie jumps off my bed. “Absolutely.”
“Thanks,” I say, “but I’ll go over later with Rory.”
“Rory’s gone,” Mom says. “She went over early to help Jesse set up.”
Thanks for telling me, Ror.
I sigh. “Okay. Give me two seconds.”
I head into my bathroom to check things out. I don’t wear makeup as a rule. My skin is clear—now, anyway—and I was blessed with naturally long eyelashes. Tonight, though, I swipe on some blush and apply a dark-pink lip gloss. My hair is pulled back in my signature low ponytail, but I wonder…
I tug the scrunchie off and let my hair fall over my shoulders. It’s light brown and sleek, and it falls nearly to my butt.
Dare I?
“Let’s go!” Maddie prods.
That settles it, then. Hair down it is.
“Coming.” I head out of my bedroom and outside to my parents’ car.
I’ve been here for an hour, and I haven’t even seen Donny yet. I’m hanging with Maddie, who’s gossiping with Angie, Sage, and Gina. Brianna, the last of their fivesome, is busy flirting with my brother and the rest of his band members. Never took her for a groupie.
They’re gossiping about classes and professors and guys, oh my. I’m surprised Maddie hasn’t latched on to a Steel guy yet, but she seems happy hanging with her friends for now.
I answer when they speak to me, but I’m otherwise engaged with scoping out the place. Where’s Donny? For that matter, I haven’t seen Dale and Ashley yet, either.
But Donny should be here. This party is for him.
Jade approaches us then, looking gorgeous as usual, in a crimson maxi dress. “Did you girls get drinks yet?”
“We’re good, Aunt Jade,” Sage says.
“How about you, Callie? I don’t see a drink in your hand.”
“I’ll get something. I’m more of a soda than alcohol person.”
“Nothing wrong with that. There’s a huge selection over in the cooler on the deck. Can I get you something?”
“I’ll get it myself.” I nod to the others. “Back in a minute.”
Jade walks with me to the deck.
“Where’s Donny?” It’s okay to ask, I tell myself. After all, this party is for him.
“He and his brother are inside with their father,” she says. “You should go in and rout them out.”
I open the giant cooler and choose a Diet Coke. “That’s not my place.”
“Nonsense,” Jade says. “You have my blessing. The three of them will stay in there all night talking business if someone doesn’t force them out.”
