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He used to walk me to school every day, even though his was in the opposite direction. Once, he’d come to my school to ream out the principal for not having control over his students after I came home covered in mud from Jeremy Walter who had pushed me down in the playground. Ethan had only been thirteen, but he was fearless. Probably what made him such a great hockey player.
“Say hi to Mr. Pitt for me,” Addie said as she made her way toward me.
“Of course, dear.” Mrs. Pitt went back to folding her clothes as she chirped some kind of melody.
Addie hopped up on the counter beside my laundry bag, a good old trusty black garbage bag.
“Shit disturber,” I whispered.
She laughed. “He deserves it after making me deal with Harry Hamilton this morning. Harry spelt H.A.I. R.Y. He was lucky I hadn’t had breakfast, or I’d have puked all over him. When you have that much hair, you need to shave and shower religiously. He does neither.”
I had no idea who Harry Hamilton was.
“Besides, Heidi is hot.”
“So why wouldn’t Jaeg date her, then?”
“Jaeg doesn’t date. He doesn’t even like the word. I mention dating, and he actually winces. He needs a girl who doesn’t care if he calls, ’cause he won’t.” She glanced over at Mrs. Pitt, who was now humming what sounded like “Amazing Grace.” “And Heidi is…. How do I say this nicely? Yeah, I can’t. She’s a bitch. She deserves to get her hopes up, then crushed.”
Okay, obviously there was history there.
The washer buzzed and I opened the door. “Has he ever had a girlfriend?” My treacherous mind went right to Vic. Had he had a girlfriend? Did he have one now? He had a house here, but he hadn’t been here in five years, so there was a good chance he had a house somewhere else. God, maybe he was married?
And maybe you should stop thinking about him, Macayla.
But I couldn’t. I still felt unhinged after the Vic encounter this morning. It was more of a sighting, like if you spotted a rare, exquisite Madagascar fish eagle.
Vic did something to me. And it wasn’t a calm, sweet fluttering. This was an eagle-diving, fire-breathing-dragon fluttering that caused all kinds of chaos inside me.
I didn’t like it. It was dangerous getting distracted by an ex-Special Forces commando type who didn’t want Jackson or me anywhere near him.
And yet, I couldn’t get it out of my head that he’d come running when Jackson screamed. Or the flicker of concern in his cold, hard eyes as he stared at him cowering on the floor. Or maybe I’d imagined it was concern? Maybe it was annoyance?
It didn’t matter. None of it did. We were moving, and when we did, I’d never see him again.
“No,” Addie replied. “At least not that I know of.” She swung her legs back and forth like a pendulum while gripping the edge of the counter. “Enough about Jaeg. What’s the scoop with Callum James? Did he really offer you his guesthouse? I bet there’s a chandelier in the bathroom and gold-plated taps.”
I stopped dragging clothes from the washer and straightened. “You’ve never been there?”
She shook her head. “No. I was only an annoying little sister when he hung out with Jaeg and the others. And he went to boarding school, so he was only around on weekends. Once he graduated high school, his dad took him back to the city to help with the family business.”
“But he still has a farm here?”
She nodded. “I wouldn’t call it much of a farm. More of an estate. The James’ are stinking rich, and his father was big into racehorses. But I don’t think he has racehorses now. I saw a trailer pull in there a few months ago with two horses poking their heads out the windows, but it sure didn’t look like they were worth anything. More like they’d been pulled off the meat truck. Don’t know what happened to them.”
When I’d met Callum at the bar, there’d been a faint whiff of horses on him, so I guessed he either still had them or was involved with horses.
I dumped the rest of the wet clothes into the dryer and shut the door. “Where’s his father now?” I picked up two coins from the counter and plopped them in the slot before pressing the big green button. The wet clothes clambered over each other as they tumbled in the drum.
“Not sure. God, I’ve been dying to see that place for years, but it’s a bloody fortress.”
I’d been uneasy about taking Callum up on his offer because he didn’t seem the type to do something out of the goodness of his heart. But then, I was basing that off of what, exactly? Meeting him once. I hadn’t heard a single rumor circulating about him, and I’d Googled him before I took the job. But Callum James was a ghost. I couldn’t even find his name under the ownership of Zero Crow. But then, I was no expert on digging through the dark web of the Internet and finding those who didn’t want to be found. The question was why wouldn’t he want to be found?
The bell above the front door dinged, and an elderly woman with a cane struggled to get through the door with her laundry cart.
“Mrs. Franklin, wait.” Addie hopped off the washer and ran over to help her. “Here. Let me.” She held the door open with one hand while moving the elderly lady’s laundry cart inside so she could come in.
“Oh, honey. That’s so sweet of you.”
