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“Everything okay?”
She held the phone in my direction. “Word travels fast around here. Again.”
CAL
A dog too? What the hell is going on with you, Nora?
“I don’t think I’m Cal’s favorite sister right now,” she said, a wan smile on her face.
“Anything I can do?” I asked.
I knew marrying Nora risked pissing off her brother. Hell, how could it not? The man hated me for decades, but I’d thought he loved his sister more than he hated me.
I’d been wrong.
“I’m not sure you can.”
I took a deep breath. I had two days before I left, and I planned to spend every moment I could with Nora, but just this once, I acknowledged that she’d be better off if I didn’t.
I should have made things right with Cal earlier. Len might have been the grumpy one, but at least he begrudgingly accepted Nora’s choice to marry me. Cal had barely acknowledged my existence and, if I had to guess, Nora had taken the brunt of Cal’s annoyance. I owed it to her to make things as close to normal as I could before I left town.
“Let’s eat and I’ll drop you off at home. I want to go have a talk with Cal.”
She grimaced. “That doesn’t sound like a good idea. Why don’t I come with you?”
I shook my head. “If he wants to swing at me, he won’t if you’re around. It’s bothering you that he’s unhappy. Unfortunately for my face, I think he’ll be more amenable getting over our marriage if I go see him alone.”
“You want to risk flying to Las Vegas with a black eye?”
“I’ll blame it on an overzealous slot jockey. It’ll be fine,” I joked.
Besides, Cal probably wouldn’t hit me in the face. He’d go for the stomach. I wouldn’t tell Nora that, though.
“Well, at least let me tag along to Bob’s. If you show up with some beer, that might distract him enough not to hit you immediately. You could try to charm him first.”
“Like I charmed Gloria?”
Nora laughed, and I shook off residual nerves while eating a surprisingly good cheeseburger. By the time we finished dinner, the sky had grown dark and the weather chilly, so I hurried Nora and Trashcan home before aiming my car toward Cal’s house.
I drove past the cast iron pig that adorned the entrance and pulled into a parking space, setting my eyes on the second floor, where Cal lived above his car garage. Blue light flickered in the windows. He was home. Where else would he be? His girlfriend lived in Virginia, his shop had enough business to require a second mechanic, and he still worked late.
Taking a deep breath, I gripped the growler in the passenger seat and pushed myself out of the car. I took the stairs to his apartment two at a time and paused at the door, reminding myself why I had given up a night with Nora. With a deep breath, I knocked.
Cal wrenched open the door and assessed me with a look of disgust, his meaty hand clenching on the door, threatening to shut it in my face. “What the hell are you doing here?”
I held up the growler. “A peace offering. Stephanie said she just tapped this today. It’s a high-gravity stout. She thought you’d love it.”
He frowned, his fingers unclenching as he stood aside. “Fine.”
I walked into the apartment, admiring the granite countertop and crown molding covering the walls. “You’ve spruced the place up.”
“How would you know?” Cal growled, stalking past me to the freezer, where he retrieved one ice cold glass and then the cabinet for a second, room temperature glass. Mine, no doubt.
“I looked at this place when before it came on the market.”
“You wanted to start a gym in Franklin Notch?”
I shrugged. “I knew the couple that lived here. They thought I might be interested in the property.”
