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My eyes narrow. “What are you talking about?”
She looks away, not answering.
“Callie, talk to me. Now.” My heart races. We’ve come too far for this, and we won’t let this town break us apart again.
“My family destroys everything that I love and hold near and dear to me. I can’t put you all at risk anymore. Maybe we should slow it down.” I know she doesn’t mean this. She won’t even look at me.
“No,” I clip.
“Who is going to get hurt next?” She tries to reason, but her voice holds no conviction. She’s wavering.
“No one.” I cross my arms and stare at her. I’m not accepting this.
She shakes her head, still unable to look at me.
“What do you want, Callie?” I question, trying to get her to look at me.
She gazes off into the yard and whispers, “I want you to go.”
I stare at her. This is not the Callie I’ve spent every moment with in the past few weeks. She’s scared. She’s cutting me off before something happens to us again. Her words are coming from a place of hurt. “What do you want, Callie?” I ask again, one more time.
She looks at me, tears in her eyes, and I can feel it. She doesn’t want this. She’s had a lot happen in the past week. More than most people could handle. And she’s scared.
“Okay, Callie,” I whisper. Placing the flowers down on the chair, I turn and walk back to her cottage. I open the door, and she follows me.
“What are you doing?” she asks, confused.
“I’m packing your shit. You’re coming home.” I start opening the closets, looking for a bag.
Pushing by Callie, Goldie opens the hall closet and rolls a suitcase over to me. “Thanks,” I say cheerfully, unzipping it and setting it on the bed.
“Goldie!” she huffs.
Goldie shrugs. “Just helping.”
“You’re not helping.” Callie sighs, but I can see hope in her eyes for the first time. She wants to come home. Sheneedsto be home. And home is with me.
Goldie helps me stuff clothes into the suitcase. “You’re evicted, honey. You better go with him.” She winks.
Callie has her arms folded over her chest, watching us. “You’re not going to stop, are you?”
“Nope,” I say as I grab an empty shopping bag on the counter. I head into her bathroom and begin dumping what’s left of her hygiene products in it. I know she has stuff at my house, too. But we’ll just make this move official and bring as much as we can.
“Fine, stop. I’ll go. You two are ridiculous, you know that?” she says, exasperated.
Goldie grins at me and pats my back as she turns to head out.
I walk over to her and pull her to me. “You don’t get it, do you?”
She says nothing but lays her head on my forehead. “I’m just tired of us having to always fight to be together.”
“Otters stay together. We fight together.”
“I don’t want anyone else getting hurt. If we were meant to be together, then why does everything stand in our way?”
“It won’t always be this way, Callie. We’re going to be okay. We’re going to make it.”
“I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
