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The sofa dipped when Cal sat beside me. He mimicked my posture, his boots landing on the wooden coffee table with a thud.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I . . . I just need you with me.” I lolled my head toward him. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s important to me.”
I couldn’t crawl back in my shell and let this entire ordeal go to waste. I owed it to myself to find my bravery.
“I’m in.”
No hesitation. No questions. Just unconditional support.
And I’d almost let this man go with my hatred.
I scooted closer and leaned my head against his shoulder. “Tell me something normal.”
“You want a weather report?” His fingers drifted over to my thigh.
“Is it boring? If it is, that will do.”
He snickered. “Thunderstorms with the possibility of hail and straight-line winds not what you had in mind?”
I groaned. “Is that really the forecast?”
“I have no clue. I just figure it out when I get outside. Or Ma calls and tells me to take an umbrella.”
I lifted my head. “Does she really think you own an umbrella?”
One corner of his mouth turned up. “Apparently.”
“She went on and on today about what all you’ve fixed for her lately.” I smiled as I rested my head on him again. This was normal. Who we could be. A couple who just held each other and talked on lazy evenings. “You take care of her.”
He shrugged, but he knew he did.
“You take care of everybody.”
Especially me.
“I haven’t done a very good job,” he said bitterly.
“I beg to differ.”
“All those damn fertility treatments, Joe’s upside down on a house he’s in jail for setting on fire. Aaron can’t resist a bet. Mike drinks too much. Ben’s wife is a good lady but wants stuff he can’t afford. Bobby’s got three kids close to going to college—”
His phone dinged with a text.
Need three hundred. I’ll come get it.
Cal rubbed his temples with one hand. Whatever tension had evaporated since we’d been home returned with a vengeance.
“Damn it.”
His fingers hovered over the screen, but he didn’t type a reply.
He bolted from the couch and made purposeful strides down the hall.
The name above the text had been Aaron’s. It didn’t take much reading between the lines to figure out he needed more money.
I found Cal in the bedroom digging in the back of his top drawer. He pulled out a canister and twisted the lid. When he shook it, only one bill came out. He peered inside and threw the container back in the drawer.
