Here For You, page 3
She smiled. “Maybe impending motherhood has mellowed me.” Then her face tightened. “Don’t expect the same from Hunter. He’s still pissed, as far as I can make out. Not that he ever mentions you.” Another thoughtful gaze. “He’s why you came back, right? You saw the news about the fire?”
Chris nodded. “He saved a little kid, didn’t he?”
“Yeah. Broke his collarbone in the process. But that was six weeks ago. Why has it taken you all this time to come back?”
That was easy. Chris was scared. “Is he okay?”
“Physically? He’s almost healed. He still wears the sling, and you can see it hurts him sometimes. Psychologically?” She shrugged.
Chris knew it was time for honesty.
“I know I fucked up. You were right. I thought if I married you, I’d have Hunter in the family too. It wasn’t until the wedding day that I forced myself to be honest. Having him so close like that? It would have been sheer torment. Plus, I couldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t marry you, not when...
Cally reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. “Not when you were already in love with someone else. It’s okay, honey. I get it. And for what it’s worth? You did the right thing. Just chose a God-awful way to do it, that’s all.” There was that twitch of her lips again.
In love with someone else... Who had no clue, and would never know how much Chris loved him.
He laced his fingers through hers. “I was screwed no matter what. So I took the coward’s way out. A sort of preemptive strike.”
“Where did you go? Everyone was looking for you.”
“I drove miles to a motel. Got drunk. Two days later, I snuck back at 3 a.m. to pick up my stuff.” He swallowed. “Hunter was waiting for me. He’d been staking out the back porch for two nights, knowing I had to come home at some point.”
Cally’s eyes widened. “He saw you? He never told me. But now you tell me this... He was pissed for weeks after that. I assumed it was a delayed reaction to the wedding fiasco.”
Chris shivered, and Lucy nudged closer, leaning into him.
“She’s such a good girl,” Cally commented.
“I trained her. She was going to be a service dog, but in the end, I couldn’t bear to be parted from her.”
Cally rolled her eyes. “Well, duh. I knew you’d end up working with dogs one way or another. All those books on dog training that you bought or borrowed. Volunteering to work at the vet’s. We always thought it was a pipe dream, but you made it a reality.”
Chris gazed at her. “Are you happy, Cally?” Appearances could lie, after all.
Her smile lit up her face. “Yeah, I am. Steve’s a good man, even if God somehow forgot to give him a sarcasm-recognition gene.”
Chris coughed. “Yeah, I noticed that.”
She laughed. “I swear, you and Hunter... Anyway, Steve loves me. Always has. He was there for me when... well, you know.”
“Hunter too?” Hunter and Cally had always been close. The three of us were.
Cally’s face tightened again. “He was too busy being angry.” She met his gaze. “You might have an uphill battle there.”
As if he didn’t already know that.
“I told my dad I came back for three reasons—to make peace with them, with you, and to make sure Hunter was okay. There was a fourth reason, but I couldn’t tell him that.” He picked up his mug.
Cally’s eyes shone. “To tell Hunter how you feel about him.”
Chris almost choked on his tea. “Christ, no. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. No, I came back to get him to... forgive me.”
Cally blinked. “Oh Lord. So nothing easy, then.” A second later, they were both laughing.
Chris finished his tea, and gave Lucy a scritch behind her ears. “I’m putting it off, I know. I should just get on over there and see him.”
“Maybe you chose your timing well.” When Chris frowned, Cally’s eyes sparkled. “He can’t hit you right now.” She patted his hand. “But you’re right. You need to face him. And soon, before he gets word from someone else that you’re back.”
She was right, of course.
Chris gazed down at Lucy. “Time to go, girl.”
At least now he had an idea of what awaited him.
One angry Hunter.
Chapter Four
Cally paused at the front door. “You’d better give me your phone number, because I’m going to want to speak to you again. Especially after you’ve seen Hunter.”
Chris was still reeling. “I can’t believe how well you’re taking all this.” He passed over his phone, and she tapped her number into it.
She shrugged. “Like I said, I’ve thought a lot about this.” She laid a gentle hand on his arm. “Chris? I might have exaggerated a little.”
“About what?”
“Hunter. Don’t expect to see anger. He’s past that now.”
Chris’s stomach churned. “Then what should I expect?”
Cally’s eyes were troubled. “That’s just it. I don’t know.” She forced a smile. “Good luck.”
Chris had a feeling he was going to need it.
He got into the car after letting Lucy into the front seat. He switched on the engine, and pulled away from the curb. “Why did I come back?” He could have called his parents to see how Hunter was doing. He could have called Cally for that matter. “Why am I putting myself through this, Luce?”
It was a rhetorical question. It didn’t matter how many times he told himself that Hunter was straight. That Hunter didn’t love—could never love—Chris the way Chris loved him. There was always that tiny spark that would not be extinguished. That spark of hope that said, what if...?
As he drove past Hunter’s street for the fourth time, Lucy let out a low whine.
Chris sighed. “That was your way of telling me to bite the bullet, wasn’t it?”
There were plenty of times when he thought Lucy was so much smarter than him.
He drove around the block one more time, then took a left onto Hunter’s street. He pulled up outside the house and gazed at it. A tall tree provided shade, with yet more trees off to the left on the bank that climbed steadily. The boards covering the house were mostly grey, with a set of white steps leading up to the enclosed porch. A swathe of lilac-colored flowers grew below it, reaching up past the foot of the porch windows, and in front of it the lush green lawn spread all the way down to the sidewalk.
Chris switched off the engine, got out of the car, then walked around to open the passenger door for Lucy. She sniffed the grass with obvious interest before walking at his side up to Hunter’s front door. After taking a deep breath, he rang the doorbell. He caught the sound of footsteps from within, and his heartbeat quickened.
The door opened and there was Hunter. Bigger than the last time Chris had seen him. There was more muscle, for one thing. Hunter’s right arm was in a sling.
And there was something else that had changed too. Hunter was even more gorgeous than he was in every one of Chris’s memories of him. How many nights had Chris lain in bed, recalling Hunter’s voice, his body, those stunning blue eyes...?
Blue eyes that were gazing back at him.
Chris’s stomach clenched. There was no anger in them.
There was nothing.
“Oh. You.” Hunter’s voice was flat, devoid of emotion. “Why are you here?”
Chris swallowed. “To see you. To make sure you’re okay.” To his own ears, it sounded pathetic.
Hunter gestured with his left hand to his body. “I’m fine. See? Goodbye.” And with that, he closed the door.
For a moment Chris was too stunned to react. He glanced down to where Lucy was staring up at him. “Uh–uh, girl,” he murmured. He hadn’t finally gotten up enough courage to come this far to be turned away at the first hurdle. He rang the doorbell several times. “I’m not going anywhere,” he called out.
Silence.
Chris rang again, but there was no response. He sat on the stoop, got out his phone, and pulled up a game of Angry Birds. He started playing, listening for any sound from within the house. “Your neighbors are gonna be wondering what the hell is going on,” he shouted. “It would be easier to let me in.”
Silence.
“I mean it, Hunter. Open the door so we can talk.”
The door opened and Hunter glared at him. “Just get your ass in here.”
“Is it okay to bring my dog?”
Hunter arched his eyebrows. “Your dog is not the problem.” He led Chris through the house into the large kitchen. Hunter pointed to the table, around which were four chairs. He indicated one of them.
Chris sat, Lucy at his side. When Hunter stood with his back to the stove, his arms folded, Chris rolled his eyes. “For Christ’s sake, just sit down, will you?”
Hunter roughly pulled out a chair and sat facing him.
Chris struggled to keep a lid on his apprehension. “I can understand you being angry, but...”
Hunter regarded him with mild surprise. “I’m not angry. Now, the last time I saw you, I was that angry, I wouldn’t have pissed on you if you were on fire. Now? I don’t care. You’re not even worth my time. I’m not even sure why you’re here. I thought we said everything we had to say the night you came back to your parents’ place.”
Chris felt sick to his stomach. He could have dealt with anger. He understood anger. It burned out quickly, leaving room to move forward. This lack of emotion was more difficult to accept.
Hunter’s eyes were cool. “So you finally crawled back. Have you seen your parents?”
“I saw them first thing this morning.”
Hunter nodded. “And I’m second.”
“No, that was Cally.”
Hunter blinked, then recovered. “Good. That’s as it should be.” He looked smug. “She sent you packing, right?”
“She couldn’t push me out of the door fast enough.” When Hunter smiled, Chris added, “to get me to come see you.”
That earned him another blink, then Hunter shrugged. “Figures.” He gestured to the countertop. “Coffee?”
“Sure.”
Hunter got up and spooned coffee into the receptacle. “So where are you living these days?”
“Chicago.” Chris hated that walking-on-eggshells feeling about as much as he hated the small talk.
“You didn’t get far then. What are you doing for a living?”
“I train service dogs.”
Hunter let out a wry chuckle. “Why does that not surprise me? At least you got to fulfil your dream.” He glanced down at Lucy before filling the coffee machine with water.
“She’s my biggest failure.”
Hunter scowled. “That’s a mean thing to say.”
“I trained her to be a service dog, but I couldn’t bring myself to give her up. The failure was on my part, not Lucy’s.”
Hunter came back to the table and sat as the coffeepot began to fill. Chris dropped the leash, and Lucy walked over to Hunter, resting her nose on his knee. Tentatively, he petted her, then again with more confidence. “She’s a beautiful girl.”
Not for the first time, Chris admired Lucy’s instincts. Maybe this was going to be okay.
Hunter glanced at the clock. “You know what? I just realized, the coffee is gonna have to wait. I have an appointment with my physio.” He got to his feet.
Chris did the same. “That’s it?” He picked up Lucy’s leash.
Hunter shrugged. “That depends. If you’re not gonna run off like the last time...”
Yet another person with a good line on passive-aggressive. “Like I said, I’m not going anywhere.”
Hunter nodded. “Then we will continue this conversation another day.” He bent over and stroked Lucy’s head. “She’s welcome back any time.”
Chris’s chest tightened. “And me?”
Hunter regarded him with expressionless eyes. “That remains to be seen.” He let him through the house to the front door. Chris stepped through it, and without a word Hunter closed it behind him.
Shaking, Chris led Lucy down the steps to the path. “Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Then he turned, his stomach heaving as he fought the urge to throw up his breakfast and several cups of coffee onto Hunter’s front lawn.
He hadn’t got through the back door before Mom started. “Well?”
“Well what?” The queasiness had dissipated, thank God.
“Did you see Cally? Did you see Hunter? What did they say?”
Dad scowled. “How about you give him time to breathe before you give him the third-degree?” He glanced down to where Chris held his bag in his hand. “You’re staying the night then?”
“If that’s okay.”
Dad gave a shrug. “Of course.”
Mom opened the refrigerator. “I can make you a sandwich for lunch, if you like.” She glanced over at Lucy, who had curled up on the red tiles after choosing the warmest spot yet again. “What about Lucy? Does she need lunch too?”
Chris had to smile. “She eats twice a day, Mom. She’s fine.”
Mom closed the refrigerator and peered at him, his sandwich apparently forgotten. “Well? Did you see Cally?”
Chris gazed back at her. “You might have warned me.”
Dad laughed. “She’s as big as a house, isn’t she?”
“Bob!”
He regarded her with amusement. “Well she is.”
Chris chuckled. “She wouldn’t thank you for that.” He met his mom’s inquiring gaze. “It was fine, by the way.”
Mom expelled an obvious sigh of relief. “I knew it would be.”
Chris tilted his head to one side. “That was what you almost said this morning, wasn’t it? When you said things hadn’t been that bad because of Cally?”
“At first we got a lot of shi–”
“Bob...”
Dad glared at her. “We got a lot of ill feeling,” he said, addressing Chris. “Like we were somehow to blame. Then folks sympathized when they realized we were just as shocked as everyone else.”
“That was a horrible day,” Mom murmured. “The church was packed, and Cally looked so lovely. Until we realized you weren’t going to show...”
“We said we weren’t going to talk about that day, remember?” He peered at Chris. “So... she was okay seeing you?”
Chris smirked. “Better than Steve was.”
Dad snorted. “Yeah, but he always lashes out first and thinks later. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Still, he’s done right by Cally.”
“And did you see Hunter?” Mom asked quietly.
“Yeah. That... wasn’t so good. At least I got past the front door. And I walked out of there, instead of being flung out on my ear.”
Dad gave a decisive nod. “Okay. You’ve seen him. Now what?”
That was the same thing Chris had been asking himself ever since he left Hunter’s house. “He said he had an appointment. With his physio.” Except Chris was doubtful about that. The speed with which Hunter had got him to leave... “But it sounded like we still have unfinished business.”
Dad gave another nod. “Then you are staying?”
“For a while longer.” Across the room, Lucy lifted her head, and Chris smiled. “We’re not going home just yet, sweetheart.”
“What will you do now?” Dad asked.
Chris wasn’t sure. The phone rang in another room, bringing an end to the conversation. Mom got up to answer it. Chris gazed at Lucy. So far that day, she’d been stuck in the car, or sitting on kitchen floors, which all added up to not getting a lot of exercise. A walk was what they both needed. A chance to reacquaint himself with Saugatuck, to see what had changed in the last five years.
Mom came back into the kitchen, her brow furrowed. “That was Mr. Harding.”
Dad frowned. “Who?”
“The guest who was due here in two days’ time. He wants to arrive earlier than he previously booked.”
“How much earlier are we talking?”
“Tonight.” She gave Chris an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, but it looks like we’ll need your room sooner than anticipated.”
“Don’t worry,” Chris said with a wave of his hand. “I’ll find somewhere.” His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to peer at the screen. It was Cally. Chris clicked on answer. “Hey.”
“What are you doing right now?”
“Talking with Mom and Dad.”
“No, you’re not. You’re taking me to lunch,” she declared.
Chris chuckled. “Anywhere in particular?”
“Wally’s. I’m already there. I’ve got a table out front. And you can bring Lucy—I’ve already checked. See you ASAP.” The call disconnected.
Chris laughed out loud before relaying the message to his parents. Dad rolled his eyes. “She hasn’t changed, has she?”
“I figure the least I owe her is lunch.” What intrigued him more was the motive for the invitation. He knew from experience Cally never did anything on a whim.
She was up to something.
Chapter Five
He walked down the street towards Wally’s, Lucy at his side. It was a beautiful sunny day, and already the streets were filled with tourists. Every store had people out front, gazing into the windows and commenting. Benches sat along the sidewalks and rainbow flags adorned each storefront.
When he turned the corner and spied Wally’s, Chris had to smile. In five years, Wally’s hadn’t even changed its color scheme. It was the same dark blue, with deep red parasols giving shade to the patio. Even the smells were the same, a mixture of fries and fish. The parasols were open, and he peered into the shade to spot Cally at the far end, leaning on the railing and watching the world go by. Chris waved to her before stepping into the diner and explaining that he was with her.
He came to a halt at the end of her table. “You had to choose here. Right in the middle of town.”
Cally shrugged. “What can I say? I like their chicken strips.” She pointed to the chair facing her. “Now get your butt in that seat and we can order. I’m starving.” She patted her bump lovingly. “Remember, I’m eating for two now.”
