The Carpenter's Bride

by Elana Johnson

His phone buzzed again, and he was sure that was Sierra, telling him what the menu was and what they’d be watching. He had no real reason for why he didn’t want her to go, and he’d be out himself that night.

  He certainly didn’t want Sierra to be home alone tonight. If she invited Travis over while he wasn’t there….

  He yanked his phone from his back pocket and saw the menu and the movie. Sure, he typed out, glad for texting in moments like these. Then he didn’t have to worry that his voice had sounded too fake or too growly or whatever.

  Thanks, Dad, Sierra said, sending a smiley face too. You’re going out with Lisa again, right?

  Right.

  Have fun! I’ll check in with you when I get home.

  Cal sighed and looked up again. Before he could even take one step to go help his crew, his phone rang. Lisa’s name sat on the screen, and he ducked out of her house and walked along the porch toward the corner as he answered it.

  “Hey,” she said brightly. “I just got your text. I was thinking…there’s a great movie playing at the outdoor cinema tonight. They have food, and drinks, and the show….” She let her voice hang there, and Cal almost started laughing.

  “I know about the outdoor cinema,” he said. “I think they’re serving coconut shrimp tonight.”

  “Always,” she said.

  “And you want to do that?”

  “Sometimes they have dancing,” she said, which was code for yes, she wanted to go to the outdoor cinema.

  He should probably tell her his daughter had a date there that night too, but he didn’t. “Sounds great,” he said. He could keep an eye on Sierra and Travis from a distance. The outdoor cinema was a big place, and families, couples, and singles came. She would never know he’d been there—unless she asked, of course.

  She hadn’t questioned him about his date with Lisa last weekend, so he had no reason to think she would this time.

  “Pick me up at six?” Lisa asked.

  “Actually, I’ll probably still be at your house at six,” he said, pressing his back into the house behind him. He heard someone climbing the steps, huffing and puffing under the weight of the flooring, and guilt moved through him. “We’re here now, getting the floor done.”

  “And then the house is done, right?”

  “That’s right. I told you the end of the week. You can move back home tomorrow.”

  “You’re the best, Cal. I have to run, but I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “See you.” The call ended, and he really should go help his guys get the flooring in. But he stayed against the wall, the privacy it gave him necessary for another few moments.

  He couldn’t believe how much he liked this woman, as she was nothing like Jo. “It’s okay, right?” he whispered, somehow asking his late wife to put her stamp of approval on this relationship.

  A sense of calmness came over him, and when Cody asked, “Where did Cal go?” he stepped around the corner and said, “I’m right here. Sorry, phone call.” He joined his crew, who had brought in all the boxes they needed for Lisa’s house, and together, the five of them got started with laying her new floor.

  Cal was not at Lisa’s at six. He’d left Adam and Cody to finish the last hundred square feet of flooring so he could race home to be there when Sierra went out. He trusted his daughter, but he wanted her to know he was paying attention.

  So when she came out of her room wearing a flimsy tank top that showed her bra on the sides and the full back, he straightened from the counter where he’d been leaning. “Yeah, you need to wear something else,” he said.

  “Dad,” she said.

  “Nope,” he said. “Turn around.”

  She sighed in an exaggerated way, but she did what he asked. “I can see your entire back,” he said. “And that bra is all lace. It looks like you’re wearing lingerie.” He hated seeing her undergarments. They were supposed to be under the clothes, not showing through.

  Sierra faced him again, and Cal felt a flash of love for her. “Honey,” he said. “I know it’s not your job to make sure boys don’t think bad thoughts. But you can consider their feelings. Travis sees you wearing that, and I guarantee he’s going to be thinking about getting that bra all the way off.”

  “Ew, Dad, can we not talk about this?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Go put on a different shirt, and we won’t have to talk about it.”

  She stared at him, clearly trying to decide if she should push this or not. Cal looked steadily back at her, so glad he’d come home instead of staying to finish Lisa’s floor. Yes, he wanted to see her, but there was time to be a father and a boyfriend.

  Boyfriend.

  Yikes, he hadn’t been one of those in a while.

  “Fine,” Sierra said, turning and walking back to her room. She could’ve stomped, and she didn’t, so Call called, “Thank you, bug,” after her.

  Her bedroom door closed a little too hard, but Cal honestly didn’t care. “Wish you were here to deal with the wardrobe thing, Jo,” he whispered to the window overlooking the backyard. In fact, there were a lot of things he’d handled that he’d wished his wife had been there for. But he and Sierra had survived their first bra-buying trip, and the first time he’d had to purchase feminine hygiene products for her.

  Thankfully, his mother had helped out with both of those things too, and Cal wasn’t completely left to his own devices.

  Sierra returned, wearing a light purple tank top with thick shoulder straps that hid her bra. The fabric went up much higher under her arms, and her entire back was covered.

  “Beautiful,” Cal said, stepping over to her and embracing her. “You know you’re beautiful, right?”

  “I guess,” she said, holding onto him.

  “You are,” he said, leaning back and tucking her hair behind her ear. “With the makeup, or without it. And definitely more beautiful when it’s a little bit of a mystery what your skin looks like.” He grinned at her. “Now go have fun. Be safe. Call me if anything happens.”

  “I will, Dad.”

  “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” Sierra gave him a smile and walked out the front door.

  He sighed and looked down at Luna. “She’s okay, right?”

  Luna cocked her head as if she could understand Cal’s question and really wanted to answer it.

  “She is,” he said. “Let’s get you fed, and then I have to go again.” He rinsed out the dog’s bowl and refilled it with fresh water. He scooped new food into another bowl and set it by the back door. “I’ll take you to the park tomorrow,” he promised. “I’m not working.”

  He’d been going, going, going for twelve days straight now. He needed a day off, and in fact, he was taking the whole weekend away from the Avenues.

  And he was also late to pick up Lisa. He hurried down the hall to change his clothes, his phone at his ear. “Hey,” he said. “I had a daughter thing. I’m just leaving my place.”

  “No problem,” she said. “The floor is amazing.”

  “Yeah?” he asked, stripping off his work shirt. “You like it?”

  “I love it.”

  “Great,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.” Their call ended, and Cal took a few minutes to brush his teeth, wash his hands, and re-comb his hair. With one final look in the mirror, he grabbed a T-shirt from his closet and pulled it over his head on the way down the hall.

  The drive to Lisa’s only took ten minutes, and she waited for him on her front porch. Plenty of skin was visible along her shoulders, and Cal wasn’t even a hormonal, sixteen-year-old boy, but his thoughts danced along the edge of reason.

  He wanted to touch that skin. Kiss it. Run his hands along it and down her back.

  Lisa stood up, and today, she had her blonde hair pulled up into a high ponytail on top of her head, revealing that slender neck. She wore a denim dress, with thin straps over her shoulders holding it up. The dress fell in loose waves down her body to her feet, where she wore a pair of white sandal
s.

  In short, she was absolutely gorgeous, and Cal couldn’t remember how to breathe. Or apparently, get out of his truck, because Lisa arrived while he was still staring.

  “Hey,” she said, and he blinked.

  “Sorry,” he said. “You’re just so pretty, and I….” He got out of the truck and took her into his arms. A sigh moved through his body, especially when Lisa hugged him back.

  “I see you’ve got the comfortable T-shirt on this time,” she teased, and Cal laughed as he released her.

  “I mean, it’s the outdoor cinema.”

  “So I’m overdressed? Is that it?” Her blue eyes glittered at him, and Cal suddenly had thoughts about kissing her.

  Kissing her.

  Wild.

  He hadn’t kissed anyone for three years, and before that, he and Jo had been together for so long. Nerves paraded through him. What if he’d forgotten how to kiss a woman?

  “You’re not overdressed,” he said. “You look great.” He walked her around to the passenger side and helped her up.

  “So, for full disclosure,” he said once he was behind the wheel and they were headed toward the outdoor cinema. “My daughter is going to be at the cinema tonight, too.”

  “Oh, okay. Am I meeting her tonight?” Lisa pressed her lips together, and Cal wondered if that was a show of nerves.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a big place. We might not see her.”

  “So we’ll just see how it goes.”

  “Right,” he said.

  “How did that happen? Us going to the same place?”

  “She texted literally two minutes before you called and suggested it.” He shrugged. “I didn’t really think about you meeting her until now.” He had wanted to go to the same place as Sierra, and with Lisa at his side, it wouldn’t seem like he was following her because he didn’t trust her.

  He did trust his daughter.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Lisa said. “I met her briefly after the tsunami, remember?”

  “Yeah, but that wasn’t a real meeting,” Cal said, his nerves firing again.

  “How will you introduce me?” Lisa asked.

  Cal turned into the parking lot, cursing himself for being late. There were cars everywhere, and he should’ve known they’d be busy, as the movie theater closer to the ocean was still closed.

  “Uh, introduce you?”

  “Yeah, am I a friend, a girlfriend, your date…?”

  Cal spied a spot and pulled into it. “We’ll have to walk a bit.”

  “Okay,” Lisa said, still watching him. “And you’ll say, ‘Hey, honey, this is Lisa Ashford, my…’?”

  “Well, I think it’s obvious I want to be more than friends.”

  “Oh, obviously,” Lisa said with a smile.

  “And we are on a date.”

  “True.”

  “And….” Cal ground his words into silence in his throat and shrugged again. “I don’t know. What qualifies a woman as a girlfriend?”

  “That’s up to you, Cal.”

  He felt very out of his element. He had no idea what his qualifications for a girlfriend were. Twenty years ago, when he was dating, if he went out with a woman several times, she was his girlfriend. It was easier. Obvious. They didn’t even have conversations like this.

  “I think I’d say girlfriend,” he said.

  “Interesting,” Lisa said, unbuckling. “We better get going, or we’ll have to buy a seat with the obstructed view.”

  “Yeah.” Cal got out of the truck too and met her at the hood. “What’s interesting about me calling you my girlfriend?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “Of course you do.” He watched her as he took her hand in his and they started toward the huge building where they’d buy tickets to eat and watch a movie. Lisa didn’t say anything, and Cal’s insides twisted. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up the G-word. Sometimes he felt like he and Lisa were from two different worlds, though they were close in age.

  Chapter Nine

  Lisa wrestled with her thoughts, trying to get them to play nice inside her head. “I don’t usually consider myself someone’s girlfriend until we’ve kissed,” she finally said.

  “Oh, I see.” Cal nodded, his eyes trained on the ground as they walked through the parking lot. “I’m…not ready to do that.”

  “I know,” Lisa said, squeezing his hand. “It’s our second date, Cal. I’m not ready for that either.”

  “So maybe you’re not my girlfriend.”

  “I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m fine with the label.” And she was. In fact, such a label excited her—when it came to Cal. He wasn’t the type of man to date four girls a week and call each of them “baby” the way one of her “boyfriends” had.

  If he wanted to call her his girlfriend, she really was fine with that.

  He stepped up to the ticket booth and started talking to the woman in the window. A few minutes later, they had tickets—with a clear view—and entered the amphitheater. The space spread before her, and Lisa took a deep breath and sighed as she smiled.

  “I love this place,” she said. She really felt like she’d entered a new city—a hidden gem in the tropical rain forest. The amphitheater had rows and rows of semi-circles leading down to a stage. She’d never been here for a live play, but a huge, curved screen rose from there. The movie would be shown there, and she’d watched from her table before, as well as from a seat in the amphitheater itself.

  The rows were grass, but they also had chairs, so when it rained, they could still show movies without people sitting on the wet ground. She’d been here when it was raining, and a huge cover had been raised to protect the entire area in front of her.

  The atmosphere buzzed with energy as people chatted and laughed, moved between tables, and enjoyed themselves. The top of the amphitheater was open, with dozens and dozens of tables, some for big groups, some for only two.

  “We’re table ninety-one,” Cal said, looking around. “I have no idea where that is.”

  “We’ll find it,” Lisa said, linking her arm through his. “Are we sharing?”

  “No, table for two.”

  “Mm, romantic,” Lisa said, pressing into his side. “Did you order the buffet or the menu dinner?”

  “Menu,” he said. “I’m sorry. I should’ve asked you what you wanted.”

  “I would’ve chosen menu.” She smiled at him, and added, “That’s forty-seven. Let’s go back this way.” She led him to the right, stepping around a waiter and a busboy, several other people, and entering the maze of tables.

  “Eighty-five is over there,” Cal said, and Lisa took another right.” A minute later, they found table ninety-one, a cozy little table with a pineapple in the middle for decoration. Lisa took in a breath of the perfumed air, as tropical fruit trees, palms, and banyans made up two sides of the outdoor cinema. And the building where they’d bought their tickets made up the fourth side, creating an intimate space though it was so large.

  “Did you see your daughter?” Lisa asked, because Cal was obviously searching for her.

  His attention came back to her. “No, I didn’t. Let’s sit.” He pulled out her chair for her, and Lisa sat. Not a moment later, a waiter appeared and picked up the receipt Cal had put on the table.

  “I’m Jonathan, and I’ll be taking care of you tonight. Menus,” he said, pulling them out of the front pocket of his apron. “Drinks for you tonight?”

  Cal looked at Lisa, and she smiled up at the waiter. “Mango lemonade.”

  “Water for me,” Cal said.

  “Do you not drink soda?” she asked as Jonathan left.

  “Not usually,” he said. “A few years ago, I had four kidney stones from all the cola I drank.” He gave half a shrug. “I gave it up then.”

  “Flavored lemonades are my kryptonite.” She laid her arms on the table and leaned into them. “What’s yours, Cal Lewiston?” She cocked her head, trying to see more of thi
s man.

  He chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know if I should tell you. I feel like you’re going to use it against me.”

  She glanced up as the waiter set her pale orange lemonade on the table. “Definitely,” she said, stirring the straw around in the glass.

  “Do you guys need a few more minutes?” Jonathan asked. “We take kitchen orders until an hour before the end of the film. Tonight, that’s at eight-fifty.”

  “We need a minute,” Cal said, opening his menu for the first time.

  “I’ll circle back,” Jonathan said.

  Lisa looked at her menu too, but she already knew what she wanted. She pretended to look for the salmon pinwheel with wild rice she loved, but she really just watched Cal search the tables in his view.

  Something was going on with his daughter, and Lisa wondered if she should suggest they just go find her. Her stomach clenched, because she hadn’t prepared herself to formally meet his daughter tonight.

  The waiter returned, and Lisa beamed up at him, closing her menu. “I’ll have the king salmon pinwheel, please.”

  “Just came in an hour ago.” He smiled back at her, and he seemed more like the type of man Lisa would go out with. Had she come to the outdoor cinema with her girlfriends, she’d try to get Jonathan’s number before the movie started.

  Tonight, though, she wasn’t even sure what she’d ever seen in a man like Jonathan.

  “I’ll have the sirloin,” Cal said, handing the menu over. “Medium-rare.”

  “Baked potato or mashed?”

  “Mashed,” he said. “White gravy, please.”

  “Be right back.” Jonathan left again, and Lisa focused on Cal.

  “Steak?” she guessed. “Is that the kryptonite?”

  “I already told you coffee was my love language.”

  “Really? It’s coffee?” For some reason, that disappointed her.

  “Well, Hawaii has some of the best coffee in the world,” he said. “You know we have huge coffee bean farms here, right?”

  “Not on this island,” she said.

  “Yes,” he said. “There’s one on this island.”

  “No, they shut it down.”