“I can live with that.”
* * *
It had been a great week, Callie thought, treating herself to an Uber ride home from her driving test. Her first night with Santiago, followed by a second and a third. She’d taken last night off so she could catch up on sleep before her driving test today. Which she’d passed.
She pulled out her temporary license to stare at it again. The picture was grainy and not her best, but who cared—she had her license!
Until coming to Seattle, she’d pretty much given up on second chances, but here she was getting a do-over. She’d been blessed and she knew it.
The driver pulled into the driveway. Callie collected her backpack, thanked him and got out, only to stumble to a stop at the edge of the circular drive.
Right in front of the steps was a car she’d never seen before. It was blue and beautiful and there was a huge red bow on the front windshield. Even as she struggled to comprehend what it meant, her heart knew. It just knew.
The front door opened and Keira burst out.
“You’re here! You’re here! You passed, didn’t you? I know you did.” She raced over and hugged her. Malcolm, Carmen and Grandfather Alberto followed.
Callie tried to catch her breath. “You bought me a car?”
Malcolm shrugged. “Your grandfather, Keira and I bought it together. For you.”
“I picked the color,” Keira told her. “It’s called Lapis Blue Pearl. Isn’t it pretty? And the interior is brown and it has lots of safety features Malcolm can tell you about, but I picked the color.”
Her grandfather pulled her close, then passed her to Malcolm. Seconds later, Keira joined them and Callie found herself enveloped in a group hug that had her chest tightening to the point where she couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered as her eyes burned. Happy tears, she thought. When was the last time she’d had happy tears?
“It’s a car,” Carmen said with a laugh. “How can you not understand?”
“But...” It was too much. It was a wonderful gift. They’d thought about her and planned for her and she just had never thought anything like that would ever happen again.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Carmen and Grandfather Alberto went back inside. Malcolm had Callie sit in the front seat while he sat on the passenger side and Keira leaned over from the back.
“We’ll take this slow,” he told her, handing her the keys. “This is a Subaru Outback with all-wheel drive. You’ll be safe in all the rain we get around here.”
“And the snow,” Keira said. “We get snow sometimes and with all the hills, it’s really slippery. Tell her about the lane change thingies. It’s so cool.”
“You have a blind spot indicator. If you put on your signal to change lanes and there’s a car in the way, you’ll hear a beep. If you start to drift out of your lane, you’ll be notified. There are a lot of safety features you can read about.” He winked. “I paid for the first year’s insurance. After that, you’re on your own.”
She had a car. That was hard enough to grasp, but even more important, she had a family. She looked at Keira’s freckles, exactly like her own, and the smile she and Malcolm shared and wished desperately that her mother was still with her.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” she admitted. “This is wonderful.”
“Let’s go get mani-pedis,” Keira suggested. “That would be really fun.”
Malcolm shook his head. “Not for me.”
“Have you ever had a mani-pedi?” Keira asked. “You might like it a lot.”
“I’m willing to take the risk of missing out.”
“You’re scared.”
“Not that I’ll admit to you, munchkin.”
Malcolm explained the rest of the features of the car to Callie. Eventually Keira went inside to hang out with Lizzy until it was mani-pedi time. Malcolm insisted on accompanying Callie on her first drive and made her promise to let him know when she needed gas. He was going to show her how to fill the tank herself.
Later, as the nail technician applied bright green polish to her toes, Callie reached for her sister’s hand. Keira squeezed her fingers and laughed at her own purple polish.
“Thank you,” Callie whispered, acknowledging all the gifts she’d been given. Her family, Santiago and the promise of a new future. Finally, finally, everything was going to be just fine.
* * *
Delaney half expected Chelsea not to show. She’d texted her friend and invited her over for coffee. Chelsea had taken two days to get back to her, but in the end, she’d agreed. Delaney’s doorbell rang right at three o’clock on Saturday afternoon.
She felt more than a little apprehensive as she answered the door. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds before Chelsea walked in.
“I can’t remember the last time I was at your place. It doesn’t look all that different.”
“I painted a couple of walls,” Delaney said. “Otherwise, it’s the same.”
They went into the living room and sat across from each other. Their gazes met, then skittered away. Delaney knew she had to make the first move, only she didn’t know what that was.
“I’m sorry,” she began. “About us not being close anymore. I never meant to drift away. I’m still not sure what exactly happened. For some reason every time there’s a life change for me, I think I cut people off. I don’t know why. Guilt maybe? Fear of being judged. I don’t want to be that person, yet here I am.”
Chelsea looked at her. “I’m sorry, too. I could have tried harder to stay in touch. It’s just I was so jealous and angry.”
“What?”
“Oh, come on. You were always the smartest of all of us. You’re pretty and funny. You could have been anything or married anyone. You wanted a big, fancy career and you made it happen. I got married at nineteen and popped out a couple of babies. Even a stray cat can do that.”
“I’m not sure cats are allowed to get married.”
Chelsea smiled. “You know what I mean. I’m sorry about what I said about you not being good enough. That was about my insecurities, not anything you did.”
“But you have Isaac and the kids.”
“Sometimes I want to put on a suit and go to an office. Sometimes I want to be more than somebody’s wife and mother.”
Things Delaney had never considered. “Sometimes I want somebody to love me,” she admitted. “Tim wasn’t right for me. Not for a long time.”
“I know. I could see that. What I didn’t understand is why you didn’t let him go.”
“I don’t have an answer to that.” It was something Delaney had been wrestling with. Why hadn’t she just moved on? “I think maybe he was my only connection to the past. Without him, I didn’t have an anchor. When I moved out of the neighborhood, I left everyone behind. He kept me grounded.”
“He also got in the way of what you wanted.” Chelsea looked a little chagrined. “He talked to me some. I know he wasn’t very supportive of what you wanted. I was selfish enough to be glad at least your relationship wasn’t perfect.”
Delaney wondered what else her fiancé had said, then told herself it didn’t matter. Not now. He was gone and she was doing her best to figure out her life.
“Nothing about me is perfect,” Delaney said, trying to sound like she wasn’t breaking apart inside.
“Oh, I don’t know. My mom always held you up as an example of what I was supposed to be. Every time we went somewhere without you, that’s all I heard.”
Chelsea’s words sparked a memory—of Delaney standing on the sidewalk, watching her friend and her family drive away. It wasn’t that they were moving or anything that dramatic, it was just that they were going somewhere together and Delaney was being left behind.
Memories flashed through her mind, each a mini vignette of the same
moment. Her being left behind. Sometimes it was a trip to the mall or for a vacation. She remembered the painful truth so clearly—she wasn’t really a part of their family. Yes, she’d had her father, but he’d worked long hours, supporting her and maybe burying his grief. Only Tim had been a constant.
“Do you think I couldn’t let Tim go because he was so faithful?” she asked. “Because I knew he would always be there? That I could count on him, no matter what?”
“I’m not sure you would have been able to get rid of him if you’d tried,” Chelsea teased. “Once he chose you, that was it.”
Maybe that was the point, Delaney thought. She’d struck out on her own to follow the career path she’d chosen, but there had been a price. She’d gone against all she knew back in the neighborhood. She’d wanted a different kind of life and maybe, for once, she’d wanted to be the one leaving them behind.
The same thing had happened at work. She’d fit in and had had great friends, but she’d felt torn between her old life, and Tim, and her new life. So when Tim had died and she’d felt lost, she’d once again left her friends behind. For once, she hadn’t been the one standing on the sidewalk, all alone.
“I don’t know if we could have been happy,” she admitted.
Chelsea sighed. “I don’t think you would have been. You were always so sure about what you wanted. So driven. Remember in high school how we would go out late on school nights and you never would because you wanted to study for a test? And when you were in college, you hustled to get good grades. I know what I said before, but don’t let my envy take away what you accomplished. You did good. You should be proud.”
“Then why did I leave it?”
“Damned if I know.”
Delaney smiled. “That makes two of us. Maybe it was guilt—I didn’t deserve it anymore.”
Chelsea leaned toward her. “Maybe you were overwhelmed. You’d lost your fiancé, your dad was paralyzed and you didn’t have anyone else to share the burden. We all pitched in, but you were the one there every day. Maybe you just needed a break from your life. Like taking the summer off or something.”
“I quit my job. I dissected a frog. I’ve ruined everything.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little dramatic? You might have made some poor choices, but now you can make better ones.”
Delaney’s head hurt from too much thinking. “Can we start over? Can we be friends again? I miss you and I hope you miss me.”
“I do miss you and yes, I want to be friends, too.”
They set up a time to go to lunch and promised to stay in touch regularly. By the time Chelsea left to pick up her kids from her mother-in-law’s, Delaney was feeling better. But the second she was alone, the doubts returned.
How could she have messed up her life so much and so fast? She knew she didn’t want to finish her college classes, but if not that, then what? Could she get another job in finance and if she applied, what was she supposed to say about what had happened? Her mind went round and round like a hamster on a wheel and she didn’t know how to make it stop.
Around five, Malcolm called.
“Hey,” he said when she answered. “I was thinking about our dinner tonight. I have reservations at that Mexican place we like, but was thinking it might be nice to stay in with takeout. What do you think?”
“I think that sounds great,” she said, wiping away tears and grateful he couldn’t see them. “I’d love a quiet evening in.”
“You okay? You sound upset.”
She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised Malcolm knew her that well. “I’m tired and need a good hug.”
“I have a few good hugs to spare.”
“Then you should bring them along. Want me to call in a take-out order at the Mexican place?”
“Thank you. I’ll grab a bottle of wine and be there in an hour.”
“I can’t wait.”
She hung up, then pressed the phone to her chest. She was still lost and confused and unsure, but when she was with Malcolm, all that went away. She would give herself a few days to sit with her revelation, then she would make some decisions. This time she would be thoughtful and sensible, considering all sides. She wouldn’t do anything rash and she absolutely would not do anything without remembering that every choice had consequences.
* * *
Callie had always known reality was a bitch, but she’d hoped that truth wouldn’t have followed her here. Like everyone else who worked in the warehouse, she’d been told that the thief had been caught with boxes of product in the trunk of his car. He’d claimed innocence, and opinions were mixed as to whether or not he was telling the truth.
Callie hadn’t known the guy well enough to form an opinion so she’d stayed out of the discussion, but two days later, she would have sworn inventory was missing. Just to be sure she wasn’t imagining things, she’d noted the sequential box numbers herself and had kept the list in her locker. This morning, over a dozen were missing. She confirmed that they weren’t on the inventory sheet anymore. It was as if they’d never existed.
“Hey, Callie.”
She jumped and spun around, then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Paulo. “You scared me,” she admitted with a nervous laugh.
He raised his eyebrows. “What are you doing in here?”
“Nothing.” She realized how stupid that sounded. “Actually I was checking on the inventory. I know you already caught the guy, but I’m not so sure. The last time I brought a box in, I did some checking.”
“Who told you to do that?”
“No one.” She couldn’t tell if he was mad or simply curious. “I wrote down the inventory as it was yesterday and came back today to check.” She pulled the paper out of her pocket and showed him. “See how all the boxes between 102 and 117 are gone? They’re not on the inventory sheet, either. It’s like they were never packed.” She glanced at her list. “I can’t remember exactly but I think most of them had really high-end stuff in them. The expensive cocoa and the upscale soups.”
“You know there’s going to be a new system in place in a couple of months. Everything will be computerized.”
“I know, but someone is still stealing. I think they got the wrong guy.”
Paulo’s gaze was steady. “You’re right. They did. But you’re not going to say anything, are you? Just like you’re not going to tell anyone about this conversation. Especially your brother.”
Callie’s mouth went dry. She felt sick to her stomach and more than a little scared. Paulo was nowhere near as big as his brother, but he was still taller and stronger than her and there was something in his eyes that warned her he wasn’t kidding about any of this.
“See, I know all about you,” he continued. “Who you are and that you served time. I also know you’ve kept that information from your friends here. So you’re going to keep quiet. In fact, you’re going to help me. If you don’t, I’ll tell all your new friends who you are. Worse, I’ll pin the whole thing on you. You like my brother, don’t you? He’s not going to appreciate his girlfriend stealing from the company he loves. He trusts you now but he won’t when I’m done with him.”
His smile was cold. “Who are they going to believe? A trusted employee of more than a decade, the brother of a senior executive, or a convicted felon? Besides, I know you hate Malcolm. Think of this as a way to screw your brother. It’s a win-win.”
She couldn’t stop shaking. She was going to be sick. Hate Malcolm? Why would he—
That time she’d been so mad, she thought bitterly. He’d overheard her saying horrible things. But that had been a long time ago and she and Malcolm had a different relationship now. Not that Paulo would want to hear that.
“I can’t,” she breathed. “I won’t.”
“You think you have a choice?” He winked at her. “It turns out, I know someone in accounting who would be more th
an happy to make it look like the thefts took place when you were working. Too bad it would only be your second offense. Three strikes and all that.”
She really was going to throw up. Or pass out. Or scream. This couldn’t be happening. “What do you want me to do?”
“Keep your mouth shut for now. Next week you can help me with a little something.”
“You want me to steal for you?”
“Sure. Then you’ll be as guilty as me.”
Guilty, she thought grimly. She would always be guilty. She thought about how great her life was now, how she had a family and friends and Santiago. She couldn’t lose any of it—not and still have faith in herself. Not and still have hope.
Defeat tasted bitter on her tongue. She hung her head and nodded slowly. “Just tell me what you want.”
His slow smile returned. “I knew you’d see it my way. You do what I say and no one has to know—not even Santiago.”
* * *
As soon as her shift ended, Callie drove directly home. Once there, she locked herself in her room. A hot shower did nothing to make her feel better. The sense of being trapped grew and grew until she wanted to scream. What was she going to do? She couldn’t go to Santiago. Paulo was his brother and she was worried there was a better than ever chance he wouldn’t believe her. Even if he did, he would hate her for exposing his brother as the thief. There was only one person she could trust and even that was an iffy situation.
She dressed but didn’t bother drying her hair. After telling herself she was doing the right thing, she went down the hall to Malcolm’s room and knocked on the half-open door.
“Come in.”
She stepped into her brother’s study and found him reading on the sofa by his desk. He’d already changed from a suit to jeans. He looked up and smiled at her.
“Hey. What’s up?”
She carefully closed the door behind her and walked toward him. “I have to tell you something and I don’t want you to interrupt me until I’m done.”
His welcoming expression shifted to worry. “All right,” he said slowly. “What is it?”
She told him everything, explaining what she’d noticed missing that morning and how Paulo had found her.
When We Found Home Page 34
