Love Built to Last

by Lisa Ricard Claro

  Only Caleb.

  She warmed just thinking of the care he’d taken, and the time he’d spent. Those stupid buttons, she smiled. But it was worth the wait, the way he slid the fabric over her shoulders as if he were uncovering something precious.

  And then into the tub where he massaged her feet and her legs and her hands, and then began an expedition to discover her erogenous zones, until she was desperate for him yet again. The truth was, he could have taken her at any time and she wouldn’t have had a complaint in the world. But oh, she was so glad he hadn’t. Because when he lifted her from the tub and wrapped her up in that fluffy towel that smelled all citrusy and yummy, and then swept her off her feet—which no man, not even Jack, had ever done before—like she weighed next to nothing, her heart beat triple time. And it was so like Caleb not to be all melodramatic about it. He moved her from one place to the next with gentle care and set her down with no fanfare at all. The fanfare came later.

  Sweet Lord—did it ever.

  Her skin hummed and tingled just thinking of it, of him—skin hot as fire, smooth as velvet, his green eyes dusky, and his lips hard and soft at the same time, whispering sweet words against her throat in that honey-in-whiskey voice that melted her down to her marrow.

  A powerful need to hear that voice urged her up and out of bed.

  Maddie expected to find her clothes in the bathroom, but they weren’t there. She could cover up with a towel, she supposed. She glanced through the doorway from the bathroom back into the bedroom. The towel he’d wrapped her in after their bath last night was still on the carpet beside the bed where Caleb had tossed it.

  Her blood heated and her skin turned pink at the memory. She looked at herself in the mirror. Who was that woman with the wild hair and the bright eyes, the rosy cheeks and wide smile? Sweet Lord, it felt good to be happy.

  Maddie went back into the bedroom and wrapped the towel around her and then spotted the open closet door. If it was open, then it wasn’t snooping to peek in, right?

  She marveled at the size of it. It could be another bedroom. On one half of one side Cal’s clothes hung—his shirts, jeans, a couple of jackets. A suit of midnight blue tending toward black hung at the far end. She ran her hand over the well-made fabric. She’d like to see him in it. His wardrobe, or lack thereof, didn’t surprise her. Cal wasn’t the type of man to care about clothes the way Jack had.

  Jack. She swallowed hard to dislodge the automatic lump in her throat. Best not to think of Jack right now.

  The other half of the closet lay empty, conspicuous for its lack of use. If Gwen had ever hung her clothes in here there was no sign. How had Cal packed up his wife’s clothes without saving a one? No favorite blouse, dress, nightie? But no, there was nothing female that Maddie could see. She took a step back and viewed it as a whole. One half of the closet saw little use, the other half sat empty. It might be a metaphor for how she lived without Jack.

  Maddie gulped, scooped her hair off her face, and pushed it over her shoulders. She buried thoughts of Jack and Gwen. Now wasn’t the time to think of them. She’d spent the most amazing night with Caleb Walker and she wasn’t ready to step out of the fantasy. If luck held, it was yet to be over.

  She poked through his shirts, chose one of light-blue denim she’d seen him wear more than once. Its softness spoke of age, so he must favor it. She slid her arms into the sleeves and drew the fabric upward to enjoy the scent, inhaled that sunshine smell that was so Cal, then buttoned it up, and rolled the sleeves. It hit her legs an inch or so above her knee, so no modesty concerns. As if modesty was a problem, under the circumstances. And she hoped she wouldn’t be wearing it for long. She picked up the towel, folded it and set it on the bathroom counter, and went down the hall in search of breakfast and Caleb.

  Maddie padded down the hallway and stepped into the living room. The sounds coming from the kitchen screamed of breakfast—bacon sizzling, coffee perking, utensils clanking. And Cal was in there. She bit her lip, tamped down a rush of nerves.

  A grating sound caught her attention and she identified it too late. A key unlocked the front door. The door burst open and TJ flew in followed by Pirate, Sada and Big Will. TJ jolted to a stop when he saw Maddie. Pirate trotted over and dropped to a happy sit at her feet, tail swooshing across the carpet. TJ regarded her with a confused frown.

  “Hi, Miss Maddie. Did you and Daddy have a sleepover, too?”

  The next sound was a metallic crash from the kitchen. An object was heard skittering across the floor. A second later, Cal appeared in the doorway, shirtless, and sweet Lord, the man was built—not the time for that, Mads—but his Levi’s covered the rest of him, praise god.

  A moment of heavy silence ensued. Maddie stared at Pirate and Pirate stared back.

  “What the hell, Mom? I said I’d call.” Cal emphasized the word call, glanced at Maddie and back at his mother. Maddie gnawed her lip. Big Will shoved his hands into his pockets, turned on his heels, and deserted the scene. He whistled on his way out the front door.

  “We’re driving down to the outlets mall.” Sada turned her eyes, big as Greta’s cinnamon buns, from Maddie, to Cal, back to Maddie, and then fixed her stare on a corner of the ceiling as if the Oracle of Delphi had appeared. “TJ, honey, go on and get your action figures. That’s why we’re here. He wanted his action figures, you know, and I thought I’d leave the dog so you could bring him home to Maddie, but I guess you don’t need to do that since she—uh—since you—uh—since—uh—anyway, Pirate’s right here, so—um—he can just stay I guess. Right? Hurry up, TJ. Go on now. Go on. Just—um—come on out to the car when you’ve got your things. Nice to see you both. Hope you enjoy your morning. Uh—well, I mean, obviously you’re enjoying—oh, me,” she finished her rambling with a miserable sigh.

  “Wait, Gram, maybe they might wanna come.”

  “It appears that’s already been taken care of,” Sada said.

  Cal made a choking sound. “Mom! Jesus.”

  Sada dropped her gaze from the ceiling to Cal, her cheeks flooding crimson. In a horrified whisper she said, “Dear God, did I say that out loud?” She turned and fled the house, leaving TJ to fend for himself.

  Maddie dropped her face in her hands. Laughter bubbled up. Her shoulders shook with it. This didn’t just happen.

  TJ raced to his room and back, clutching a plastic case.

  “Bye, Dad, bye, Miss Maddie, bye, Pirate! Let’s all do a sleepover together next time.”

  He ran from the house and tugged the door on his way, slamming it shut. The resulting silence was so alive it almost had a pulse.

  Maddie bit her lip and peeked at Cal through her fingers. His expression could only be described as shell-shocked.

  “Hi,” she managed, choking on nervous laughter.

  “Hi.” Cal blinked. “That was—” A disbelieving smile twitched his lips. He shook his head and ran a hand over his face with a sigh. “Unbelievable.”

  Their gazes locked for one absurd moment and then they laughed. There was nothing else to do. Cal opened his arms and Maddie went into them.

  “Oh, sweet Lord. I can’t believe your mom said—”

  “No, no, no. Don’t remind me. Just don’t.” He buried his face in her hair, his chest rumbling with laughter. “I can’t go there. Not ever again.”

  “I need to dig my cell phone out of my purse. I predict I’ll receive a text message or a call within the next five minutes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the second your mother got out of here, I promise you she called Edie. And Edie won’t be able to stand it. She’ll have to tell someone, so she’ll call Brenna. And Brenna, not content to get anything through hearsay, will contact me to confirm.”

  “The female grapevine is a wondrous and terrifying thing.”

  “True.” She pressed her nose into his throat and breathed in. “You smell like cotton candy.”

  “Batman bubbles.” He smoothed his hand over her hair. “You hungry?”


  “Starving.”

  “Good. There’s bacon and coffee already made. I can fix you French toast, pancakes, waffles, or eggs.”

  “Whatever’s easiest.”

  “That’d be scrambled eggs.”

  “Scrambled eggs, it is.”

  She followed him into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of blessed caffeine, then watched him move around the space like a guy who knew what he was doing. She leaned against the counter and sipped her brew while admiring the movement of the muscles across his arms and back as he whisked the eggs.

  “Do you cook a lot?”

  “Not as much as I should, probably. I’ve improved, out of necessity, but we still order in too much.”

  “TJ has a strong dislike of green vegetables.”

  “He made me melt cheese over the broccoli and green beans last week. Said you told him that would make it better.” He flashed a smile. “It wasn’t half bad, but the microwave made the cheese kind of brown and crunchy.”

  “You’re not supposed to nuke it. You’re supposed to make a cheese sauce.”

  “The only sauce I make comes out of jar.” He poured the eggs into the waiting pan.

  Her phone buzzed with a text message from Brenna which Maddie read with a laugh.

  At Cal’s quizzical glance she said, “Brenna wants to know if you wore a tool belt,” tap-tapped the response—He came with his own accessories—and hit send with a wicked giggle at her echo of Sada’s double entendre.

  “Do I want to know?” Cal asked.

  “No,” she told him, only a little bit ashamed of herself, and dropped her phone into her purse.

  She complimented his cooking since he added oregano and fresh shredded parmesan to the eggs—a trick he learned from Dante, he told her—and spread real butter on the toast with fresh blueberry preserves purchased from Bubba Jo’s Café in town. They played footsies with their bare feet under the table while they ate, and destined for disappointment, Pirate lay beside the table, eyes and nose on the alert for any crumb that might fall to the floor. When it became apparent there was nary a scrap to be had, he scratched at the back door to go out.

  They chatted about the upcoming school year, both TJ’s and Maddie’s, about the good progress experienced by William since his surgery, and any number of other matters more trivial, while rinsing and stacking the dishes in the dishwasher.

  Maddie poured another cup of coffee and watched Cal cross the kitchen and open the door to let Pirate back into the house. He caught her staring and smiled.

  “You sure look good in my shirt,” he said, eyes warming.

  “You’re quoting another country song.” She clucked her tongue and gave him a look. “Keith Urban this time. Hot Aussie, wails on a guitar like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Cal said.

  “I couldn’t find my clothes so I went into your closet. The door was open. I hope that was okay.”

  He took her mug and set it on the counter, slid his arms around her waist, and tugged her close. “Didn’t I just compliment your wardrobe choice? Your clothes are in the dryer. They got wet last night so I threw them in with some of my stuff. I checked the labels first and everything was cold wash, tumble dry, so I figured nothing would get ruined.”

  “Look at you, all domestic. It makes me tingly all over.”

  “Really? I’ve got something that’ll fix that.” He drew Maddie into the circle of his arms and she leaned into his kiss with a sigh. After a few minutes he took her hand and led her down the hall. They didn’t talk again for a good long while.

  ***

  “This was the best day,” Maddie said when Cal pulled his truck into its usual spot on the gravel next to her Camry where Edie and Ron had delivered it as promised. “Are you sure you can’t stay awhile?”

  “I wish I could, but I have to run by the office for some blueprints and then go pick up TJ. My mother’s developed a sudden aversion to bringing him home.”

  “Well, really, who can blame her?” Maddie squeezed his hand. “That wasn’t the best part of the morning.” She leaned over and pressed her lips to his. “You better call me,” she whispered against his mouth.

  “You better answer,” he murmured back.

  She sighed. “Guess I’ll see you later.”

  “You’ll see me still.” He opened the door. “I’m not just dropping you off, Maddie. I’ll walk you up and make sure you get in okay.”

  Pirate jumped from the truck and loped toward the barn. Maddie followed him with her eyes and made a mental note to take care of the cats after Cal left, accepted the hand he held out to her, and walked with him up the porch stairs. She stepped into her kitchen, all sunny and bright from the light slanting through the greenhouse window.

  “I love this kitchen.” She beamed a smile at Cal and rewarded his carpentry and design skills with a smacking kiss. “You are the best carpenter ever.”

  “Bet your ass,” he said and followed up with the yummy kiss Maddie anticipated.

  “I’ll call you tonight,” he told her.

  She walked him to the door where he dropped another quick kiss on her mouth. Maddie trailed his steps to the porch and waved goodbye until his truck disappeared down the driveway and into the trees. She considered going to Jack’s office, but little teeth of guilt gnawed at her belly, so she decided to take care of the cats first. All five of them lazed in the shade of the barn. Only Cheeto meowed for attention, so Maddie killed ten minutes or so loving on the vocal cat and another five dispensing food and fresh water.

  Pirate trotted into the barn and nosed around the work table where Maddie kept the cats’ food, but wasn’t tall enough to reach it and cause trouble. She knelt to give the dog a good rub, then stood and fingered the feathery wisps around his ears. “C’mon, boy, let’s go in. Time to face the music.”

  Shadowed by Pirate, Maddie let herself back into the house. Time to talk to Jack. She paused in the kitchen to admire Cal’s work for the thousandth time. Stalling. As if Jack weren’t in the kitchen with her right now, as if he hadn’t been here twenty minutes ago when she’d kissed Caleb goodbye.

  At what point had she confined Jack to his study?

  She walked from the kitchen through the dining room and into the living room. She knew something was wrong the minute she stepped from the living room into the hallway. The carpet squished under her weight. She lifted her foot and backed up, then stepped again with more care. Water. She heard it now, gushing from somewhere.

  “Maddie?” Cal called from the kitchen. She jumped at the unexpected sound of his voice. “You left your purse in the truck. I didn’t see it until I was almost at the office.” He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “The hall carpet is wet.”

  Cal came up beside her, paused to listen. “In there,” he said.

  He moved past her into the hall, pushed at the door to Jack’s office. Saturated and swollen at the bottom, the wood rubbed and caught against the soaked carpet and resisted movement, but gave way under the force of Cal’s applied pressure. He stood in the doorway, his eyes drawn to the ceiling.

  “You’ve got a burst pipe, sweetheart.” He passed her on his way back out. “I’m going to shut your water off at the main and that will stop the flooding, but you have a lot of damage already. You need to call your insurance company.”

  Cal disappeared outside. Maddie retraced his steps to Jack’s office, heedless now of the water that oozed up from the carpet to drench her feet. Dread weighed her down. Trembling overtook her before she reached the doorway. She struggled to steady her breathing, and paused outside the room. She filled her lungs like a swimmer preparing to dive and forced herself to take the final steps.

  “No, no, no.” The words shuddered through her trembling lips. Maddie’s legs disengaged and she dropped to her knees like a puppet released by its master. The water soaked into her clothes. The ceiling above Jack’s desk had collapsed. A steady flow of water gushed onto the desk and splashed to the
floor. Jack’s papers lay in a congealed mess atop the desk with swollen hunks of ceiling plaster amid the debris.

  Maddie stood and slogged, trembling, across the saturated carpet to the desk. Standing in water that sloshed over her instep and almost to her ankles, she stared at the devastation.

  Something. There had to be something here she could save.

  She dropped into Jack’s chair, oblivious to the pool of water in the seat, and began poking through the pulpy chaos. Water cascaded down, soaking her, splashing her, and still she sat, digging through the mess, praying that the papers farther down would be salvageable.

  Please, Jack, please, Jack, please, Jack. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry…Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack….

  Cal’s arms came around her. With the solid warmth of him flowed the awareness that the ceiling had stopped spewing water, that she’d cried her words to Jack out loud, and the raspy, haunted wail filling the air was emanating from her own parched throat.

  “No.” She squirmed away from Cal, her motion violent and immediate. “No. Don’t touch me.”

  His eyes widened in surprise, and he stepped back. “Maddie. Let’s go outside.”

  She turned to him with angry eyes, tears spurting, breathing ragged. “Get out Caleb. You can’t be here.”

  “We’ll just go out to the porch. I’ll call whoever you want to come and be with you, okay?” The honeyed-whisky rumble of his voice, resonant with infinite patience, sent guilt jamming through her.

  “Get out!” She screamed the words, shaking, shaking so hard now her teeth could shatter and still she didn’t think she could stop.

  Cal pushed a hand through his hair. “I’m not leaving you like this. Tell me who to call and I’ll wait till they get here, and then I’ll go if that’s what you want. But I’m not leaving you alone.”