Love Built to Last

by Lisa Ricard Claro

  Okay, Jack. Let’s do this.

  Maddie turned sideways and lifted her hip to access her back pocket. There it was. The folded paper. Jack’s last communication. She tugged it free of the pocket and held it between her fingers.

  Maddie rubbed the torn edge and identified the lined yellow stock as coming from one of the legal pads which Jack had favored for scribbling notes. She bit her lip as anticipation accompanied by a heavy dollop of trepidation oozed from her belly up into her chest.

  Maddie swallowed hard and licked her lips. She looked into Brenna’s eyes. Brenna nodded encouragement, smiled for extra reinforcement. Maddie drew a deep breath and unfolded the paper—once, twice. The paper crackled and the tingle of awareness that this represented Jack’s communication, words meant just for her, buzzed along Maddie’s extremities. She recognized Jack’s familiar script before she identified the words. Maddie squinted to read Jack’s message and sucked in a breath, brows lifting with the widening of her eyes.

  “What? What is it?”

  Maddie stared at the paper for another full minute and looked up at Brenna with her mouth forming an O. Brenna plucked the paper from Maddie’s hands and dropped her gaze to Jack’s writing. A visible shiver ran through her. Goosebumps puckered over her skin and made the fine hairs stand on end. She looked from the paper to Maddie, at the paper, and back at Maddie again. Maddie’s smile glowed.

  Brenna tucked the yellow scrap into Maddie’s hand. Maddie fisted her fingers around it and clutched the paper to her heart. “I told you he talks to me,” she said, happy and smug.

  “That’s just eerie.”

  “It isn’t eerie.” Maddie beamed. “It’s Jack.”

  Chapter 16

  Hey, what’re you doing answering the phone?” Dante asked.

  “Why’d you call me if you didn’t want me to answer?” Cal shot back.

  “I thought you were on a date. I was going to leave a message.”

  Dante peeked from the kitchen into the dining room. They’d had a late rush when a couple softball teams came in and people lingered. It would be a great night for video game and beer sales, but it was almost midnight and Caravicci’s had been closed for half an hour. He’d given Chloe and crew the thumbs up to raise the lights, start refilling condiment dispensers, and clean the dining room. The stragglers, nursing their beers, didn’t appear to notice the flurry of activity going on around them. Money in the coffers.

  “A date? That’s real funny. What do you want?”

  “Seriously. I thought you had a date with Shelley.”

  “I had an appointment with Shelley to measure her windows,” Cal said. “I took care of that hours ago.”

  “Wow. Okay. Shelley asked you if you still wanted to hook up and you said yes.”

  “Hook up to talk about windows.” Cal sighed. “Dante, this has been a helluva day, and it’s damn near midnight. Why are you suddenly chatty?”

  “I thought you might want to know that Maddie and Brenna got totally plowed tonight. They had a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels sitting in Maddie’s kitchen, or so said the poor kid who delivered their pizza. Brenna terrorized the kid—he compared her to a succubus, if you can believe that.” Dante snorted out a laugh. “Made him promise to tell me some crazy shit about sending me to a convent where I’d have to live forever. Why is it the more gorgeous they are, the crazier they roll? And look, in case you’re interested, I’m sure Maddie is under the same misconception as I was about you and Shelley. You might want to clear that up.”

  “Why?” Cal’s tone conveyed deep weariness. “It doesn’t really matter what Maddie thinks. We’re done.”

  “Why? Because she ignored your calls for a couple of weeks? Big deal. She had a lot to deal with.”

  “I don’t care about her ignoring my calls. No, that’s not true. I do care, but it doesn’t matter. If it was just me, I’d be happy to make a fool of myself over Maddie Kinkaid. Hell, I’d already be camped out on her porch waiting for her to throw me a bone. But it isn’t just me. The whole mess with TJ today? That happened because Maddie was in his life and then dropped out of it. I can’t trust her not to do that again, and I’m not putting TJ in the position to be hurt.

  “Dante, it’s midnight. I’m still doing paperwork and I’m going to be up for another goddamn hour, at least. I appreciate that you’ve found your feminine side and want to explore our feelings here, but frankly, I’m just too damn tired.”

  Dante stared at the phone. He didn’t like being hung up on and had half a mind to show up at Cal’s door with a six-pack and a pie, midnight or not. In fact, back in college, they often woke each other in the middle of the night for an impromptu video game marathon with sustenance provided by pizza, twelve ounce cans of Bud, and a two pound pack of Twizzlers. Probably not a good idea for tonight, though.

  His phone buzzed in his hand. Ah. Caleb calling back to apologize for being a dick. “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for your help today. I appreciate it.”

  Dante opened his mouth to reply and found he’d been hung up on again.

  He decided his friend was running on sheer adrenaline and forgave him without the benefit of an apology. He stuffed the phone in his pocket and went back to work, cleaning up his restaurant kitchen.

  ***

  Cal tossed the phone on the table next to his laptop and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, hitting pressure points that ached and sent shooting pains and tingles across the muscles of his back and shoulders. What a bitch of a day.

  So Maddie and Brenna tied one on. He was sorry to have missed that as it had to be quality entertainment. At least now he had an explanation for the four phone calls he had received earlier in the evening from Maddie which, now that he knew she had drunk-dialed him, he no longer felt guilty for ignoring.

  Saying goodbye to her today was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. She’d sent heat pulsing through him, calling his name like she was on fire and he was the only one who could put it out—standing there looking like every guy’s girl-next-door dream with her frayed short-shorts capping those slender legs, and her half-undone ponytail, looking like she’d just finished a romp in bed and was ready for another. The need in her voice when she said his name broke his heart, and if she had said something else, anything at all, he might not have been able to walk away.

  Best that she didn’t. Best that he did.

  The interaction with Maddie, coupled with TJ’s shenanigans, had damn near done him in. TJ’s disappearance shaved a few years from his life, he was sure. He knew TJ’s excursion was about making a loud statement regarding Maddie’s unexpected withdrawal from their lives and Cal’s reaction—or inaction—to it.

  But how do you explain the nuances of adult behavior to a five-year-old?

  “How come Miss Maddie had to go home, Dad? She’s not mad at us. She said. So how come she couldn’t stay?” TJ had asked earlier in the evening while sitting in his tub surrounded by dissolving bubbles and a horde of drowned X-Men action figures.

  “Miss Maddie had stuff to do.”

  “How come Pirate gets to stay?”

  “I told you. She gave him to you, like a present. Close your eyes, buddy. Hair rinse time.” Cal turned on the faucet and filled a big plastic cup with clear water. “Ready?”

  At TJ’s nod he poured the water over the boy’s head and repeated the process until TJ’s hair gleamed free of shampoo and sleeked over his scalp giving him the wide-eyed look of a baby seal.

  “Maybe Miss Maddie could sleep over again, only this time I’ll be home, too, and we could watch movies and eat popcorn and stuff.” He peered at Cal. “Could we ask her?”

  “We’ll see.” Cal knew when he said it that he meant “no,” and had seen from TJ’s sour expression that TJ knew it, too.

  Now, though, it was hours later and he was exhausted, he focused on his paperwork for another hour before he powered off the laptop and walked down the hall to bed. He stopped at TJ’s bedroom doorway, as he did
every night, and watched his boy sleep, spread out tonight like a four-pronged star.

  Cal crossed to TJ’s bed, eased down on the edge, smoothed TJ’s hair, and kissed his forehead. Love swelled, comingled with relief that the boy’s adventure had ended with his safe return to home.

  He glanced at Pirate who lay curled at the foot of the bed watching him through soulful eyes. Cal petted the dog’s head and fondled the wiry fur and soft feathered edges of the animal’s goofy ears.

  “Thanks,” he said. “I owe you, pal.”

  Pirate thumped his tail. Cal looked back once more from the doorway, lumbered down the hall to bed, whispered goodnight to Gwen, and fell into an exhausted sleep.

  ***

  He awoke in what felt to be mere minutes later when banging broke through his dreamless slumber. He groaned, fumbled on the nightstand for his phone to check the time, remembered he left it in the kitchen, and dropped back into the pillows.

  Good. The banging stopped.

  Whoever it was went away. Except they didn’t. The banging started up again and Pirate barked in response. Cal moaned into his pillow. He dragged himself up and out of bed, peeked in at a still snoozing TJ, and continued through the house. He jerked the front door open and growled, “What?”

  “Good morning, sunshine.” Rebecca pushed past him holding a large L&G coffee under his nose. “How come you’re so surly this morning? Were you still asleep? You know it’s almost noon, right?”

  “Why are you here?” He ran a hand through his bedhead hair and yawned.

  “You asked me to come over this morning to sit with TJ, remember? Something about working on a desk at your shop.” She knelt to accept Pirate’s affectionate lapping of her chin, thumped his ribs, and stood up. “Isn’t this Maddie’s dog?”

  “Not anymore.” He yawned again and followed Rebecca into the kitchen. Pirate danced by the door and Cal opened it to let him out. Rebecca dropped an L&G bag on the table and made herself at home in his cabinets. “Sit,” she commanded, set a couple of plates on the table, then relaxed in a chair opposite him.

  Cal eased the plastic lid from the cardboard cup and took a long sip of coffee. By the delicious scent wafting up from the bag, he knew he’d find Greta’s cinnamon buns. Hallelujah. His stomach rumbled and he dug in.

  “Forget to do laundry?” Rebecca nodded to her brother’s slept-in clothes. She dropped a bun on her plate, tore off a chunk, and closed her eyes in bliss with the first yummy bite.

  “I was up late doing paperwork. Something’s got to give, Becca. I can’t keep running both businesses. This burning the candle at both ends is killing me.”

  “I hear you, but I’m not sure what to tell you. Dad’s feeling great, but he’s not ready to come back to the business full time. Mom won’t let him, anyway.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” Cal pulled a second cinnamon bun from the bag, set it on his plate, and enjoyed a gulp of coffee before continuing. “I’ve watched you the last couple weeks and you know as much about these jobs as the foremen.”

  “So?”

  “So maybe Dad needs to think about changing the company name from Walker and Son to Walker and Daughter, or Walker Family Construction.”

  “What is it you think I can do, Cal? I could swing a hammer or run a power saw. I’ve got the skills, but in case you haven’t noticed, I run the office. That’s already a full time job.”

  “Get your panties out of a wad. I’m not insinuating you don’t already work hard. I’ll even go so far as to compliment you and say you kick ass. I’m talking from the standpoint of involving you in more field work, like inspecting the job sites with the foremen and meeting with the county inspectors, showing up in court to handle zoning, that kind of thing. You know your stuff, Rebecca. Nobody could pull anything over on you. They might try, because you’re a woman, but you’ll set them straight in a hurry. So what do you say?”

  Rebecca pulled off another strip of her cinnamon bun and considered. “Do you think Dad will go for it? You know how he is.”

  “Chauvinistic? Stubborn? Controlling?”

  “All that and more,” she said, and grinned. “How do you propose we approach him?”

  “We don’t. Right now I’m in charge and he’s okay with that. So it’s my decision to send you out into the field and put you in charge of the politicking. Dad won’t be able to bitch about it after the fact, because you’re going to rock it.”

  She dimpled. “I love it when you go all supportive big brother on me. Gives me the warm fuzzies.”

  “I bet. Listen, I need to get over to the workshop, so I’m going to go shower.” He stood up, finished off the cinnamon bun, and downed the rest of his coffee. “Thanks for breakfast.”

  ***

  Dante zipped into the space next to Cal’s truck and cut the engine. He had an hour to kill before going into the restaurant and figured his pal could use some cheering up. He’d swung by the house, spent a few minutes chatting with Rebecca and playing video games with the little dude, found out Cal was spending the afternoon at his workshop, and made his way there with time to spare.

  “Hey, man.” He called to Caleb over the wail of a steel guitar emanating from speakers set high in the corners of Cal’s work space.

  “Hey.” Cal looked up from the rocking chair he was sanding, nodded at Dante, and went back to work.

  Dante walked over to the desk and credenza Cal had set off to the side. He caressed the lustrous surface of the desk and marveled at the quality of the work. His friend sure knew his way around slabs of wood. “This is gorgeous. Is this Maddie’s?”

  Cal nodded and set down the sander. “It was a lot of work to get it looking like that. But I think she’ll be pleased.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “I’m, uh, sorry I was such a dick last night. Long day. Sorry, hold on.” Cal pulled the buzzing phone from his pocket and read the display. He lowered his head for a moment, emitted a long sigh, and clicked the call to voice mail. At Dante’s questioning raise of brows Cal said, “Maddie.”

  “You should take the call.”

  “She drunk-dialed me last night a couple times. I didn’t expect her to call again today.”

  “You only know it’s a drunk-dial because I told you she and Brenna had a party with Jack Daniels.”

  “True. But still.”

  “Listen. I have to tell you, you didn’t see Maddie’s face yesterday when Shelley asked you about hooking up.” Dante searched for the right words, ended up shrugging. “It killed her. I could see it on her face. I know you have your reasons for ending things but you’re going to regret this.”

  “My son ran away yesterday, Dante. I already regret it.”

  “Yeah, but here’s the thing, Cal. You hit the jackpot with Gwen. We both know it. So what are the chances of lightning striking twice, right? But it did. It happened for you. You’re the luckiest bastard in the world, and you’re just walking away. You need to fight for this.”

  “TJ—”

  “Is just an excuse. He ran away and you’re blaming Maddie, but it’s not her fault. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe this happened because you let her go?” Dante let that sit and stew for a minute, then tossed his keys up in the air, caught them one-handed, and snapped them inside his fist. “I have to get to the restaurant. Talk to you later.” He took a few steps, turned, pointed a finger at Cal and said, “Don’t be an idiot.”

  Caleb picked up the sander and went back to work.

  ***

  Maddie clicked off the call from Luis. He said he needed to deliver some furniture from Cal, and though she told him it had to be a mistake, he assured her it wasn’t. She told Luis she’d be home all afternoon and made her daily trek to the barn to take care of the cats.

  She had slept her Sunday away, thanks to Jack Daniels on Saturday night, and Monday morning had attended a meeting at the school, the first of many, in preparation for fall classes beginning in just a couple weeks. She thought of
TJ, set to enter first grade, hoped she would see him at school, and wondered who his teacher would be.

  Maddie took care of the cats’ food and water and spent time doling out affection to her fur-babies. She missed Pirate and decided to volunteer at the next Giving You Paws adoption in the hopes of finding a dog for herself.

  When the truck pulled into her yard, she walked from the barn to greet Luis and Ray. She wanted to ask them about Caleb but didn’t. She’d been calling him and leaving messages, which he had ignored. All of her calls had gone to voice mail. It stung, but she supposed it was no more than she deserved. She had avoided him for several weeks after the flood. She’d had her reasons, but at this point, they didn’t matter.

  “So you have furniture for me?” She followed the men to the back of the truck. “What kind of furniture?”

  “A desk and a credenza,” Luis told her. “Take a look, and show us where you want them.”

  Maddie laid her hand over her pounding heart and stared. Jack’s desk. Jack’s credenza. Better and more beautiful than they’d ever been.

  “Follow me,” she said, when she trusted herself to speak, and led them to Jack’s study.

  After they left, Maddie sat in Jack’s chair and ran her hands over the satiny smoothness of the desk. The wood glowed.

  “What do you think, Jack? Pretty great, huh?” Maddie caressed her hand over the surface of the desk one more time and imagined Cal working the wood, his strong hands making it sleek and beautiful.

  Ironic, she thought. Jack’s desk, that bastion of the past, would now forever remind her less of Jack and more of Caleb Walker.

  Maddie walked into her kitchen to admire the work of Cal’s hands there, as well. Caleb was here now, too, more even than Jack. She had never kissed Jack in this kitchen or felt his warm hands slide over the bare skin of her back, not in this kitchen with its warm travertine tiles and granite counters and cherry cabinets. She had never laughed with Jack here, or fallen in love with him here.

  She was in love with Caleb Walker. She admitted it to herself without guilt or shame or concern for Jack. Jack was gone in every way that mattered. Her dilemma now was how to win Caleb back.