Page 103 of Protecting You

Callan had been silent for most of the drive from the hospital. He’d wanted Peri to ride with them, but she’d opted to go with Hannah instead. He’d tried to hide his disappointment, but Alyssa hadn’t missed it.

Now, he shot her a look that made her wonder if he’d forgotten she was there. “All my life.”

“Seems like a nice place.”

He turned down the stereo. “The house has been in my family for generations. It used to sit on a huge lot that ringed one side of a lake, but the land’s been chopped up and sold off over the years.” He tapped on the steering wheel. No streetlights here, just thick forest lining the two-lane road on both sides. “We almost lost it once.”

“How?”

“Mom stayed home to raise us. She didn’t work full-time outside the home until Hannah graduated from high school. Dad was in construction and decided to start his own business as a general contractor, but to do that, he had to leave his good-paying job. It should’ve been fine, but the local economy hit a snag. Dad had mortgaged the house to buy tools and equipment. He couldn’t make the payments.”

Alyssa couldn’t imagine. Her parents had always had everything they needed and more. Even after she’d moved out, she’d known there was a financial safety net. Though she never wanted to ask her parents for money, she knew she could. And she knew they’d say yes. “How old were you?”

“I was nine. Hannah was seven. Mom and Dad didn’t tell us, but I knew something was going on. One afternoon, I came home from playing with my friends and overheard my parents talking in the kitchen. Mom was crying and Dad was apologizing. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“So you listened?” She imagined little-boy Callan, lurking at the door. “You were spying long before the CIA.”

He grinned, but the expression didn’t hold. “They were talking about moving out. Moving away from the only home I’d ever known. Dad was saying how it was all his fault, and Mom was trying to encourage him. I didn’t understand the details at the time. I just remember feeling desperate to fix it, and utterly powerless to do anything.”

“I’m sorry you even knew what was going on. You were far too young to take on that kind of responsibility.”

“That’s what my parents said when I asked how I could help. That it wasn’t my problem. That they’d take care of it, but they weren’t going to. Their way of taking care of it was to put the house on the market.”

“Well, yeah, but?—”

“There was another option. They needed to ask my grandparents for a loan. I guess… Looking back on it, I realize they had their reasons. Dad’s parents had money, but his father could be controlling and manipulative. I didn’t understand that at the time. I just thought they were both being stupid and stubborn. I was young enough that I thought he should just ask his mom and dad. That’s what I’d do in a pickle, after all. It seemed simple enough to me.”

“You had parents you could trust,” Alyssa said. “Parents who would help you without strings attached. So how could you have imagined another kind?”

He shrugged.

“And you didn’t want to lose your home.”

“Exactly.” He slowed and turned onto a road so narrow that she’d have passed it without ever knowing it was there. “I decided to help Mom and Dad out. I called my grandparents myself and told them.”

“Wow. That was?—”

“Controlling and manipulative?” he suggested. “Not that they ever said so, but that’s what they thought. Dad was furious that I’d shared their personal struggles outside the family. My defense was that they are family, but I knew what he meant. I knew he’d be angry, and I did it anyway.”

“He forgave you.” Alyssa had met Callan’s father at the hospital. Despite the sick pallor, she’d seen Callan in Hank’s features. His grip had been strong, his eyes bright and intelligent, his smile welcoming. Even though he hadn’t felt well, he’d been warm, kind, and gentle, as different from her own father as light from shadow.

“Yeah.”

When Callan didn’t expound, she said, “I guess he figured out a way to save the house.”

“My grandparents paid off the mortgage.”

“Oh. So it worked?”

He nodded, but in the dim console lights, she saw how tightly his lips were pressed together.

“What?”

“I found out later, much later, that the deal was that they’d pay off the house if Dad made his father a partner in his business. Dad agreed because… Well, for our sake, so we wouldn’t have to move.”

“But it wasn’t what he wanted.”

“No.”

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