Page 5 of Almost Always

They clinked their bottles with wide grins and Monroe continued talking about her sexy getaway.

CHAPTER 2

MARCH

In the few weeks they’d been in Wildes, all of his well laid plans had been upended. As if it wasn’t already a big adjustment moving from the city to a small town, theyhadtoadopt a senior dog his nine-year-old had fallen in love with at first sight. He had to admit Boots was the addition he never knew they needed, but planning his life around the mutt was quite the task. The Leonberger-Husky mix was built like a small bear and the most affectionate dog they could have brought home. Boots and Callahan were inseparable, which was a really good thing.

Especially since his son had been struggling at school.

In New York, Cal had never really made any friends. He was a shy and quiet kid, smaller than the rest of his classmates and he had a difficult time connecting with others. At first, Rafferty thought the trouble was because his son liked wearing bright colored clothes, had a unicorn backpack and sometimes took his tutu with him to school. Only when he attended a PTA meeting did he discover that it was because Cal was nervous around other kids. It didn’t matter that he’d known all of them since he started school; his son wasn’t the most outgoing or confident. He hadhoped moving them to a smaller town would help, but he could see the hunched shoulders and downcast eyes at the end of every day.

The last time he’d seen someone like that had been when he was fourteen and she was eleven. She’d carried herself the same way Cal did, strong at the start of the day and withered by the end. She’d stolen his heart pretty early on in their friendship and kept it all these years.

It wasn’t often that he thought about Daisy Heroux, because once he fell down that spiral, it was impossible to climb back out.

Setting his coffee down, he twisted his arm and smiled at the tattoos along his bicep. Daisies were scattered over his skin, a few petals fluttering around. The ink wrapped around his upper arm and over his shoulder, blending into tiny butterflies on his back. Nestled amongst the flowers, written in thick block letters, were the initials DEH. For a girl he once loved and lost, a girl who had buried herself so deep in his skin, he added her to it permanently.

“Dad,” Cal’s soft voice broke through his wandering mind, “are you sure I can’t take Boots to school with me?”

“What did your teacher say?”

“Only if he’s a service animal.” The words were mumbled, eyes lowered to his breakfast.

He’d gotten the same response when he’d swung by the school the day before. Unfortunately, after talking to Bronte and Gavin at the Rhodes Pet Shelter, where they adopted Boots, it was clear that because of the dog’s age, it might be impossible to get him a certification. The suggestion about a second dog came up, but they were still trying to train and settle Boots. And he didn’t have the time or energy for it.

“I’m sorry, son.” He leaned over and kissed the top of Cal’s head. “Boots and I will drop you off and pick you up every day, okay?”

“Okay. I should change.”

“Why?”

Cal shrugged, fingers tracing the unicorn on the front of his purple T-shirt. “Nobody wears stuff like this and I want them to like me.”

“They might like youbecauseyou’re wearing something different.”

The first week of school, he’d worn plain T-shirts and shorts. As the days progressed, Cal attempted to infuse his personality into his clothes. So far, it hadn’t improved his mood. Rafferty hated that his kid felt like he couldn’t be himself, but short of telling him to ask the other kids to go fuck themselves, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do.

Cal’s face lit up briefly as he said, “There’s this one kid. They said they liked my pink shoelaces.”

“Will they like this shirt too?”

“I dunno. Why are kids mean?”

He gently pulled his son towards him. “You didn’t tell me the kids were being mean.”

“They laughed when I wore my tutu. I don’t think I should wear it to school anymore.”

“If you want, you can wear it when we do stuff together, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Smoothing down Cal’s hair, he sighed. “Kids are sometimes raised by parents who are not good people. They’re taught those same lessons and can be mean when they meet people different from them. Acceptance is in our hearts, but you can unlearn that very easily.”

“So parents are mean too?”

“Oh yeah. Grown ups are probably meaner than kids. But hey,” he said softly, offering his son a small smile. “You’re goingto be the best of them, okay? Don’t stoop to their level and don’t become who they are.”

“I won’t. You, Grandpa, Nonna and Poppy raised me better.”

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