Page 97 of Stay this Christmas
The waiter came by with waters and chips and salsa, and took our orders before disappearing again.
“Are you ready to become a regular at Fool Hearted Memory?” Callie asked.
“I don’t think my feet could take it.” Even if I was really more worried about how my pride would hold up. “It was more fun than I expected, though.”
“It all depends on the group. I like to go on Wednesdays, because weekends are usually overrun with single guys looking to take someone home. Coincidentally, that’s why my granny and her friends like to go on the weekends.”
She made the face of someone who had to put up with the antics of a much-older person. I knew that face well, since I made it every day. “They seemed like they could get up to some trouble. Sweet, though.”
She’d introduced us to her grandma and her friends Wednesday night: Suzie, Carmen, Linda, and Rita. Loud and boisterous, they’d finished each other’s sentences and bested most of the others on the floor with their dance moves.
“You have no idea.” Callie tilted her head, screwing up her eyebrows. “Wait, didn’t you say you work at a retirement community? Maybe you have some idea.”
“Oh, yeah. People don’t always slow down with age the way you might think.”
“No kidding. They’re like gray-haired sorority sisters, always ready to party.” She cringed. “Uh, no offense if you were in a sorority.”
“None taken. A lot of my patients are the same way.”
“I guess we should all hope to have that kind of energy when we’re seventy-eight, right?”
“If only.”
She rested her chin on her hand, her pasta necklace clattering as she moved. “What brought you out to the honky tonk if you didn’t think you’d like it? It wasn’t a meddlesome grandmother.”
I ate a big bite of tortilla chip loaded down with salsa. Callie seemed pretty straightforward so far, so might as well just jump in and tell her the truth. In the spirit of friendship, and all.
“I’d made a bucket list of things to do before my birthday.”
Her eyes lit up. “And line dancing was on it?”
“Well…sort of.” I explained how it counted as conquering a fear, and some of the other things I’d been doing the last few weeks in an effort to add a bit more life to my life.
“I love it. But please, please do not mention your life list to my granny. She and her friends will come up with a list for me, and I really don’t want to know the kinds of things that would be on it.”
We laughed over that, but from all I’d seen, they’d treated Callie like she was a princess at every turn. They’d been a little pushy about keeping her on the dance floor and nudging her toward seemingly available men, but they’d showered her with obvious affection.
“They seem to want what’s best for you.”
“They do. We just define that differently. All of the things Granny and I do, the fun little classes and outings, are all so she can find me a man to take care of me.”
I couldn’t help cringing. “You’re twenty-four.”
If they thought Callie needed someone to match her up, I must have been a downright spinster in their eyes.
“Right?” She hitched a shoulder, pulling a chip through the salsa, her smile winking out. “I get it, though. I don’t have anybody else. My dad hasn’t been around since I was nine, and my mom died when I was in high school. Granny doesn’t want me to be alone, so finding me a husband is her way of making sure I’m taken care of. She wants me to be happy, but she really only means man-happy.”
My heart hurt for her, but shame washed over me, too. I’d been moping around because my closest relatives had found love and expanded our family, meanwhile Callie had lost everyone but her grandma. Kind of put things in perspective. “I’m sorry. That’s got to be hard.”
“It’s okay. I probably shouldn’t lead with such a buzzkill conversation starter.” She dialed her smile back up. “Who knows, maybe Granny will have better taste in guys than I did. My college boyfriend was not the best.” Her eyes went wide. “Sorry. I’m babbling.”
“Don’t apologize. I’ve dated some losers, too.”
“Sam didn’t strike me as a loser.”
“Oh, he’s not my boyfriend.” The automatic clarification felt wrong as soon as I’d said it. After everything we’d said last night, my knee-jerk reaction was still denial?
Callie’s cynical expression showed I hadn’t convinced her, either. “Okay. But the way he watched you all night gave total boyfriend vibes.”
