Page 12 of Coming Home for Fall
After they hung up, Callie lingered in the office for a moment, her shoulders drooping from the weight of having lied to her son. She’d promised David that she wouldn’t do anything of the sort. However, she faltered when she’d had the chance to be honest with Taylor. What was so bad about the kids finding out? She couldn’t put her finger on it at the moment, but she knew she needed more time.
I’ll tell them, she told herself as she left the office.Soon. I’ll tell them really soon.
Chapter 5
“I developed a taste for it when I was in India two years ago,” David said, halfway through a story when Callie returned to the dining room. “And now that I’m back in Ferndale, I can’t find authentic Vindaloo anywhere! No place around here makes it spicy enough.”
Callie groaned and started clearing the plates from the table. “Oh, god, David, please don’t tell me you’re boring our guest with your complaints about how bland the food is in Ferndale.” She gave Sasha a look. “This is an ongoing diatribe in our house. I’m sorry he’s subjecting you to it.”
Sasha chuckled and continued bouncing Dot on her lap. “That’s okay. I actually started talking about how much I love spicy food.”
“See!” David said defensively. “I wasn’t doing anything except bonding with Sasha over the greatness of spicy Indian food!”
“And he’s right about there not being any good options in Ferndale,” Sasha said. “If I won the lottery, the first thing I’d do is find the best Indian chef in the country and have them to cook for me every day. Or give them the money to open a restaurant here.”
David snapped his fingers. “I like that second idea. That way I can enjoy the food too. Is that selfish?”
“Nope. We need to bring better food to this place for everyone’s sake.” Sasha chuckled.
“Agreed,” David said before turning his attention to Callie who reached for his glass. “Don’t do that.” He shooed her hand away. “I’ll clear the table and do the dishes.”
“That’s okay. I—”
“I insist,” he said. “You cooked, I clean.”
“I can help too,” Sasha chimed in.
“Now that’s where I draw the line,” Callie said. “You’re a guest here and it’s your first night. You will not be lifting a finger, young lady.” She sighed and put the plates in a stack at the end of the table. “But if David insists on doing the dishes, I’m not going to stop him.”
David laughed and got up to finish the job Callie had started. “We’ll continue this conversation about dream restaurants later.”
Sasha smirked. “Looking forward to it.”
As David took the plates into the kitchen, Callie suggested that she and Sasha sit in the living room to digest a bit. Once they were comfortable, Callie watched the baby suck on the ear of a little plush bunny and sighed with content.
“So, Sasha,” she started eventually, “you seem to know a lot about the Ferndale food scene—or lack thereof. Does that mean you grew up around here?”
“Not far.”
“One of the other little towns in the area then?”
Sasha nodded but didn’t meet Callie’s gaze. “Yeah, a few of them, actually. We moved around a lot when I was younger.”
“Ah, I see. Army brat?”
Sasha furrowed her brow. “What?”
“Oh—sorry. That’s maybe an outdated term. I swear, I’m not calling you a brat. I was just wondering if one of your parents was in the military? There aren’t a lot of bases in the area, but I thought that might’ve been why you guys moved a lot.”
“Oh. No. We just… moved.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why really.”
Callie didn’t push her on this, feeling the tension in the air. Sasha took the toy from her baby girl once it was dripping with drool and wiped Dot’s mouth with her spit up bib. “So, this is what you guys do on the weekends,” she said. “What happens during the work week? Are you both gone all day?”
Callie shook her head. “No, just David. He goes into the office most days, although he’s usually home before five now that they’re really just keeping him on to train his successor. I teach a class on Tuesday nights, which is the only day I have to actually be on campus, but during the week I usually grade papers and take video calls with my students who want to meet up.”
“Do you have an office?”
“No, I prefer to work on the porch.” She motioned with her head to the beautiful wrap around deck that could be seen through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Their house was right against a preserve, and they were on a sort of bluff, meaning their deck looked out over a forest. Though the trees were still taller than the house, the back deck was about 100 feet off the ground, providing a breathtaking view. They were so high that Callie could see birds building their nests and tree frogs climbing to escape the predators that lurked on the forest floor. She loved nothing more than to sit outside on that deck. Since the day they’d moved in, it had been her happy place.
