Page 52 of Like the Season
“You shouldn’t be driving yet,” he insisted.
“And I won’t. I’ll call an Uber.” When Boyd started to protest again, she cut him off. “Dad, I’m not an invalid. I’ve got this. I can use crutches. Please, you’ve gone above and beyond already. I appreciate everything you’ve done, but let me adult.”
He looked to Caleb for backup.
“Sir, she’ll be okay. She wouldn’t put herself or her baby in jeopardy.”
Boyd scowled. “I should beat you for using logic against me.”
Ella giggled. “Nah, that’s just not fair, Dad. What do you guys want on your pizzas?”
She placed the order while he and Caleb headed out to start unloading. They got her car off the dolly and unhooked that so Boyd could turn the truck around and back it up to the garage. By the time the food arrived, they had the garage rearranged and about half the truck unloaded, including taking her boxes of clothes into the guest room.
Sitting at the table, the three of them, Boyd felt an unexpected prickle of tears hit him, forcing him to blink them away.
Ella and Caleb both noticed.
“What’s wrong, Dad?” she asked.
“Nothing. I mean, seriously,nothing. Ever since I learned about you, I wanted…something. This, maybe, I guess. And now you’re here,withus. I just…” He felt at a loss for words. “I can’t wait for the baby to arrive.”
She smiled. “So when are we marrying you two off?”
The only drawback right now. “We need to be careful because of work. Once we can get Cay transferred, then we can do it.”
“It sucks you guys can’t be more open right now.”
“It is what it is.” He reached over and squeezed Caleb’s shoulder. “The important thing is we’re a family, and we know it, even if no one else can know it right now.”
By the time Sunday evening rolled around, Caleb hadn’t received any more calls or texts from his aunt, or from other family members. They’d unloaded all of Ella’s things and turned in the truck and car dolly. In addition to that, they’d retrieved more of Caleb’s belongings. Except for Caleb’s furniture, which they didn’t have room for in the house with Ella’s things in the garage, his apartment was empty.
Boyd was under no illusions that this uneasy silence from Caleb’s family was simply a break in the hostilities. They likely would make another play.
The problem was, they couldn’t live their lives anticipating it. Caleb was an adult, his family lived in a different state, and there literally was nothing they could do to him now.
Especially with his secret out.
All Boyd could do was sit back, try to keep Caleb distracted from thinking about them, and buffer him as best he could while they worked their way through being a new family together.
