He’d been over to Denny’s, all right. He must’ve found his jacket there. She couldn’t see any blood on it, but the dirt ground into one sleeve suggested it’d been in a ditch or a field.
“Hello?” she called when she entered the house. “Anyone home?”
A tantalizing aroma drifted out of the kitchen.
“Hey!” Levi answered as Rifle trotted into the living room to greet her. “It’s about time you got here. Dinner’s almost ready.”
“Smells great.”
“You hungry?”
“Famished.” She’d skipped lunch for fear it would make her nauseous. She was afraid of eating, but her hunger prevented her from avoiding it now.
“Come on, then.”
“Be right there.” First she wanted to hide the advanced directive she’d printed off the internet when she stopped by the studio after Baxter’s. Since Tina had finished getting the slide shows of her recent shoots ready for the clients who were coming in tomorrow, Callie’d had the place to herself. Her doctor had advised her to fill out a directive several weeks ago, but she hadn’t been able to make herself face the decisions involved. What did she want her parents to do if she ended up on life support? At what point should they pull the plug? What other decisions would she want them to make if she could no longer decide for herself?
At thirty-two it seemed macabre to even consider those questions. The panic she felt at the thought of losing control over such basic things, even to people she trusted as much as her parents, nearly made her break into a cold sweat. But she figured she should be clear about her wishes while she had the chance, otherwise, she’d leave herself vulnerable to having no one in control.
“Can I pour you a glass of wine?” he called.
“No, thanks.” She dropped her purse on her bed, slipped the directive into her top drawer and hurried to the kitchen to see that he’d grilled salmon, steamed asparagus and prepared wild rice. “Wow, fancy.”
“Healthy. That’s how you eat, right?”
She wondered if he’d added any salt. Because of her liver problems, she had to be careful not to build up ascites, or excess abdominal fluids. She didn’t want to have to get a shunt to drain her abdominal cavity. She’d been warned about the danger. The excess fluid invited infection, which made it doubly bad. “You didn’t use much salt, did you?”
“No. Why?”
“I avoid it as much as possible.” She could rinse her asparagus and scrape off the fish....
“I went easy,” he assured her.
“Great. Thanks.”
He carried two plates to the table. “Anything exciting happen today?”
She smiled at how domestic it felt to have him cooking in her kitchen and serving her dinner. “Not really. I hear yours was eventful, though.”
“Who told you?”
“I got a call from Chief Stacy on my way home.”
A muscle flexed in his cheek. “Those bastards reported me?”
She nearly smiled again even though that wasn’t the appropriate response. She was just happy to see him. Somehow he helped her forget what she’d dealt with today. “You didn’t expect them to?”
“Actually, I did,” he admitted. “But what I said had to be said.” He shrugged as he got them both some utensils. “What’s Stacy going to do?”
“At this point, I don’t think he’s going to do anything.”
“Then why’d he call?”
She sipped the water he had waiting on the table. “To tell me that I shouldn’t be hanging out with you.”
He hesitated before taking his seat. “He still believes I’m dangerous?”
“He’s still concerned about your murky past.”
“Of course.”
“And...there might be a little more to it.”
His eyebrows arched in question.
“He hinted that he’d like to date me.”
That same muscle moved in his cheek. “He’s got to be over forty. There’s probably a fifteen-year age difference.”
“From me it’s only ten,” she pointed out.
“A decade’s significant.”
“It wouldn’t be if I was interested in him.”
He sat down across from her. “So what’d you tell him?”
“Nothing yet. He’s letting me ponder the fact that he has a good job.”
“Ah. One with a pension and everything. Tempting, huh?”
“Not really. A pension’s not what I need right now.”
He held his fork loosely in one hand. “What do you need?”
To get well, she thought, but smiled to camouflage the gravity of her reality. “A tasty dinner.”
* * *
After washing up, they decided to watch a movie. They were both exhausted. But Levi couldn’t relax when he sat on one end of the couch and, instead of sitting on the other end, Callie chose a chair off to the side. He might not have cared, except the decision seemed so premeditated. He knew she couldn’t see the TV as well over there. She’d selected her seat with other considerations in mind, and he was fairly certain he could guess what those considerations were. No matter where he walked or sat or stood, she put distance between them.
“Still holding a grudge?” he asked.
She was combing her fingers through Rifle’s fur while waiting for the movie to start. “What do you mean?”
He thought about trying to get past the encounter that obviously loomed so large in her mind, but decided against it. Today, when he’d taken out the trash, he’d found a bunch of unopened condoms Callie must’ve thrown away. Judging from that, she’d accepted his limits. He should be glad. That was what he’d intended, right?
Of course. So why couldn’t he stop picturing her in that sexy lace-up number she’d bought from Victoria’s Secret? And why had he rescued those condoms and shoved them under one of the couch cushions?
He certainly wasn’t hoping to use them with anyone else.
“I met your father today,” he said.
She’d just leaned back, but at this she sat up straight. “He came by?”
“For a minute.”
“What’d he want?”
“To take a look at the barn.”
She grimaced. “Did it upset him?”
“Not too badly. I got the impression he doesn’t let anything get under his skin.”
“No,” she said with a wistful smile.