Chapter 16

Cal finished the construction at the Avenues as scheduled. He hadn’t realized it, but Lisa had two big weddings she’d been working on, and the days passed, and one of the nuptials concluded.

He hadn’t attended the wedding for Jennifer Gardner, though he was good friends with her father. He’d taken Sierra to the reception though, left a card with a little bit of money, and said hello to Wyatt Gardner, the Chief of Police.

Because of the public nature of his job, there had been people crammed into the open-air reception hall. Cal hadn’t had much time to talk to Wyatt, which was probably okay. Cal didn’t have much to say anyway, seemingly to anyone.

He hadn’t said much to Lisa either. She’d texted him a little bit, and he’d responded when she did. But he hadn’t seen her in the flesh for nine days now, and he wasn’t even sure if they were still together or not. For all he knew, she could be going out with someone else every evening while he sat on his couch, dozing while he waited for Sierra to come home at night.

He spent more time thinking about and talking to Jo than he normally did, but he rationalized that he needed to, because their baby was about to go off to her first prom. He’d approved of the dress despite the sleeves being only on her upper arms and not actually over her shoulders. But the neckline was high, and it covered her back, and he’d decided shoulders showing were fine.

He literally couldn’t fight about everything, and the phrase “pick your battles” had really started to mean something for him.

Cal stood at the sink, rinsing out the bowls he and his daughter had used for breakfast when she came down the hall, the tell-tale click of her heels preceding her. She appeared with every little piece in place, from her curled hair pinned to the top of her head, to the dangly earrings she’d borrowed from Hailey, who stood behind her.

“Wow,” Cal said, still taking in the beautiful girl in front of him.

“I didn’t go crazy with the makeup,” Sierra said, and Cal nodded.

“No, you didn’t. Let me see the shoes.” He’d hated the red heels she’d first brought home, and they’d argued for an hour before she’d finally yelled, “Lisa said red heels! Why can’t I just keep them?”

But with that pretty dress, and his slim daughter, the heels made her look too old for him. A little bit too trashy. So he’d held his ground, and she’d taken the shoes back. Now she wore a pair of wedges with black straps across her feet and red ribbons that tied around her ankles. The splash of color was still there, but these shoes didn’t say anything about undressing his daughter and doing adult things with her.

“Let me take your picture,” he said. “Lisa will want to see.” If Sierra had noticed that his girlfriend had stopped coming over, she hadn’t said anything about it. Hailey moved out of the way, and Sierra posed so Cal could click a picture.

“You’re so pretty,” he said, gazing at her. “Your mother would’ve loved to see you like this.”

“I know, Dad.” Sierra came closer, and he hugged her. “Thank you for letting me go.”

Cal didn’t want to break down in front of anyone. He cleared his throat and stepped back. “Where’s your dress, Hailey?”

“My mom is bringing it,” she said. “She’s supposed to be here any minute.” She looked at her phone. “She better hurry up. The boys will be here in twenty minutes.”

As if summoned by her daughter’s displeasure, the doorbell rang. Hailey jumped toward it, and sure enough, her mother stood there with a garment bag. “I just picked it up. Let’s see if it fits.” She bustled into the house, throwing a look to where Cal stood with Sierra.

“Hey,” Amie said. “Wow, Sierra, look at you.” She beamed from ear to ear. “Can we…?”

“Yep, use my room,” Sierra said, and Amie went down the hall with Hailey.

Cal turned back to load the dishes in the dishwasher.

“So, did you break up with Lisa?” Sierra asked.

He dropped the two bowls, both of them clattering onto the lower rack. Straightening, he looked at his daughter. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

“You don’t know if you broke up?” Sierra rolled her eyes. “Dad, that’s not usually how things work.”

“Well, I’m not fourteen,” he said, a note of disgust in his voice. “I mean, you were with Travis one day, and then the next, you went to the outdoor cinema with Justin.” He set the bowls in the rack properly and looked at his daughter again. “Right?”

“Yeah, but I am fourteen,” she said. “And…you liked Lisa.”

He still did, but he didn’t know how to explain anything to Sierra. He didn’t understand so many things himself. “I told her I wanted to move a little slower,” he said. “So we’ve been texting.”

“Dad, that’s backward, not slower.”

“Hey, I see some of the things boys text you. Trust me, they’re not thinking slow when they say they want to get you alone behind the bleachers.”

Sierra rolled her eyes, but her texts kept Cal up at night. “Yeah, but those guys are scumbags,” she said. “You’re a nice guy, Dad.”

“So what do nice guys text?” he asked.

“They ask to sit by me at lunch,” Sierra said. “Or to ride our bikes up to the waterfall. That kind of stuff.”

“Sit by you at lunch.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “And who have you been sitting by?”

“Mikel,” she said with a smile. “And Dad, he’s nice too.”

Cal couldn’t respond, because Hailey came down the hall in her dress, and Sierra started shrieking. Amie made the two girls pose in front of the window so the natural light fell onto their faces. She told them how wonderful they were, and kept tucking stray strands of hair back where they belonged.

She said, “Now, listen, ladies. If any of these boys—”

“Mom,” Hailey said, darting a glance at Cal.

“Oh, I want to hear this,” he said. “Go on.”

“You’re fourteen years old,” Amie said. “Too young for sex. Don’t go off alone with your date. You may think he’s a nice guy, but he’s still a hormonal, fourteen-year-old boy.”

Cal was in awe of how Amie could lecture, and he wished he’d taken a video of her.

“Stay together,” she said. “Watch out for each other. You have a phone. Use it if you need to. We will come get you, no matter what, no matter where, no questions asked. Okay?” She looked at Hailey and then Sierra, who both nodded.

Amie looked at Cal. “Any last words? The boys will be here any second.”

“What she said,” Cal said, and Sierra giggled. “And I will be the bad guy,” he said. “If you don’t want to do something and don’t know how to say no, call or text me, and I’ll say no.”

“Oh, good one,” Amie said with a smile. “What’s our safe word tonight?”

The girls looked at each other, and Cal looked at Amy. “I just usually ask Sierra—is this something you want to do? And she can say yes or no.”

“That works,” Amie said as the doorbell rang. “Oh, they’re here. I get as many pictures as I want. No arguing.” She gathered both girls into a hug. “You’re going to have so much fun.”

Cal marveled at how easily Amie interacted with and seemed to relate to Sierra and Hailey. And he was totally stealing the idea of telling his daughter what he wanted and that she couldn’t argue.

“I get to answer the door,” he said, hurrying to step in front of Sierra. “And you can’t get mad at me for asking a couple of questions.”

“Dad,” she said, but she didn’t try to stop him. He walked over to the door and opened it to find two young men standing on his doorstep. A big SUV sat in his driveway, with a man behind the wheel and a woman in the passenger seat. The Palau’s. Cal raised his hand to wave to them, and then looked at the teenagers on his porch.

“Gentlemen,” he said. “What are your plans for tonight?”

“Uh, dinner,” Mikel said, his eyes wide and full of anxiety. “And then we’re going to the school.”

“What time will my daughter be home?” he asked.

“Midnight.”

“Your parents are driving the whole night?”

“Dad,” Sierra hissed behind him, and Mikel nodded.

“You don’t drink, do you?”

“Dad,” Sierra said louder now.

“No, sir,” Mikel said.

“What about you?” Cal looked at the other boy, whom he didn’t know.

“No, sir.”

“Our daughters will be safe with you?”

“Yes, sir,” they said together.

“All right.” He stepped back. “You better come in. Mrs. Fixdale wants a lot of pictures.” The two boys stepped past him and into his home, and Cal tried not to enjoy his fatherly role quite so much.

Amie did take a lot of pictures, and then they sent Hailey and Sierra out the door with their dates.

Cal leaned against the counter and sighed, and Amie collapsed into a chair at his kitchen table. “That was terrible,” he said.

“And it’s only the beginning,” Amie said.

They both started laughing, and she said, “I’ll send you some of these,” as she scrolled through her phone.

“That would be great,” he said. “Do you want some coffee?” He didn’t normally drink coffee in the evenings, and he was certainly already keyed up from the events that had just happened. But he knew his adrenaline would crash, and he had to stay up until midnight tonight to make sure everything with Sierra was okay.

“Yes, coffee would be lovely,” Amie said, smiling at him.

Cal turned to start making the brew when his doorbell rang again. He glanced at Amie, but of course, she didn’t know who it was. They moved toward the door together, and she said, “Watch, one of those boys is freaking out. I knew fourteen was too young for the prom.”

Cal chuckled and opened the door, expecting a lanky teenage boy.

He got Lisa. His gorgeous, blonde-haired goddess—Lisa.

Sucking in a breath, he tried to speak at the same time, and the result was a squeak.

“Hey,” she said, and then her eyes moved to Amie. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know…” She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked back at Cal, clear accusations in her eyes. “Did I miss Sierra? I wanted to wish her luck tonight.”

“The girls just left,” Amie said. “Cal was just putting on coffee.”

“Oh, was he?” Lisa glared at him now. “That’s funny, because Cal doesn’t drink coffee in the evenings.” She folded her arms, obviously waiting for him to say something.

Problem was, he had no idea what to say.