Page 21 of Secret Love

Chapter 9

Fox

Ipark in front of the pawn shop and sit in the car for far too long. When my life was taken from me two years ago, I had to abandon more than family. I left my unit a man short in the midst of war. I left friends, some even closer than family.

Especially one.

The old fluorescent sign flickers above the entrance with a few missing letters. Fawn’s Pawn sits between a barber shop and a pet store, though it’s so small it’d be easy to blink and miss it. That sums up my memories of Caleb, too. All my days in Snake Eyes, I was truly afraid I’d blink and forget her. Or that she’d forget about me.

Finally, I stand up out of the car. A bell chimes when I open the door, but it doesn’t get a reply. Another man lingers on the right side of the shop, perusing a collection of old coins.

“No, he’s not here.”

I hear her voice somewhere behind the counter and I smile. She paces in the office doorway with a cell phone pressed against her ear and an annoyed sneer on her face. She looks exactly like she did out in the desert, but her auburn hair is much longer now. No sunburn either.

“I don’t know when Caleb will be back. He didn’t say.”

I pause in front of the counter to listen in.

“Yeah, well. I guess you’ll get your money when you get it. Gotta go. Bye.”

She hangs up and deflates, quickly tossing the phone down onto her desk as she stomps into the shop.

“Excuse me,” I say.

Caleb pauses mid-step and looks at me. Suddenly, we’re three years younger, surrounded by nothing but war and sand. In the span of a second, her heart breaks and fuses back together again. Mine, too.

“Get out,” she says.

I ease a step back. “Okay…”

“No. Not you.” She snaps her fingers twice at the other man in the shop. “You. Get out.”

He realizes that she’s talking to him and he holds up a shot glass. “I want to buy this,” he says.

“Just take it.” Caleb shoos him away as she steps around the wide counter. “On the house. Move it.”

He shuffles toward the door in confusion, but he sets the shot glass on the nearest shelf on the way out. Caleb yanks the door closed behind him and bolts it as she flicks the open sign off. She pauses there with her hand on the door and her head down in a thick, heavy silence.

I take a step forward. “Caleb.”

“If this…” she slowly turns, “is some kind of sick joke…”

“It’s not.”

“You died.”

I nod. “I know.”

“There was a funeral,” she says. “I met your fucking mother.”

“I didn’t die. Not… in the traditional sense, anyway.”

She laughs. “What the hell does that even mean? Where have you been? What happened to you? No.” She waves her hands. “Wait. Don’t tell me. Just…”

Her shoulders drop and she goes quiet with her hands resting akimbo on each hip.

I step closer. “Cal…”

“You died,” she says again, her voice cracking. “And I…”

“I know.”

I open my arms and she leans into the embrace. She takes her time, her hands slowly rising to hug me back as if I could disappear at any moment again. I wish I could say something more, something that would bring her comfort and closure.

But all I have is the truth.

“I need your help,” I say.

Caleb raises her head and nods.

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