Page 26 of Never Fall Again

“Landry?”

Oh no. He’d been talking to her, and she’d been thinking about how she’d been talking too much, and now she didn’t know what he’d said.

“Did I do something that’s upset you?” His face clouded with concern. “Or embarrass you?”

Great. He’d noticed her Technicolor skin. And she still hadn’t answered him. She had to speak. “I’m sorry. I talk too much when I’m nervous. And then I say something I think is dumb. Of course, I don’t realize it’s dumb until I say it, but then it’s too late. And what I said before? About your drama not being personal to me? I didn’t mean it like I don’t care or anything. Because I do. No one should ever lose a parent or a family member they love. I hate it for you and for your entire family. You seem like such nice people. And I’m sure your aunt is lovely. I mean, she’s Meredith and Mo’s mom, after all, and they’re both delightful. But—”

“Landry.” Cal held out his hands in the universal sign for “stop already.”

She nearly imploded from humiliation. She dropped her head. “I’m going to shut up now.” In her limited field of vision, she saw his feet stop a few inches from hers. He was so close she could hear him breathing.

Maisy leaned into Landry’s legs, and it took all her self-control not to drop to her knees and bury her face in the dog’s warm fur.

“Landry?”

She couldn’t look at him. What was wrong with her?

“First of all, I don’t want you to be nervous around me. If there’s anything I can do to make you more comfortable, please tell me.”

She didn’t answer.

“Second”—his tone had hardened, and she caught a hint of command in his voice—“I don’t know who made you doubt yourself, but what you said before? It wasn’t dumb. It wasn’t unkind. Itwas generous and affirming and gracious. I was the one who didn’t know what to do with my emotions, so I changed the subject.”

She blinked furiously but still didn’t look at him.

“Please don’t be upset. And please don’t feel like you need to censor yourself around me. I’d much rather know what you think or how you’re feeling than have to guess. And now,I’mgoing to stop talking. I’m fine if we pick up again like none of this ever happened. Even though we’ll both know it did. But that doesn’t mean we have to talk about it.”

She dared to raise her head. He smiled, pointed to a tree with a ribbon around it, and said, “I can understand why you want to keep that tree. It’s large and will give you a lot of shade. But if you keep it, we’re going to need to adjust the footprint of the house. If we don’t, we risk either damaging the roots during construction or having the roots damage the foundation later.”

“It’s a beautiful tree. How hard would it be to shift the house?”

“Not hard now. But the new footprint may take out a couple of trees on the other side.” With Maisy underfoot, they proceeded to measure, discuss, and imagine the layout of her home for the next thirty minutes.

Landry wasn’t sure when it had happened, but her skin had finally cooled to a normal temperature and her nerves dissipated. Cal never brought his cousins or his aunt into the conversation, but as they walked around the property and discussed her dream for a kiln and pottery studio of her own, Maisy slowly wandered away to explore. Landry took that as a good sign that Cal’s emotions were in a better place than they’d been earlier.

When Cal said goodbye thirty minutes later, he smiled easily and jogged toward the river with Maisy running in big circles around him.

She watched until he slipped out of sight. As she drove back to The Haven, she did her usual postmortem of their conversation.There’d been not one but two unfortunate verbal incidents. Her face heated at the memory. But Cal seemed to genuinely enjoy talking to her, and he’d been so gracious with the change of subject. Who knew? Maybe he’d eventually open up about his own fears for his aunt and cousins.

Regardless, one thing had been settled today.

She was going to enjoy having Cal Shaw as a neighbor.

Nine

Late Thursday morning, Cal’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen and answered. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, sweetheart. Are you planning to be in the office all day?”

There were a couple of reasons his mom would ask that question. Some were bad. Some neutral. But none were good—at least not for his ability to finish his to-do list today. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I hate to ask, but could Minnie and Abby hang out at your office for an hour after school?”

All things considered, this was a minor ask. “Sure. What’s going on?”

“I was supposed to be off this afternoon, but I have a patient in labor.”

“Your favorite.”

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