Page 112 of Bad Luck Club

She’d just responded with a heart emoji. Then added,He’s very real. Your sanity isn’t in question. At least not over this.

No texts had come in from Lee.

She wasn’t sure what to expect at the Charlotte airport. Bear had never told her who’d be picking her up, just that someone would be, and she’d trusted him enough not to question it. Maybe it would be a stranger with a handwritten sign in Sharpie, or perhaps someone from the club. Relief cascaded through her when she saw Cal waiting for her outside of security, his tall, broad presence a comfort. He didn’t say anything. Just hugged her. For all that he and Bear were different, they both hugged the way a person should—wrapping the other person up as if they were a present. Then he took her bags from her and led her out to the car.

They didn’t speak again until they were in his Outback, headed toward Asheville.

“My dad told me what happened with Lee,” he said softly, shooting her a look. “I’m sorry, Blue.”

“But you never liked him,” she blurted.

He raised his dark eyebrows. “Why do you say that?”

She just gave him a look, and the next time he snuck a glance at her, he laughed.

“Okay, in the beginning, when he came in, in his button-down and expensive slacks, talking about his life in the ‘city,’ as if New York were the only city that counts, I’ll admit I wasn’t sold. It didn’t help that he was clearly looking down his nose at us. But he seemed different last week.” He rubbed his jaw. “Dad and I noticed how much he liked you. The way he kept looking at you.” A smile lifted his lips. “And yeah, I realize I’m making my dad and I sound like an old married couple, but when in the Cluster, I guess.”

“You’re the one who nicknamed it that,” she reminded him, but his words were swirling in her head.

“That’s where we’re going, by the way. Dad insists that you shouldn’t be alone right now. In fact, I might as well tell you now that he spent half the night baking muffins and scones for breakfast and God knows what for the luau. I doubt you’re hungry, but Harry says he’s going to leave work early and bring Buford over. I doubt Dad will even notice if you slip some scones to Buford and pretend you ate them.”

“I suspect that would backfire hilariously,” she said with a wobbly smile. “Besides, rabbits can’t eat that kind of thing. It would make him sick.”

“Well, we can’t eat it all either. If he keeps going on like this, I’m going to need to encourage him to start a bakery.”

“That’s not a half-bad idea,” she said with a smile. She liked the image of Bear running a bakeshop, dispensing life advice with his cookies and cakes. “You’re both creators, you and your dad.”

He smiled. “So he tells me, while he spends two hours on a cake and I spend fifty on a table. Maybe I chose the wrong thing to create.” He stole another glance. “How are you doing, Blue? Really.”

“He hasn’t reached out to me, Cal. He hasn’t even texted me. The last thing he said to me was to get my things out of his room and leave.”

Her voice hitched as she said it. She remembered the week and a half Lee had spent without contacting her last time, after his first meeting with the Bad Luck Club. Was he just going to ignore her until he couldn’t?

He rubbed his jaw again. “I reckon he’s embarrassed. I would be. If you ask me, he’ll want to talk to you in person, get things settled the right way. That’s not going to happen through a text message.”

Huh. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“Now, I’m not saying you didn’t do the right thing by leaving last night. I think you did. Both of you needed some space.” He shook his head a little. “A real piece of work, your ex-husband.”

“You’re telling me. But I don’t think he’ll be bothering me again.”

He smiled again, his nose scrunching a little in a way that reminded her of Bear. “No, I don’t suppose he will be. He’ll be lucky if he can walk right. My wife stepped on my foot in a stiletto heel once—not on purpose, I don’t think—and I was limping for a week.”

Surprise fluttered through her.

One of the reasons Bear and Cal had started the Bad Luck Club was because Cal’s wife had died recently—something she knew because of her sharing of truths with Bear before she joined the club—but she didn’t know anything more about her, or about Cal’s background. He’d never once mentioned his wife at any of the club meetings, or even outside of the club, at the house he shared with Bear.

She’d never so much as seen a picture of her.

“You don’t usually talk about her,” she commented, watching him.

Something flickered behind his eyes, but he didn’t glance at her.

“No, I guess I don’t, but it’s not because I don’t think about her. I’m always thinking about her.” He paused, and for a moment she wasn’t sure what to do. Should she ask him questions? Pat him on the back? Offer to drive? She wanted to do all of those things at the same time, and it ended in inaction.

Could this be how Lee felt? Was he too overwhelmed to reach out?

Did it matter?

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