Page 11 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

“Danielle named Callum as Chloe’s guardian.”

“She did?”

Amos nodded.

Why would she do that? As far as I knew, Callum hadn’t been in touch with her. But then again, I hadn’t been in touch with Callum, so maybe the two of them were close now.

“So does that mean…is he…did he come back to stay? To live here?”

The bell rang, indicating the doors of the school would be opening, and students would be flooding the halls.

Amos and I both stood. “I don’t know details. All I know is he’s back.”

As I walked down the hallway toward my door, my head was ringing. All I could hear was white noise. I tried to look at the positives; at least I wasn’t going crazy. I hadn’t imagined seeing Callum; it had been him. The realization that he wasn’t just a figment of my imagination should have made me happier than it did; instead, I didn’t know how to feel.

Callum Knight was back in Firefly. He was here. After ten years. And he probably hated me.

I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up again, and this time I was stone-cold sober.

4

CALLUM

“Something smells delicious.”I inhaled the fresh scent of coffee and bacon as I walked into the kitchen and found my mom standing at the stove with her back to me.

The sizzling popping of grease combined with the delicious aroma wrapped around me like a warm hug. It had been so long since I’d had any of my mom’s home cooking. She visited Arizona several times a year, but I never let her cook when she came to see me because I wanted her to relax while she was on vacation, even though she reminded me her life was a vacation because she was retired now.

Growing up, my mom spent the majority of her time in the kitchen when she was home. She madeeverythingfrom scratch. Not only all of our bread, tortillas, pasta, sauces, soups, cakes, cookies, brownies, and ice creams, but she also made her own condiments. We had homemade ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, and salad dressings. It didn’t stop there. Other kids had store-bought snacks in their lunch boxes; I had homemade fruit roll-ups, Twinkies, chips, applesauce, granola bars, and pretzels. We grew everything out on the farm,which Buzz always tended to, so the ingredients were literally farm-to-table.

Just like the town, I never appreciated it growing up, but now I did. Now that I had a child, whom I had to feed, and I worked full time, I had no idea how she did it. Sure, she had Buzz, who helped, but other than that, she was pretty much a single mom because my dad always worked long hours. He only made it home for dinner or before my bedtime—maybe two nights a week. I thought my dad was always so busy because of the demands of his job as mayor. Hindsight and a will reading being 20/20, it turned out his time was being spread thin because he had a whole other family.

“When did you get home?” I asked.

“A couple of hours ago.”

“You should’ve gotten me up.” I crossed the kitchen toward her.

“No, you need your sleep.”

I hadn’t gotten much sleep at all these past few nights. This town, this house was like one giant photo album of snapshots I’d tried to erase from my mind. Everywhere I looked, I saw her. I saw Nadia. Her home life hadn’t been ideal, so she’d spent a lot of time out here at the farm. Every square inch of these four walls contained her. She’d been in every room; we’d shared moments in each space. There wasn’t any place I could be on this farm to escape her.

When I went into town, it wasn’t better. Each outing turned into a stroll down memory lane, whether I liked it or not. There was the added pressure of would I or wouldn’t I have a sighting of her. Every blonde that I saw, I thought was her. I would freeze and wouldn’t exhale until I saw that it wasn’t. Each time I was both relieved and disappointed. I knew that it was inevitable; I would run into her, but I didn’t feel ready yet. Somehow, ten years hadn’t been enough time to prepare me.

“Thanks for letting us stay. I missed you.” I walked behind my mom and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, which at five feet, I had to bend over to reach.

“Where else would you stay? This is your home. I missed you, too.” She turned to give me a hug before returning her attention to the skillet of bacon.

As she did, I noticed a few changes in her since the last time I’d seen her. First, she had a new hairstyle. All my life, my mom had the same look. She had what she called mousy brown straight hair that was always cut in a bob with bangs. But now her hair fell a good few inches past her shoulders in beach waves with blonde balayage highlights, which was a term I only knew because Felicity was a beauty influencer. I’d learned all sorts of beauty terms over the seven years we’d been together. My mom’s bangs were gone, replaced with a middle part and layers that framed her face.

And her transformation didn’t stop there. Her face was dewy and sun-kissed, which I could attribute to her being on a cruise, but her eyes even appeared to be brighter. She was wearing mascara and a deep red lip stain that complemented her glowing golden skin.

“Wow, Mom, you look… so beautiful. I love your hair.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she downplayed. “It’s something Caroline’s been wantin’ to try for years, and I finally let her talk me into it. No big deal. Do you want some coffee?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Yeah, I can get it. You didn’t have to do all this.” I reached over her head and grabbed a mug from the cabinet.

“I don’t mind. I’ve missed having someone to cook for. You know how Buzz is.”

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