Page 4 of Callahan

“So, you decided to pay your respects on your way home…”

“And fulfill a promise.”

He cocked his head. “Anything I can help with?”

I got a good vibe from the dude and decided to take him up on his offer.

“Actually, yeah. If you wouldn’t mind.”

Chapter Three

Lainey

I couldn’t help but stare out the bakery’s window when the handsome man with the familiar close-cropped haircut walked by with a backpack.

His swagger suggested he was confident, but he didn’t give off a jerk vibe as he surveyed the town’s buildings.

I wondered who he was, and part of me was disappointed when he kept going as he passed by my shop.

I suspected I knew why he was in town, and it was bittersweet. I appreciated that Shawn had been loved and respected enough by his fellow Marines that there had been a trickle of them stopping by to pay their respects. But they were still coming to visit a headstone, not the man.

Just then, Conor’s wails emanating from the baby monitor floated over the din of the customers. I turned toward Paulina, the college student working behind the counter, and declared, “I’ll be back in a bit!”

Paulina was only two years younger than me, but our lives were vastly different. She lived at home with her parents and attended the local junior college, while I was one semester shy of my bachelor’s degree and was headed up the wooden stairs in the kitchen to my apartment above the bakery.

The bakery that I now owned, thanks to Shawn’s generosity. He’d provided for a son he hadn’t even known about when he died, and I was grateful to him for it.

“Hey, little man…” I soothed as I picked up my crying baby from his crib. “Are you hungry, sweet boy?”

I sat down on the tan upholstered couch I’d bought at the second-hand store. It matched the rest of my yard sale décor inthat none of it matched at all. I wasn’t complaining though—it was mine.

The next few years were going to be frugal ones as I got my business off the ground. But being my own boss and getting to keep my son close by was worth shopping at thrift stores and cutting coupons.

My parents were pissed that I’d decided to drop out of school and buy the bakery from Mrs. Riley instead. Well, they were pissed about a lot of things, although they came around about Conor the first time they laid eyes on him.

They discovered they loved being grandparents. Not enough to move back to Haven Springs to be near him, but at least I wasn’t getting the “you ruined your life” speech every time I talked to them. Promising to take online classes next year and finish my accounting degree probably helped, too.

Shawn’s parents hadn’t been excited about their first grandchild either. Especially since I wasn’t Catholic, and Conor was conceived out of wedlock.

Yeah, they werethatCatholic.

But also, they didn’t find out I was pregnant until after Shawn had been killed. I’d wanted to wait and tell him in person before I told anyone else.

But he died before I could do that, leaving me knocked up in a small town. I’d been gossip fodder ever since. Although, a lot of people felt sorry for me and made it a point to spend money at the bakery, so I guess there was an upside to their pity.

I don’t think Shawn’s mom and dad knew how serious we’d been and maybe thought I was trying to pass someone else’s baby off as their son’s to try and get his money.

I hadn’t even known there was money to be had.

I’d just wanted my child to have his father’s name on his birth certificate. I thought telling them was the right thing to do.

There had been radio silence from his family until Shawn’s effects were returned to them, and they found a will Shawn had written when he was in the Middle East. They honored his wishes by giving everything to me.

I knew they hadn’t had to do that. They could have destroyed the will or pretended not to see it and left it buried in a box, and I would have been none the wiser. So, I appreciated them. I liked knowing my son came from good people.

I’d worried when I bought the bakery and leased the entire building, Shawn’s family would think I was squandering the money he’d left me. Getting their approval had been more important to me than getting my own parents’ blessing. When I explained that I could live above the store and wouldn’t have to put Conor in daycare, they agreed it was a good idea. Although they voiced they wouldn’t mind watching him a few days a week.

I decided to wait until he was a little older before taking them up on their offer.

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