Page 36 of Every Star that Shines

As if Caleb hadn’t thought of that.

“It’s not fair to Emma.”

Noel paused, then turned to Caleb with a confused frown on his face. “How’s that?”

Caleb straightened and faced his friend. “Delanie’s going back to Vancouver as soon as the play is done. It’s not fair to Emma to have her think something might happen between me and Delanie when it won’t. She’s already got a huge crush on Delanie. I don’t want to break her heart worse than it already will be when Delanie leaves.”

“Not fair to Emma. Yeah. That’s what’s going on here.”

Caleb scowled. “You’re not a dad. You don’t know.”

With anger fuelling him, he grasped the completed set piece on the floor and heaved it upright, setting it in a wheeled stand that had been used for years. When he struggled with the unbalanced weight of the workbench, Noel stepped over and helped him ease in the far side, his broad shoulders straining beneath his heavy cotton work shirt.

“Thanks,” Caleb muttered, though he knew his tone didn’t sound all that grateful.

“Don’t mention it.” Noel stepped back to survey the completed piece. “Nice work.”

Caleb didn’t say anything, too annoyed to speak.

“You’re right,” Noel added, “I’m not a dad. But my dad is a pretty great role model, and if he taught me anything, it’s that you can be a good dad and be happy.”

Caleb frowned, thinking of the tall dark-skinned man with the easy smile who had taught him science all through high school. Carl Butler was one of those men who made it look easy to be a dad. Caleb’s dad, Marcus, was an excellent father, but he had been too busy with the farm to spend a lot of time with his kids while they were younger. Caleb had promised himself he would never let Emma grow up feeling like her dad didn’t have time for her like he had.

“Your dad’s a teacher, and so is your mom,” Caleb said. “While you and Derrick and Jenny were off on family vacations with your parents every summer, I was helping around the farm. I’m not complaining about my childhood, or my dad. They were both great. But Emma’s needs come first. As long as she’s here in Peace Crossing, I’m not going anywhere. And I don’t want to put Delanie in a position where she has to choose between giving up her dream to stay here with me or breaking up with me again so she can do what she was born to do.”

“So you’re going to reject yourself for her, is that it?” Noel shook his head. “Listen, most high school relationships dissolve after graduation, and with good reason. I mean, can you imagine if I had ended up with Madeleine Kennedy?”

Caleb chuckled. “She’s not so bad.” He hadn’t seen Maddy since the last time he’d gone into Pearl’s Petals to buy Monica flowers, so it had been a while. But Maddy had always been the kind of girl who held her own, which was maybe why she had already been promoted to assistant manager of the flower shop so soon after graduating. As far as he knew, she was practically running the place now.

Noel held up his hands. “No, she’s not. But, man, we fought all the time. I’m pretty sure the angels breathed a sigh of relief when we called it quits, because the general level of peace in the universe went up three degrees.”

Caleb snorted. “What’s your point?”

Noel laid a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. “My point is, it’s been ten years since you and Delanie split up. And you’ve never really loved anyone else, have you?”

It was more a statement than a question, but Noel still paused for a response.

Caleb gave a barely perceptible shrug. It hadn’t been for lack of trying to get over Delanie. But seeing her again had shown him how little progress he’d actually made in that department.

Noel leaned in. “Do you know how rare that is? Don’t you think you owe it to yourself, and to her, to see if you guys could have something great together?”

Caleb’s mouth went dry and he stared at his friend. He didn’t have a good response for that.

“At the very least, you’ll stop wondering what could have been.” Noel clapped his shoulder. “You’ll either find true love or closure. That would certainly be worth the risk to me.” Noel gave a knowing nod and stepped back.

The shrill jangle of a rotary phone filled the air, and Caleb pulled his mobile out of his pocket. When he spotted Delanie’s name, he swallowed.

Noel saw it too.

“You better ask her,” he said, pointing at Caleb with an admonishing finger as he moved off to work on his puppet controllers.

Caleb walked away as he answered the phone, retreating to the darkness of the wings around the end of the curtain.

“Yeah, hi,” he said. Why did he sound so curt? He took a breath.

“Everything okay?” Delanie asked.

“It’s fine. What’s up?”

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