“Either way, this was my fault, and I intend to take responsibility for it. Financially, I mean.”
Callie gave her daughter a look. “You and I both know your father would never let you pay for a new one. The coffee spill was an accident, and it’s like your dad said, it was an old laptop. He’s been needing to upgrade for a while now, so this just gives him an excuse to pull the trigger.”
Mallory seemed to take a moment to chew on this bit of information. “Alright, well, I still insist on paying for the repairs at least. James already said he was going to give me a good discount, so it shouldn’t be that expensive.”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Callie said, again trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing.
“The discount?”
“No. James.”
Mallory frowned. “What about James?”
“Nothing in particular… He looked really good though, don’t you think? If I hadn’t figured out he was in your graduating class, I never would’ve guessed he was a day over thirty-five. Did you know he still lived in the Ferndale area?”
“Nope.” Mallory walked over to the fridge and took out a diet soda. “Not until he showed up to fix the computer.”
“So, you haven’t kept up with him?”
“I haven’t kept up with anyone from high school.” She snorted. “Why would I? All the people I hung out with weredeadbeats who accused me of cheating to graduate, which was valid, but it still hurt. And everyone else pretty much ignored me or was rude.”
“But not James!” Callie said, brushing past Mallory’s comment about having graduated by cheating. She hated thinking about that factorthe role she’d played in the situation. “He wasn’t rude to you, was he?”
Mallory shrugged. “I guess not. But we ran in different circles, in case that wasn’t obvious from the fact that he was valedictorian, and I was almost a dropout. My guess is we didn’t say more than a couple dozen words to each other the entire four years of high school.”
“Well, maybe it’s time to remedy that,” Callie suggested. “He seems like a nice guy. You should invite him over for dinner one night.”
Mallory laughed. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’d say no.”
Callie balked. “He has no reason to say no!”
“I disagree.” Mallory folded her arms. “Think about it, mom. He’s a grown man with a nice job and, as you already noted, he’s notunattractive,” Mallory said, listing these things off as if they led to an obvious conclusion. Callie, however, didn’t know where she was going with this, so she just stared on until her daughter explained herself. “He probably has a girlfriend. Or a wife. He doesn’t need a dinner invite from some unemployed loser from his high school, andIdon’t need the humiliation of asking him and face rejection from a kid who used to get swirlies on a weekly basis.”
“Swirlies?” Callie didn’t mean to focus on that detail in particular; it’d just been such a long time since she’d heard someone use that word. She didn’t even think kids actually did that to each other, but perhaps James was just that unlucky.
“Yeah,” Mallory said, sucking air through her teeth like she was in pain. “James was a huge dork in school, and he got bullied. A lot.”
“That’s so sad!”
“Sure, it’s tragic, but he grew out of his awkward stage, so I don’t think we need to feel that bad.” She cracked open her soda and took a big swig. “Anyway, this has been a great talk, but I have some errands to run, so I’m going to head out. Is it alright if I borrow your car?”
“That’s fine.” Callie had gotten as much information out of her daughter as she knew was possible, so she decided to quit while she was ahead. “You can have it for the rest of the day. I’m not planning on going anywhere else.”
“Sounds good.” Mallory smiled and swiped Callie’s keys from where they sat on the kitchen counter. “Text me if you need anything while I’m out, but I won’t be long. I just need to pick up a few odds and ends. James also mentioned he might have news about the computer within a couple of hours, so I suppose I might stop by the shop if need be.”
“If that is the case, then you should at least try and find out if the man is married.” Callie winked at her. “And if he’s not, invite him over. You can tell him thatIinsisted, if that makes you feel better about extending the offer.”
Mallory rolled her eyes. “If you like James so much, then maybeyoushould ask him for dinner.”
Callie gave her a coy smile. “You know what? If I see him out one day, I might... just for you.” She winked.
Chapter 4
Later that evening, Callie savored a glass of red wine on the back porch and enjoyed the last bit of sunlight before it became too dark and cold. While the season for sitting outside later in the day was ending, Callie looked forward to the coming snowfall. She loved watching the snow dust the trees in her backyard—creating a quiet and majestic scene.
