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Whether I’d be able to help with any of the others was up for debate.
Calvin was quiet as we pulled out of the long gravel drive and onto the street that would lead us back to Highway 60. Once we were cruising along at fifty miles per hour, though, he said, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Talk about what?” I said absently. My mind had already started picking at the details of Jack Speros’s murder, trying to see if it could come up with anything halfway worthy, and I hadn’t been paying much attention to my surroundings.
“About meeting your father for the first time.”
“Oh, that.”
Calvin was in profile to me, but I could still see one corner of his mouth lift slightly. “Yes, that.”
I pulled at the seatbelt so it wasn’t tugging quite so tightly across my distended belly, then shook my head. “I don’t really know what I should say,” I replied. “It’s like…I saw things in his face that I’ve seen in mine, and yet the whole situation didn’t feel quite real. I mean, I know that Jordan Fairfield is my biological father, but we still didn’t have any connection.”
My husband let go of the steering wheel so he could reach over and take my left hand in his right. Feeling his warm, strong fingers against mine helped to dispel some of the air of unreality that seemed to have descended on me from the first minute when Jordan’s eyes met mine.
“I think I can understand that,” Calvin said. “He’s never been a part of your life. There’s no reason to think you’d have some kind of immediate rapport.”
“But I did with Chloe,” I argued. “It’s like we clicked from almost the first moment we met.”
No immediate response, partly because we were turning onto the gravel lane that led to the house, and he had to slow down and pay attention to the road, still muddy in places from a storm we’d had over the weekend. “It must be very different connecting with someone who’s your sister, though,” he said. “You’ve told me before how it would have been nice to have siblings.”
Yes, I had. It wasn’t exactly that I was jealous of Calvin’s large family, but more that I saw something in their interactions that I’d never been able to experience in my own life. And there had also been the way I’d known I had a brother and sister out there but had always been told there was no way I’d ever be able to meet them.
Having a sister show up on my doorstep had fulfilled a dream I’d held deep inside for a long time. It was probably part of the same longing that had made me look at Archie as the brother I’d never had growing up…even while I had to recognize that sometimes he could be a royal pain in the rear.
Even so, I wanted him to always be a part of my life.
“I think it’s going to take me a while to process all of it,” I said after a long pause. “Honestly, after the horror stories I’ve heard about other people’s families, I suppose I should be glad that our reunion didn’t turn into something out of Jerry Springer.”
Now the faint lift that had been playing around the corners of Calvin’s mouth turned into an outright grin. “You’re probably right about that.”
Gravel lane turned into gravel drive as we pulled up to the garage and parked. I was silent as he got out of the Durango and came around to my side of the vehicle to help me out. Even a few weeks ago, I might have protested that I was fine and didn’t need the assistance. Now, though, I was only glad for about the millionth time that I was going through all this with Calvin Standingbear at my side.
We made our way to the front door and headed into the house. At once, Sadie came running up to us, tail wagging, while at the same time, her reproachful eyes told us exactly what she thought about us disappearing together like this. Under normal circumstances, she was used to the way we’d both head off to work for most of the day, but with the two of us returning home at the same time, she obviously thought we’d been off doing something fun involving walks and treats and maybe burgers.
“Nothing like that, little girl,” I said, while Calvin bent down to fondle her ears. Before I was roughly the size of a humpback whale, I would have leaned over to give her some love, too. Now, though, I knew risking that sort of maneuver might land me flat on my face. “But we’ll get you a treat to say we’re sorry.”
At the word “treat,” she went running off toward the kitchen, while my husband and I followed at a slightly more sedate pace. Luckily, the treats were located on a shelf in the pantry at roughly waist level, so I didn’t have to do anything more than pluck one out and hand it to Calvin so he could once again lean down to give it to the dog.
With Sadie taken care of, he fetched water for us. My mother’s lemonade was very good, tangy and not overly sweet, but I still wanted to clear my palate.
“Are you going to be okay here by yourself?” Calvin asked as I settled myself on the couch. “I told the guys at the station that I didn’t know how long I was going to be gone, but if I head back now, I can still get in a couple of hours.”
Guilt over pulling him away washed over me, even though none of this was my fault. Still, I knew Calvin had been doing his best to put in all his regular hours before he went on parental leave at the end of the week, and having him rush off to support me while my newfound sister got bailed out had definitely thrown a monkey wrench into those good intentions.
“I’ll be fine,” I replied at once. “The sign in the shop window says the store won’t be open until ten tomorrow morning, so that part’s handled. I’m sure the news has gone all over town already, which means I don’t have to waste a lot of time explaining myself.”
About all Calvin could do was give a rueful shake of his head. Since he was a native of Globe’s environs, if not the town itself, he knew even better than I did how effective its gossip grapevine was.
“I’ll only be ten minutes away — ” he began, and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
“I’m fine,” I said firmly. “No signs of early labor, nothing to tell me this baby isn’t okay with sitting it out and waiting for the appointed day. Go on into work — I’ll be here when you get back, waiting with my feet up.”
He obviously could tell that I didn’t want to be coddled, so he just bent down and gave me a quick kiss, told Sadie to keep an eye on me, and then headed outside.
As soon as the door shut, I wondered if I’d made a mistake in shooing him out. The house felt almost too empty with Calvin gone, although I told myself that was silly. I had Sadie here with me, and in a few hours, he’d come home and we’d put together something simple to eat. Back before it started getting harder for me to bend and lift in the kitchen, I’d gone kind of crazy for a week or two, putting together dishes that would be easy to freeze and reheat — soups, stews, all kinds of sauces. Right now both the freezer in the house and the big one in the garage were filled with enough stuff to keep us fed for at least the next three months, so finding something for tonight wouldn’t be too difficult.
In fact, that was what I should do now — go into the kitchen, decide about dinner, and then head back to the couch and find something interesting to fill the next couple of hours. Lately, I’d been spending far too much time watching home-improvement shows, but they were mindless and mostly entertaining, and I’d even picked up a few tips I thought I’d put to use when it came time to do something with the spare room.
