Page 67 of The Light Within

Callum

Every day for the first two weeks, I drove to the top of the driveway of Wisteria Pine Estate, watching for theFor Salesign, and every day that it wasn’t there, I hoped she might come back. Perhaps she might have reconsidered after the time apart and realized she was as strong as I knew she was and could defeat the demons this town evoked.

It had become a ritual.

Until the day the sign appeared, exactly two weeks after the day she had walked out. Seeing the sign made my anger reel all over again as the reality that she wasn’t coming back sank in.

I told her not to come back. I had stupidly let the words fall from my mouth as if they were the truth, but they’d only been intended to shake some sense into her. I was a lovesick idiot, plain and simple. Blinded by wishing and dreaming, the truth of the indulgence Alina had shared was glaringly true.

I focused my attention on the store, and it was obvious my bear with a sore head routine was pissing off my father and worrying Simone. Charlie had even weighed in on occasion about the way I had spoken to both of them. So, I tried to avoid my family as much as I could.

I declined invitations for dinner or a beer with Charlie at the pub, opting for going home or to the hunting cabin to wallow in my own self-pity.

“Cal!”

Charlie’s voice broke into the thoughts of my miserable life. I had been over the same page more than three times trying to get the account to balance, a job that was usually Simone’s, but she’d taken the day off, claiming to be sick. Her fake coughing down the phone did nothing to convince me.

“What?” I snapped, spinning in the chair to face him, where he stood in the doorway.

“I can see the little ray of sunshine we all love has returned. Pack up your shit. We’re going for a beer.” Before I could protest, he shut me down. “It wasn’t a question, mate, so I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Grumbling, I rolled my eyes while shuffling some pages around on the desk into a neater pile. Simone returning to a mess was unfair and likely to get my balls busted by my petite but brutal sister-in-law.

“So, what exactly did you do wrong to get sanctioned to the bar with me?”

“Chose scissors.”

“Huh?” I asked him, not following the riddle.

What the fuck did scissors have to do with anything?

“Scissors gets nailed by rock. Every. Damn. Time.” He shrugged before indicating the parking lot of the bar.

On entering the bar, Charlie nodded to Billy, who was seated at the opposite end of the bar. Our entry had tripled the patronage.

“I’ll have one, then I’m outta here,” I muttered as Charlie ordered us a pint each.

“Why, so you can go home and drink on your own? Not happening, brother. This hermit bit that you have gotten so used to is total bullshit. I want my brother back.”

“I’m right fucking here. Where else do you think I am?” I snarked back at him, my voice snappier than intended.

As the glasses were filled and placed in front of us, I handled mine while Charlie left his untouched and turned to me. “Look, we get it. You’re brokenhearted. We’ve all been there and had to deal with it, and we’ve all had someone standing by to kick us in the ass when we needed it, and this…” he waved his hand all around me like a teenage girl with a bad attitude, “… shit is getting ridiculous. We’re tired of the grumpy-ass-man routine. You’re biting everyone’s head off or ignoring them completely, and it has to stop.”

I was reconsidering even this one beer given the lecture I was copping from Charlie. I knew I had been acting like a total douche and probably taking it out on my family when they didn’t deserve it, but the world was black for me now. It was gloomy, and it was depressing.

Alina was gone, and she was the only one who had ever been able to light it for me.

“She left without even a proper answer, nothing, just some crap about it being too late.”

Charlie looked at me like I was speaking another language before the total asshole cracked a smile.

Glad someone is entertained by my own misery.

“Fuck you, Charlie. It’s not funny.”

“Are you listening to yourself right now? You’re pathetic.”

“Geez, thanks.”