Page 45

Astrid

“Ruby?”

When I answer the phone, I don’t know what to expect. It’s not like we’re close friends, and I’m still trying to figure out what she could possibly want when her voice comes through the phone, panicked.

“Astrid,” she blurts “I just got off the phone with Grayson, but I thought I should…Callie is missing.”

My heart drops, and I switch my phone to the other hand, coming to a stop and bringing it to my ear.

I’m standing in Sloane and Cal’s driveway, my rental car still clicking from the long drive back. It must have snowed in Milwaukee the entire time I was gone, because there’s a thick layer of it they haven’t plowed yet, soaking into my new snow boots.

“Callie is missing,” I repeat, for once not feeling the cold on my face. After my revelation at the pier, I didn’t even tell Sloane I was coming back. I just rented a car and started to drive, making my way back across the country and toward them.

It gave me a lot more time to think, to replay that moment between Grayson and me. And the worst part is I’ve never felt more confused about what I feel, and what I want.

“We were shopping,” Ruby says. “And we stopped for lunch. She went to the bathroom, and I didn’t think anything of it. Then it was a while, and when I went to check on her, she was gone. There was one of those little windows in the stall, and it was open—God, it was just like a stupid movie or something!”

Ruby lets out a little laugh that sounds almost near a sob.

“Why…are you telling me ?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound flippant.

“She was talking about you,” Ruby says, after a moment of hesitation. “I thought maybe she’d contacted you.”

“She was talking about me ?”

“Well, she said she hadn’t seen you in a while, and missed talking to you. That’s when she went to the bathroom.”

I know exactly where Callie is. I climb back into the car and drive to the center. When I get there, my badge works right away.

I’ve been working remotely, turning the edits for my planning into Georgia while gone. The center is less busy during the school year, only offering a limited after-school program. I pull my phone out and text Ruby to let her know where we are.

I skip the building altogether, walking through the gate and right into the playground in the back. As I walk, my boots crunching over the snow, I realize I could be completely wrong about this, and it’s going to look pretty silly if I am.

But when I lean down and look inside the plastic tube, Callie is there in her winter coat and boots, knees to her chest, her terrified expression morphing to surprise when she sees me.

“ Astrid ?”

“What are the odds?” I ask, already pulling my gloves off and tucking myself into the tube, just like that first day all those months ago. “That we would see each other here again?”

Callie is quiet, shivering as she looks down at her feet, which prop against the other side of the tube. “You didn’t have to come.”

“Sure I did,” I fold myself inside next to her, and realize just how cold it is, little to no insulation from the freezing temperatures. Sitting closer to her, I try to warm her up a bit with my body heat.

“Do you think Ruby will forgive me?”

“I do.” I let my head fall against the plastic behind me and take a deep breath of the frigid, sneaker-y smell. “But, why did you leave?”

Callie is quiet for a long time, then she says, her voice small, “I’m pretty sure Grayson doesn’t want us anymore.”

That makes me sit up again, and I turn to her eyes wide. “What are you talking about?”

Callie shrugs, picks at a thread on her coat. “He’s been gone all the time, and he left us with that dumb babysitter. When she quit, he got really mad at me.”

“She quit?” Maybe it’s not the right thing to focus on. Callie glances at me, her eyes welling with tears.

“She kept calling me Calliope,” she whispers. “Said it was such a pretty name, and she didn’t want it to go to waste. I told her to stop, and she wouldn’t. It just…reminds me of my dad.”

“That’s not okay.” I reach over and put an arm around her, pulling her close to me, feeling the tiny shake of her chest. “I’m sorry she did that.”

Callie takes a shuddering breath. “And now, we’re going to foster care.”

“I don’t believe that,” I say, squeezing her a bit. “Didn’t your dad ever get mad at you?”

“Yeah.”

“And did he put you in foster care?”

“No, but he was required to love me.”

Something about that shoots through my heart, and I pull back, waiting until she meets my eyes. “Callie, nobody is required to love you. Every person who loves someone is making that choice, choosing you every single day. That’s what makes love special. And I can promise you that Grayson is choosing to love you guys. He’s never going to let you go unless you want him to.”

Callie crumples into my chest, burying her face in my coat, and I hold her until we hear the sound of another car crunching into the snow outside the building.

“Callie?”

It’s Grayson, his voice ringing out through the playground. I glance at her, and she pulls back, wiping the tears from her face and nodding.

Together, we climb out of the tube, hand-in-hand.

Seeing Grayson again is like a bucket of ice water over my head, and I have to grip on tight to Callie to keep from swaying at the force of it.

He looks so handsome, in a pair of jeans and his lined jean jacket, his hair poking out from under his hat. My fingers itch to reach out and touch him, trail over his face, catalog anything that’s changed in the days that we’ve been apart.

“Oh, thank God,” Grayson says, wasting no time in stepping forward and wrapping his arms around Callie. “What were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry,” Callie hiccups, just as Ruby rounds the corner and stops, one of her hands on the fence, the other on her heart.

“You’re okay,” she breathes.

“I’m really sorry,” Callie repeats, before breaking into another round of sobs. Grayson just keeps hugging her and rubbing her back, and when I look up, I see Luca, Maverick, and Callum standing just outside the gate.

Maverick steps forward and puts his hand on his wife’s back, consoling her.

The strike of jealousy that runs through me is so strong I have to take a step back, and then another, until I’m halfway back to the building.

“Astrid!” It’s Grayson, calling after me, and though I want nothing more than to pretend I didn’t hear him and run inside, I turn, biting my lip to keep from crying when I see his face. He’s a few steps away from Callie, like he started to follow me, then stopped.

He clears his throat and says, “Thank you.”

Before turning around and finishing my walk to the building, I say, fighting the tears behind my throat, “Anytime.”