Page 15 of One Small Spark (Love in Sunshine #4)

TWELVE

WREN

My girls’ night was a bust. My date with Rhett was a bust. It’s time for a dose of the best self-care around: August cuddles.

I fire off a text to Tess before I leave the restaurant. She claims I’m welcome anytime, but not even I’m obnoxious enough to drop in without any warning. There’s already a car in the second parking spot on Tess’s side of the duplex when I get there, so I park in front of Ian’s half.

I check my phone, but she gave my text a heart. Thank goodness her guest doesn’t mean I can’t visit. I’d hate to go three for three with spoiled evening plans.

I don’t even manage to knock on the door before it’s pulled open and a little someone launches himself at me.

August squeezes me around the waist, his chin tipped all the way up. “Wren! Did you come to say goodnight?”

I heft him onto my hip. “Oof, you’re getting big, kiddo.”

“I ate a lot for dinner.”

His big blue eyes are so earnest and full of innocent, boundless love. Hugging him makes everything better.

“That must be it.” I set him back down and walk inside but have to stop short .

Charlie’s here. Everything in my life’s coming up Callahan lately.

She waves at me from Tess’s couch. I wave back with a shaky hand, sure she can tell just from looking that I kissed her brother yesterday. Maybe he left imperceptible flannel particles on me. Or…what if I smell like him now?

I wouldn’t hate it, but she might recognize the scent.

Ignore the woman having a mental breakdown, please.

“We’re sort of having a casual work meeting,” Tess explains. “Wedding stuff.”

Charlie’s in the process of converting one of the buildings at her family’s lodge into a dedicated wedding venue. Her offer to have Tess be their primary wedding cake vendor is part of what spurred my sister to finally go all-in with custom cakes at Blackbird’s.

I’m grateful to her. I like her. I just kind of wish she was anywhere else right now. If my evening with Rhett is any indication, I’m going to bring up Callahan in about three-point-five seconds. I don’t think my current audience will be quite so chill about a mistake like that.

“I just came over for some nephew time. I thought maybe I could read stories and put him to bed.” Weird how those sweet little routines you don’t even think about leave such a hole when they’re gone.

“I don’t mind giving up my privileges.”

I spin around to find Ian standing in the short hallway that leads to the two bedrooms. He’s wearing a long-sleeve henley and athletic shorts that reveal his prosthetic leg.

Just like randomly finding Daniel in my house, it’s still a little strange to discover a vision of manliness in a space that I expect to be mostly feminine.

Also, I’m continually impressed that Tess pulled in the burly redheaded pirate hottie. Go, sis .

“You can both read me stories,” August offers. Always finding solutions, this one.

Ian grins down at him. “How about you read to Wren tonight, and read to me and Dutch tomorrow?”

August beams his gap-toothed approval.

“I just want to point out that it takes a man and a dog to replace me,” I say to the room at large.

“I’ll tell you goodnight now, though.” Ian drops to one knee and holds out his arms. August trots over to hug him tight.

Seeing a guy with a man bun and thick beard hold a child like he’s precious to him makes my heart turn to goo. No wonder Tess fell so freaking hard for the man.

After, August leads me into his bedroom. Tess does his nightly blood sugar checks, kisses his cheek, and tells him goodnight, too. Then, it’s just me and my little man.

We read about cars and trucks having adventures.

Pigs and worms with the worst luck. Chickens staging a revolt against their farmer.

All the while, his head rests against my shoulder, getting heavier and heavier.

He’s got the stuffy I made for him tucked under one arm, its dual tails peeking out from beneath the coverlet.

“Are we going to have Wren Wednesday this week?” he asks in his sleepy voice.

I smile over that. “You bet.”

His school has early release on Wednesdays. Sometimes he goes to daycare early, but other weeks, we cycle through who gets to pick him up and have special time with him. This week’s mine. And I can’t wait.

“Can we go to the park?”

“Sure.”

“Can I ride my bike?”

“Of course.”

“Maybe you can bring your bike, too. ”

I laugh, picturing it. “My bike isn’t safe to ride.”

The old bike I got in middle school is still in the garage at home. The frame’s rusty, and both tires are flat and probably unusable. I’m sure it has more dangerous defects I can’t even recognize. But it’s sweet August wants to include me in his fun.

“You could fix it up,” he says.

I refuse to imagine the look on Callahan’s face if I were to roll that thing into his shop. He’d laugh me right back out the door.

“For now, I’ll be happy to watch you ride your bike,” I tell August.

“I’m good at riding.” His mouth opens wide in a big yawn. “I hardly use the training wheels anymore.”

“That’s because you’re awesome.” I kiss his forehead. “Love you, buddy.”

“Love you, too, Wren.”

I wish I could say the moment clears my mind, but it soothes my heart, and that’s more than enough.

I join the others in the living room, hopefully betraying nothing of my tumultuous thoughts.

“Rough day?” Tess gestures for me to take the empty armchair across from Ian. She and Charlie are on the couch, a tablet between them with a gallery of wedding cakes on the screen.

“I don’t want to interrupt your meeting.” I drop into the chair anyway.

“You’re not.” Charlie sets the tablet on the coffee table. “I’m venting about Leo more than we’re talking about venue business.”

“You and Leo?” I didn’t think I was so out of the loop with town gossip I would have missed that nugget.

“No. No way. Not like that.” Charlie’s got both hands up, the perfect definition of denial.

I’m getting a weird sense of déjà vu right now.

“He’s working at the lodge with me,” she explains. “My parents asked him to help with some marketing as we get the venue off the ground.”

“Yeah. A retired NFL player marketing a wedding venue. I can see that.” Not that Leo wouldn’t do it. Ego doesn’t seem to be a big problem for him.

“I know. But he’s like a second son to them, and they love having him around. He’s practically my brother.” Her nose wrinkles on the last word. “But he’s constantly underfoot and has way more energy than I know what to do with. The man needs a hobby.”

Tess laughs. “As a retired NFL player, I’m pretty sure this is his hobby.”

“It’s got to be hard for him to adjust to a life without football,” Ian says. He knows a thing or two about starting over. After he lost his leg, he had to reevaluate his whole career, too.

“I’m sure his millions of dollars will help him adjust.” Leo’s a great guy, but I don’t know how sad I can be about him not getting paid big bucks to play his favorite game anymore. Plus, he doesn’t seem all that distraught.

But looks can be deceiving, can’t they?

For example, when the broody, unassuming guy kisses you like he’s on death row and you’re his last meal. Didn’t see that one coming.

“That’s not very kind of you, Wren.” Leave it to Tess to mother me a little.

“No, she’s right,” Charlie says with a laugh. “He’s going to be fine. He’s got a lot of ideas for what he wants to do next. I’m sure he’ll land on something that makes sense. Until then…” She gusts out a sigh. “I get to be his boss.”

“Lila’s trying to get the two of us to do some kind of local promo for the new Irwin’s store when it launches.” Ian shakes his head as if this is just as ridiculous as Leo marketing the wedding venue.

Except, in his case, he actually is a world-famous mountain climber. From all I’ve heard, Grant actually fanboys over him . He’ll fit right in at the outdoor store.

“Prepare yourself to be Lila’s new best friend.” Tess smiles over at her man. “Sunshine doesn’t have a lot of famous residents. You and Leo just might be the entire club.”

“What about that hotdog-eating contest winner?” I ask. “Nobody ever talks about her.”

Tess tucks her feet beneath her on the couch. “I think she moved to Arizona.”

“There’s that guy who came in last on that obstacle course game show a few years ago.”

I thought my week’s been embarrassing—that guy went down a thirty-foot slide and landed in a pool of Spaghetti-Os on national television wearing nothing but a Speedo and goggles. Things can always get worse.

“I don’t know if that counts as famous.”

“Richard Allred’s from here,” Charlie points out. “But I’m sure Lila doesn’t want to associate him with Sunshine with all those scandals going on.”

My entire body goes still. “What scandals?”

“Tax fraud and embezzlement, mainly. But he dabbled in sexual harassment, too.”

Tess shoots me a pointed look. She knows all about what happened with Richard—every last detail.

“Shepherd saw it coming,“ Charlie goes on, unaware of the silent conversation going on next to her. “He told me to steer clear of the guy years ago.”

Callahan told her? I’m breathing so hard, I’m convinced everyone in the room can hear my lungs working .

“Did he say why?” Tess, sweetheart that she is, must sense I’m spiraling.

Charlie’s mouth takes a sour slant. “He said Richard was sniffing around a local businesswoman, and Shep overheard him saying some nasty things about her. Stuff right in line with a guy who has four sexual harassment lawsuits against him in the works.”

An invisible knife twists deep in my chest, pinning me to my chair. I gulp on air, my mouth desperately dry. “Did he say who it was?”

“He didn’t tell me, but I’ve never seen him so angry. He said he was super close to beating the crap out of the guy right then. Probably would have wound up in jail, but it would have been worth it.” She grins like she’s proud of him, but her smiles slips away the longer she looks at me.

I don’t want to know what my face is doing. I’m horrified by her story, but not for the reasons she must think.

“Shep’s not a violent guy, normally,” she rushes to add. “He’s just protective. He wouldn’t hurt anyone who didn’t have it coming.”

I’m smashed flat like that cartoon coyote after a run-in with a boulder. I am paper thin, liable to drift away on a breeze.

I try to pull myself together and behave like a normal person, exhaling a weak imitation of a laugh. “No. He’s not like that.”

I can feel Tess’s gaze on me, but I don’t have the heart to look at her. I need three to five business days to process this. I’ve been dealing with so much new Callahan information, my brain can only take so much before it cracks right down the middle.

“It sounds like Shepherd saved that business a lot of headaches,” Tess says gently. “And that woman a lot of heartache.”

“I thought—” My attempt at total casualness dies when I can’t make my tongue work. I swallow and try again. “I thought he made some kind of deal with Allred, though. A while back.”

Richard told me he did. It was his parting shot. But now that he’s been labeled a fraud, it’s hard to take that at face value.

“Shepherd never worked with him. His business funds came from the inheritance we got from our grandparents.” Charlie glances around at us. “They didn’t leave us a lot, but you know it doesn’t take much to help a small business.”

I nod like a bobblehead, my world flipping upside down yet again. I thought Callahan turned Allred against Blackbird’s, and me in the process. And ever since, I’ve been…

My stomach clenches. I’ve been horrible. I’ve sniped at him and been rude and generally awful to be around. I thought his terrible behavior justified mine.

But if Callahan’s the hero of the story, then it turns out…I’m the villain.