Page 25 of Second Chance Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings #5)
She’d imagined having this conversation a million times; now that it was here, her mind was blank.
Last night, after she and Owen got home, she had to put Caleb out of her mind.
She couldn’t risk Owen picking up on her behaving strangely.
But after he went to bed, she stayed awake all night rehearsing what to say. But now, it was all gone.
Her knees were weak, her palms were sweaty, and as she reached to grab the handle on the door, she realized her arms were heavy.
All she needed was Mom’s spaghetti, and she would be a walking example of the lyrics to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” rap battle anthem.
Actually, it wasn’t a bad song to be thinking of heading into this conversation.
It was a song about people facing difficult situations, overcoming obstacles and struggles, and fighting self-doubt.
She pulled the door toward her and managed to walk inside, despite her legs being the consistency of wet noodles. The diner was much more crowded than she’d anticipated. Not that she had any frame of reference. She’d never been inside of it, only driven by.
Her eyes looked out over the room. She could see people’s mouths moving, and she knew they were talking and laughing, but all she could hear was the pounding of her heart and the whooshing of her breath.
The sides of her vision were starting to go black.
Thankfully, she saw Caleb standing in the back of the room, and the black that had started to crowd in on her went back out.
As she walked toward him, she was surprised to see that he had a smile on his face.
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but he didn’t look mad, and she was relieved.
So clearly, even if only subconsciously, she thought he was going to be mad.
Nothing she’d learned about him would have made her think that would be his reaction.
Taylor listened when people talked about him, and a lot of people spoke about him.
No one had a bad word to say about Caleb.
Not in a ‘Stepford Wives’ way. It wasn’t that they thought he was perfect or that people wouldn’t speak ill of him because he was the pastor.
Plenty of people had pointed out flaws his father had, and it was clear they all loved and respected the elder Harrison.
It was just that the consensus was Caleb was a good man with a good heart who wanted to help people and animals.
Her entire body was trembling as she crossed the diner. In reality, the walk probably lasted only a few seconds. It felt like it took much longer than that.
When she finally made it to the table, there were two Calebs because she was hyperventilating a little bit.
Both leaned forward, so she started to hug him but then realized he was just pulling her chair out, so she dropped her arm and started to sit down.
At that exact moment, he noticed she was going in for a hug, so he started to give her a hug, and she reciprocated, which resulted in them doing a strange, one-armed awkward hug-chair-pull-out-sit-down greeting.
Neither of them said anything as she settled on the chair, and he returned to his seat.
But as soon as their eyes met, they both smiled, and their smiles turned into a little laugh, which immediately eased a bit of her anxiety.
The awkward exchange may not have completely broken the ice, but it had definitely put a crack in it.
“What can I get you, sweetie?”
Taylor jumped, startled as she looked to her right and saw Sue Ann standing there.
For one brief second, she’d completely forgotten that she was in a diner and that other people were in the room with them.
She felt like she and Caleb were in their own private bubble.
The same thing had happened in Daytona Beach.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to sneak up on ya,” Sue Ann apologized.
“No, um, that was…” Taylor shook her head. “I’ll have an iced tea, thank you.”
“Comin’ up and how is that sweet boy of yours?” Sue Ann asked.
“Oh, good.” Taylor’s eyes cut to Caleb, wondering if he’d said something about Owen. From what Taylor had witnessed, this town had adopted Olive Garden’s slogan,
“When you’re here, you’re family.” She’d overheard very personal conversations being discussed.
“Did you know her son, Owen, calls Bingo at Golden Years?” Sue Ann asked Caleb.
“I did know that.” Caleb smiled.
“Everybody loves him over there. And I do mean everybody. He even got a smile out of Grumpy Gus.”
“That’s more than I’ve ever been able to do.” Caleb smiled.
Taylor hoped Caleb didn’t think she’d put Sue Ann up to this. She hadn’t. She barely knew the woman. And she had never even spoken to Gus.
“I’ll be right back with that tea.”
“Thanks.”
As soon as Sue Ann left, Caleb asked, “Do you know how Owen got a smile out of Gus?”
“Oh, um, yeah, he told me he didn’t think Gus was mean; he just missed his wife and doesn’t like to talk.
But he thought he might be lonely, so he started sitting by him and not talking.
One day, Gus turned to him and asked him if he knew any knock-knock jokes.
Owen told him one. Then he asked him the same thing the next time he was there.
So now, every time Owen goes, he tells Gus a knock-knock joke. ”
“Wow…that’s…wow.” Caleb looked impressed.
Or maybe she was projecting because she wanted him to be; she wasn’t sure. “So…” she started and had no idea what to say next.
“So,” Caleb repeated.
“Sorry…” She shook her head. “I don’t know where to start.”
“How about the beginning?” he suggested.
“The beginning.” Taylor nodded. She took a deep breath when she noticed Caleb looking past her. She turned around and saw a woman walking toward the table.
“I’m so sorry. Can you excuse me for a second?”
“Sure.”
Taylor watched as Caleb stood and walked over to speak to the woman. She used the interruption to try and gather her thoughts. The situation was what it was. She just needed to give him the facts. That was it.
“You are one lucky lady,” Sue Ann commented as she set the iced tea on the table. “You know he’s got quite the following, and I’m not talking about his congregation. You should see the women lining up to date him.”
“Oh, we’re not on a…this is not a…” Taylor wasn’t sure how to explain what this was. She couldn’t exactly say that this was less of a date and more of a Maury Povich episode where she was going to be telling Caleb that he was a father. “This isn’t a date.”
“Well, all the same, there’s a lot of people who would love to be “ not on a date” with Hot Pastor.” Sue Ann winked before heading over to another table.
Taylor ran the script over again in her head.
She knew the major points she needed to hit and hoped she’d be able to make them without being interrupted or overheard.
She didn’t want it to be general knowledge until she could speak to Owen, which wasn’t going to happen until she could figure out a way to do it that would cause the least amount of stress.
“Sorry about that.” Caleb apologized as he joined her once again.
“No problem.”
She sat across from him and told herself the butterflies she was feeling were there because of the conversation she was about to have and not because Caleb had the dreamiest brown eyes she’d ever seen before.
Her nerves were caused by a word starting with “a” that had seven letters, but it wasn’t “arousal”; it was “anxiety.”
“Um, right the beginning. This should be easy. I’ve rehearsed it so many times in my head, but imagining it and sitting in front of you are two very different?—”
“Sorry, hold that thought,” Caleb said a moment before a man arrived at the table.
His beard had more salt than pepper, he wore a red flannel shirt, and he could have been cast as the Brawny Man’s grandfather.
Caleb stood and shook his hand. “Mr. Hayes, how’s Phoebe?”
Brawny Man clasped Caleb’s hand as tears formed in his eyes.
“She’s doing great. Her and the boys. They’re all settled in Seattle.
I’m just driving through on my way to see them.
I’m grabbing one of Sue Ann’s apple pies, and when I saw you I just…
I had to come over and thank you. I don’t know what we would have done…
how we would have gotten through without you. ”
“It wasn’t me. It was everyone. And you know, we’re still here if you need anything. Just a phone call away.”
Taylor had no idea what the man had been through, but she could feel the intensity of his emotions radiating off of him. She felt like she was intruding on a private moment.
The man sniffed as he wiped away tears that had fallen with his thumb and pointer finger. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I just…I’ve been meaning to thank you, but there’s just no words to?—"
“No thank you necessary.” Caleb and the man did the one-armed man hug. When they stepped back, Brawny Man was looking down at Taylor. “Mr. Hayes, this is Miss…”
She saw that Caleb wasn’t sure what to introduce her as. “Taylor, just Taylor.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He tipped his hat to her. “I’ll let you two get back to it. Thank you again.”
“I mean it, I’m a phone call away if you need anything,” Caleb reiterated.
The man nodded, then turned and went to the counter, picked up his bags, and walked out.
“Sorry about the interruption, again.” Caleb sat back down.
“It’s no problem.” It was fine with her if the interruptions kept coming; if they continued, she’d have to leave to go to work, and she could put this off for another day. She was not the rip-off-the-Band-Aid type of person. She was perfectly fine avoiding things.
“His daughter had a brain aneurysm right after giving birth to her third son. Her husband was deployed at the time. And it was during the pandemic, so it was a tough time for everyone.”
“Oh, were they the Simpson boys?”
“Yeah.” He nodded.