When We Found Home(72)

Either she had no idea or she knew and didn’t care. Callie wasn’t sure which was worse.

She stepped back and pointed down the hall. “Media room. Now.”

“I’d rather be alone.”

“I’m sure that’s true, but your wishes aren’t that important right now. Media room, Malcolm. I’m serious.”

For a second she thought he was going to defy her, but instead he nodded once and walked down the hall. Callie raced upstairs and burst into Keira’s room.

“Delaney dumped Malcolm. We have to do something.”

Keira slammed her book shut and jumped to her feet. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure of the details, but he feels awful.”

Keira’s gaze saw more than it should. “You feel awful, too. Maybe we’re all just unlucky in love.”

“I’m sure that’s not it. Come on.”

Keira scooped up Lizzy and followed Callie downstairs into the kitchen. Grandfather Alberto and Carmen were nowhere to be seen. Callie hoped they were making future plans—someone should find a life partner in this family and why not her grandfather?

“Ice cream,” Keira said, opening the freezer. “With chocolate sauce.”

“Cognac,” Callie said, heading for the wet bar across from the butler’s pantry.

“Cookies. Carmen and I made them this afternoon.”

Callie smiled as she set everything on one of the infamous trays always in use. Together they carried everything into the media room.

Malcolm sat on the huge sectional. He looked up when they entered.

“I’m not sure what you have planned, but I’m fine.”

“Uh-huh. We’ll be the judge of that,” Callie told him.

She set the tray on the coffee table and poured two large servings of cognac. Keira searched through the DVD collection, then pulled out one and waved it over her head.

“The Princess Diaries. It’s kind of old, but it’s about finding where you belong. Something we can all relate to.”

Callie touched his glass with hers. “I swear, I want to be her when I grow up.”

“Me, too.” He smiled. “Thank you for this.”

“You’re welcome. We’re going to deal with our heartaches the way God intended—with liquor, sugar, a movie and people we love.”

He surprised her by leaning close and kissing her forehead. “I love you, Callie.”

The unexpected admission filled her eyes with tears. “I love you, too, Malcolm.”

“Sibling love rocks but romantic love seriously sucks.”

“That it does, and yet we will try again.”

“We will.”

He clinked glasses with her. Keira put in the DVD, then raced over to the sofa and sat on Malcolm’s other side. She reached for the remote and started the movie.

As the opening credits began, she picked up her bowl of ice cream, then snuggled close to him. She rested her legs on top of his while Lizzy meandered over and began to knead his lap.

Callie leaned against his other side and closed her eyes. Yes, she hurt. She had a feeling she was going to hurt for a long time. While she wanted to say that believing in Santiago was a mistake, she wasn’t sure if that was true. Things hadn’t worked out between them, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t learned a lot. She would be more open with the next guy—less guarded and insecure. She would be a bit more careful with her heart, but if she wanted to find someone special, she had to be willing to take a chance. Santiago had allowed her to learn she was capable of loving a man and wasn’t that a great thing to know?

She hadn’t been looking for a family, but she’d found one all the same. She had friends, a sense of purpose and a great future. The lack of one stupid man wasn’t going to get her down. She would give herself tonight to pout and whine and miss him and in the morning, she would start over. Yes, there would still be pain—there was a Santiago-sized hole in her heart—but eventually she would heal and, between now and then, she was going to keep moving forward.

* * *

Delaney told herself to let the suit be her shield of bravery and confidence. She was good at what she did and her nine months out of the job market wasn’t going to kill her. She had a good reason—the death of her fiancé and her father’s surgery and rehabilitation would have rattled anyone. She’d taken some time, had healed and was now moving on.

All of which sounded great in her head but she was slightly less sure about how they would play in an interview.

She hadn’t meant the job search to go so quickly—in fact she’d barely started. But her networking had paid off when a former colleague had told her about three suppliers to Boeing who had recently merged. They were looking for a new CFO who had experience in aerospace manufacturing. After a phone interview, Delaney had been brought in for a full day of meetings. So far they’d gone well and she was excited about what the company wanted to do. She’d enjoyed the technical talk and had been familiar with all their software. Now she had to get through the HR interview, which would probably be the most difficult of the day.

Neal, a handsome man in his late forties, looked over her paperwork. “You come highly recommended.”

“Thank you. I really enjoyed working for Boeing and would be excited to get back into aerospace.”

“You quit your job because of family issues?”

Delaney sensed the pitfalls about to come and deliberately relaxed her body language. She had the education and the experience they were looking for. She was the best they would find and if they couldn’t see that, then they were going to lose their chance at her.

“My father was with the Seattle Police Department. He and my fiancé were shot in the line of duty. Tim was killed and my father was left permanently disabled. He spent several months in the hospital. He’s much better now, although he uses a wheelchair.”

Neal went pale. “Oh my God! I thought you were going to say you got a divorce or something. I’m so sorry. What a nightmare. No wonder you needed a little time to work through things.”

“I did,” she said, relaxing for real. “I was so busy handling everything that I didn’t have time to process the pain and loss. I kept pushing that off but there’s no avoiding the mourning process. Eventually it catches up to all of us. I quit to figure out my next act, so to speak. I played with a few different career directions only to realize I genuinely loved what I’d been doing before. So here I am, excited about my next opportunity.”

As Neal asked a few more questions, Delaney realized that was exactly what had happened. She’d put off having to deal with her emotions. She’d been constantly running just fast enough that they couldn’t catch her—first with getting her dad settled, then by wanting to be a naturopath, then going back to college. She was always so busy, she didn’t have time to think or mourn or heal.

It wasn’t until she’d accepted how unhappy she’d become that she’d finally stopped to face what she’d been avoiding: her past, her failing relationship with Tim, her drifting friendships. She’d needed to work through all that before she could understand what she wanted from her life. And in the middle of all that, she’d met Malcolm.

She forced her attention back to the interview. It lasted another thirty minutes. From there she went on to speak with the president of the company. The day ended with wine and appetizers with the entire management team. Delaney got back in her car close to seven.

She’d just been on a ten-hour interview and if she had to guess, she would say it had gone really, really well. They were going to make her a job offer—she could feel it. Which meant one part of her life was in order, but what about the rest of it?





chapter thirty-two

Callie had to admit, as she left class, that for all the sucky rain in the winter and spring, summer in Seattle was amazingly beautiful. The sky was bright blue and the temperature a perfect seventy-two degrees.

She felt good. Her culinary classes were going well—the shorter sessions were a little intense, but she appreciated that she didn’t have a whole lot of time to miss Santiago. She and Malcolm were closer than they’d ever been, which was unexpected and pretty wonderful. Keira was making new friends and discovering an interest in science. Grandfather Alberto and Carmen had taken off for two weeks in San Diego. There hadn’t been an announcement about their relationship, but Callie figured them traveling together was a kind of statement. Now if only she could bitch-slap some sense into Delaney, all would be well. Or almost well, because hey, Santiago.

She was about ten feet from her car when a very familiar, tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a bright red cape stepped out from between an SUV and a minivan. She blinked twice to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, then couldn’t decide if she was happy to see him or just a little scared.

“You’re wearing a cape,” she said.

“I know. Can we talk?”

“You’re wearing a cape.”

Santiago smiled. “You’re not going to let that go, are you?”

“It worries me.”

He unfastened the cape and balled it up in his hands. Once he was back to himself, she was able to breathe in the sight of him and let the pain of missing him wash over her.