she saw there was a campfire on the beach, one lone man enjoying the mild evening. She grabbed two beers and walked down to the lake. He was sitting on top of a picnic table, feet on the bench, his elbows on his knees. His short brown hair was wet, as was the collar of his sweatshirt. He’d had a shower and shave.
“Evening, Caldwell,” she said.
He turned toward her in surprise and she handed him a beer. “Caldwell?” he asked. “You’re getting desperate.”
“That’s true, but not about your name. I’m getting a little restless.”
“Maybe it’s time to go back to work,” he said. He toasted her, clinking the neck of her beer with his.
“I do a lot of chores around this place. Sully has always been a tough taskmaster. I’ve always had to haul stock, sweep, clean, chop wood, dig out trenches, clean gutters, clean that damn bathroom and shower, work in the store, but never what I’ve been doing this time—cleaning house, cooking dinner. I’m already bored with my little housewifely duties and I’m getting cabin fever. I’m sick of heart-healthy food. If I see one more hunk of fish I’m going to gag. Sully said he’s growing fins.”
Cal laughed.
“You think it’s funny? I can smell your bacon before I smell coffee in the morning. I sneaked over to Timberlake for a hamburger today and Sully claimed he could smell it on my breath.”
He leaned closer to her, sniffing. “Yep.”
“I asked him if he had any ideas for dinner and he said he’d like a New York strip, smothered in onions on a hoagie bun.” She took a pull on her beer. “God, that sounds good.”
“I knew it,” he said. “You’re a carnivore.”
“You’re kind of interesting, Caliber. You shower and shave while you’re camping.”
“I wash my clothes and change the lining in the sleeping bag, too. I’m a very clean fellow. Are you ever going to go back to work and leave Sully alone?”
“Gimme a break, I haven’t relaxed a day yet,” she said. “Are you?”
“Sure. I just left a job about six weeks ago. I work. I’m just not working now, except for you.”
“Well, not me, exactly,” she said. “You work for Sully. Have I said how much we appreciate all the free labor? It’s very nice of you to pitch in.”
“I have time on my hands,” he said.
“What was your last job?”
“I was an assistant to an assistant in human resources in a theme park. It basically meant driving a golf cart around, checking on people, helping them fill out forms or taking complaints. Or, sometimes it meant catching them screwing around on the job and reporting them to my supervisor. As little of that as possible.”
“Really? A theme park?” she said, fascinated again. “Which one?”
“The big one.”
“Really? Was it fun?”
“It really was. I applied to the ground crew but there wasn’t anything and they offered me the job in HR. I met all the actors. It was cool.”
“And you quit?” she asked.
“No, I got fired. I was checking someone’s human resources very closely. Not in public of course. Not on the job. It was consensual and private, but word got out. Apparently even adults have to refrain from that. There are rules if you want to work there. Strict rules. More for some than others.”
“They can’t do that,” she said. “That’s discrimination.”
“Not for everyone. Princesses are not allowed to do some things, even on their own time.”
“You were doing a princess? Which one?”
“Get outta here, I’m not telling you.”
“You’re too old for those princesses!”
“Oh, she was a lot older than she looked! Plus, she was an animal!”
“So not only was it a bad decision, you didn’t like it?”
“I never said that,” he said. He grinned lasciviously.
“You’re lying!” she said. “I don’t believe one word of that!”
“Okay,” he said. He took a drink of his beer. “It’s true, though. A very embarrassing situation. We both got fired. I lost a pretty fun job and I think she lost her lifetime dream. I was planning to take a few months off to camp, but I wasn’t planning to start until April or May. I hate being cold. However...”
“Callahan, I think you’re a liar, con man and maybe a predator.”
He just laughed at her. “Seriously, you ever going back to work?”
“I told you, the practice shut down,” she said.
“We both know there are things you could do.”
“I was picking up work here and there from colleagues. I just came to Sully’s for a badly needed break. I packed up a bunch of stuff, left the disposition of the office in the hands of a broker who can be sure the equipment, furniture and supplies are sold or stored, emailed all my colleagues that I was taking a leave of absence. I was burned out, bloody well sick of all the controversy my partners had stirred up and I was exhausted. I was only home for twenty-four hours when Sully crashed. That’s almost four weeks ago. I haven’t thought about anything but Sully since.”
“You can let go of that pretty soon. Aside from being a little ornery and sick of salmon and chicken, he’s doing great.”
“I know. But I don’t know if I want to go back to that grind. Check with me after I’ve actually had some time to think. But one thing I’m not crazy about is being a caretaker the rest of my life.”
“Maybe another residency? A different specialty?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Right now I just want to escape. Have you ever felt like that?”
He chuckled. “I’ve been in your campground for five weeks. Through rain and mud and heart attacks. What do you think?”
“You’re traumatized by the aftershock of screwing a princess?”
“It takes a lot more than that to traumatize me,” he said. He put an arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay to take a break, Maggie. I’m not sure it’s good for you to obsess about Sully, though. It might be misplaced anxiety. Really, he’s going to be fine.”
“You didn’t see what I saw,” she said.
“No one saw what you saw, honey,” he said very sweetly. “I was right there when they loaded him into the ambulance. You saw your father slipping away. Everyone else saw a cardiac episode. I think you’re a little terrified.”
“Yeah,”
