her small-talk opening, and after a few seconds he began to relax. She didn’t know. There would be no token murmurs of sympathy. No suspicions that he’d tried to live in the fast lane and had gotten the snot knocked out of him. Callie was the last person he wanted to know about that, since honestly, the way she’d dumped him without ever looking back had been part of the reason he’d tried to be less boring.
“I took this job fourteen months ago.”
“Where were you before that?”
“Here and there. How about you?” he asked, trying to figure out what was going on. Surely she wasn’t here cashing in on old-friend status? If so, she was bordering on delusional. Friends were people you could trust. Friends didn’t do what she’d done. “Where’ve you been working?”
The better question would have been where hadn’t she been working? Callie never stayed in one place long. He hadn’t consciously followed her career—pretty much the opposite, in fact—but Grace had been proud of the foster daughter who never came to visit, and made sure everyone knew where Callie was working.
“Same places as you,” she replied. “Here and there. Funny we didn’t meet.” She didn’t exactly smile, but the dimple appeared near the corner of her mouth. Even now it charmed the hell out of him, which in turn ticked him off.
“Yeah.” The polite game was over. He didn’t smile back, but instead held her gaze, waiting for her to explain the reason for her visit as he absently rubbed the muscles of his right thigh.
Callie sat in stubborn silence on the other side of his desk, studying him. He wondered how he was stacking up to the guy she’d dumped after graduation. Finally, he gave in and said, “I’m sorry about Grace.”
“Thank you. It was a shock.”
Nathan didn’t try to hold back the snort. The culmination of a terminal cancer diagnosis had been a shock? That pissed him off. “She’d been sick for a long time,” he pointed out none too gently. “Where were you?”
The color left her cheeks, but her eyes flashed. “I didn’t know about the cancer, all right?”
He guessed he shouldn’t have been surprised, although he found it hard to believe that none of Grace’s friends had tried to contact her. “Did you try to find out?”
“She told me she was doing fine, that they’d just changed her treatments. I thought I had time to finish the project I was working on.” Callie cleared her throat, the first indication that perhaps she wasn’t as cool and collected as she wanted him to believe. “If I’d had any idea how serious it was, I would have been here.”
Nathan wondered. He took off his reading glasses, holding them by the bow. “So,” he said briskly, making the change of topic sound like a brushoff, “once the estate is settled, where are you heading off to?”
“Nowhere.”
His jaw tightened. He didn’t want her in town, didn’t want to be around her. Didn’t like being reminded of those days when he’d gone through hell wondering why she’d left. Why she wouldn’t take his calls. Not the best of times for a kid who was struggling with self-image issues, issues his dad wasn’t exactly helping him with.
“You’re keeping the house?” His voice was amazingly cool considering what his blood pressure was doing.
She drew back at the suggestion. “Of course not. I just want some…” Her voice trailed off as she made a small gesture. A fire opal set in an asymmetrical gold band on her left ring finger caught the light. An engagement ring? Somehow he doubted it. “I want some time to go through Grace’s things. Tidy up the place to sell. I don’t have any pressing commitments.”
“I see.” And he now had an idea of what was coming next. If she wasn’t here as an alleged friend, then…
“I need a temporary job, Nate. I don’t want to live solely on savings.”
Bingo.
She leaned forward in her chair, her expression intent. “I thought I could freelance for you.” When Nathan didn’t answer immediately, she added, “I might even improve circulation.”
Heaven knew she’d improved his circulation more than once. Nathan shoved the thought aside. “Yeah, you would do an excellent job. There’s just one problem.”
“That I’ll be leaving?”
He set his glasses on top of a stack of papers, rubbed his eyes again. “That’s not the problem.”
“Then what, Nate?”
He hesitated for a moment before he said, “I don’t want to work with you, Callie, and I don’t want to publish your articles.”
Her eyebrows, a few shades darker than her hair, rose higher. “You’re kidding.”
He shook his head, watching Callie’s expression change as she realized he meant what he said. He was passing up work from a writer of her caliber.
“Because of what happened between us,” she said. He nodded. “But that was twelve years ago.”
“That doesn’t make what you did any less crummy.”
Callie showed no emotion as she said, “I’m not here asking for friendship, Nate.” But he had a strong feeling that had been exactly what she’d been there for. Callie didn’t have any friends left in town. He was all that remained of their small high school group. “I just want to submit some freelance work.”
“Isn’t going to happen.”
“I can’t believe you’re letting personal matters interfere with professional.”
“Believe it, Cal.”
“Would you at least give me a chance to—”
“What would it matter?” he asked sharply, cutting her off. “If you had something to explain, maybe you could have answered one of my calls twelve years ago. You know, back when I cared?”
Callie rose to her feet and slung her leather bag over her shoulder so hard it made a noise when it hit her back.
Nathan also stood, and again his leg cooperated.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around.” Her voice was cold.
And he probably would see her around for a few days, because she’d make certain he did, but he’d bet his next paycheck she’d be gone within a matter of weeks. Or days. She’d find a new assignment, let the real estate agent sell the house, the accountant handle the estate.
“Goodbye, Callie.”
She left without another word, the distinctive sound of her flip-flops echoing on the tile in a weird staccato rhythm as she returned to the main office. Nathan sat back down, stretching out his bad leg, feeling the familiar deep ache as his scarred muscles protested. His nerves were humming.
He’d done a decent job of pushing Callie out of his mind over the years, filing their relationship away under Rugged Learning Experiences. He rarely read her articles and he’d had no intention
