Chapter Six
Lainey
I had trouble sleeping, so when I heard my father stirring, I woke to face whatever music there might be.
“Morning, Dad,” I said, sounding more chipper than I felt.
“Morning, kiddo. You sleep ok?”
Great, Dad was chipper too. No trouble yet.
“Oh, not bad for our first night here. I’m sure we’ll settle in soon. Calvin offered to take us into town later, by the way. I think all we have left for breakfast from the road trip are the Nescafe packets and some granola bars.” I tried not to, but it sounded like I was making a peace offering.
Come on, Lainey, buck up. You’re a grown woman, you can talk to strangers, or um… neighbors you hardly know if you want. Boy did I feel weird.
“Granola bars sound good to me,” he said kindly. “That Calvin is a nice man, isn’t he? I’m glad you two hit it off as well as you did last night.” He smiled and moved to look for a kettle in an opened moving box.
Wow, that might have been it.
No lecture, no “Honey, I’m just looking out for your best interests.” Maybe that was the end of it. Whew, perhaps he did recognize that I wasn’t a child anymore. Despite avoiding a Dad lecture, I was still nervous—something just felt off. It was probably the fact that I resisted the move and I was still in shock that we were actually in Texas. Strangely, all I wanted to do was run to see Calvin again. Somehow, being with him made it all better.
Dad and I finished the breakfast, which really didn’t satisfy us, but it was all we had unless we wanted to drive the moving van into town. We didn’t have to return the U-Haul for another two days, so I suggested we keep it so we could buy furniture. I planned to set the garish, powder puff pink bedroom set in my room on fire, so there was that to replace, at least.
I hoped to convince my dad to dump it all, but I didn’t want to push my luck. We also needed to buy a car and a truck, so we had quite a bit of shopping to do. Hopefully, there were decent grocery stores in town since I was craving brie and a baguette, but I didn’t want to get my heart set on anything. Maybe that’s why I was so into Calvin. He seemed real, and somehow, familiar.
“What time did he say we would head into town?” Dad asked.
I think he was ready to settle in and get his life in Texas started. Me, I was dragging my feet. I looked at the clock, and it was only seven in the morning. Wow, no wonder I felt so funky. I’d only had about five hours sleep. I looked through the window over to Calvin’s place and while it was hard to see in the distance, it looked a wreck from the BBQ party.
“I don’t know. He didn’t say, but it looks like a tornado has swept through his place over there. He’ll probably need some help cleaning up first, I’d think.”
“Good. That’ll give me some time to figure out all the fix-its we need around here. I want to make sure we get the right supplies.” Dad was giddy, like a kid in a candy store.
“Oh my god, you are such a dad!” I scolded.
“Yep, gotta be me,” he claimed.
“I’m going to head back over to Calvin’s and see if I can help him clean up.” I thought Dad would easily sniff out my plan, but he didn’t let on if he had. He seemed lost in his own little world of making lists of stuff to buy as he checked the place over.
“Sure, honey. I’ll see you in a few. Tell him thanks again for inviting us over last night.” He was such a cute, sincere old man, and I felt lucky to have him.
When I got to Calvin’s, the house was completely quiet. It seemed like he was still sleeping, which struck me as odd because I thought cowboys always got up with the sun. I didn’t want to wake him if he was still in bed, so I found the trash bins around the side of the barn and tidied up his yard and porch. It looked a lot, but it didn’t take me that long before the place was all cleaned up and I was in desperate need of another shower.
I checked one more time to see if Prince Charming was awake yet, but it was all still very quiet inside. Then an icy chill ran down my spine—maybe he was hiding from me? Oh, come on, Lainey, I chastised myself. I wasn’t insecure, it’s just, well, the whole ‘my name is Lainey, I’m a dainty lady’ thing still had me twisted in knots.
As I got out of the shower in the second story bathroom, I saw Calvin on his porch with one of the women from the previous night. It was hard to tell from that vantage point, but they seemed to be having fun. I heard her laughing then they then got into her truck and drove away. I didn’t want to feel jealous and angry, but I couldn’t help it—I felt so… used.
There I was the night before, beating myself up for having a fling with a man I’d just met, and the very next morning he was off with someone else. I knew it wasn’t like we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and I did tell him I wasn’t going to get all possessive over him, but wasn’t he the one who said he didn’t want to look like an asshole? I guess he was proud of himself for waiting a few hours before he hooked up with someone else.
I knew how crazy I was sounding, but I couldn’t stop myself from going there.