Kathryn
“Are you ready to talk about it now?”
“Talk about what?” She picked up her sandwich and started working on the second half of it, the first half of the ham and cheese delicacy sitting comfortably in her stomach.
“Well, just let me know when you are.”
Kathryn’s teeth ground together as her mother tsked gently as she went about cleaning the kitchen, a sure sign that she was not impressed with her daughter.
“When I am what, Mother?” She managed to stop it just short of a snap, but the set of her mother’s shoulders said she was aware of how close it had been as well.
“Willing to tell me what happened yesterday.”
“Right. That.” She wolfed down another bite, then washed it down with some water, careful to use the non-chipped side of the glass lip. “I don’t know.”
“Oh come now, Katy darling. I’m your mother, you can talk to me. I know you aren’t twelve anymore, but that’s supposed to make it easier now that you realize me not being ‘cool’ has nothing to do with it.”
“Mom, enough. What I meant was I don’t know what happened. I’m confused, though obviously I must have done something wrong.”
After eying her daughter for a moment, Audrey Pine nodded sharply once, walked over to the fridge, and removed two red cans with white writing. Then she grabbed two clean, relatively unchipped glasses from the cupboard and popped several ice cubes from the tray into each glass. With swift, practiced movements, she opened both cans and emptied the fizzing contents into the glasses. Then she moved one in front of Kathryn, while keeping the other for herself.
“Seriously? A cola? Mom, this is not like what happened with Doug. We don’t need to be breaking those out.”
As a child drinking of cola or soft drinks of any kind had been practically outlawed in the Pine household. Only on very special occasions, or very bad ones, had her mother offered her a glass. Considering nothing special had happened, it was therefore the opposite. The last time they’d drank one together had been when Kathryn had arrived back home with no job, no money, no fiancé, and no ability to walk. It had been a dark day, and her mother had done what she could to help, including the drinking of a cola, a drink that was generally outside their budget.
“It’s already open,” her mother countered gently. “So have some and tell me what happened.
Wondering why her mother was treating the weird actions of her pseudo-nanny so seriously, Kathryn took a slow sip and told the tale.
“It’s that simple. We decided to stop for food, he started acting all weird, looking at me strange and such. His face was white as a ghost and I swear he was seeing them too. His pupils were huge and his eyes kept going out of focus.”
“He’s a drug addict then?”
“I don’t think so. It was too sudden, too abrupt and…” her brain replayed the incident over and over again. “Honestly, Mother, it felt like I was somehow a part of it. He was looking at me so intently, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.” She shook her head, frustrated. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I know it involved me somehow.”
“And you’re sure you didn’t do anything? Run over his foot and break a toe perhaps?”
Kathryn glared. “I am not that clumsy, no. Besides, have you seen the size of him? I’m pretty sure his little toe would crumple the wheel if I so much as nicked it.”
Her mother laughed. “You have a point there, dear. He is in rather good shape isn’t he?”
That’s an understatement, Mother. You should see the way his biceps flex when he—
Except she wouldn’t be seeing it anymore.
“What happened next?”
“He took off.”
“Just like that? He left you alone? My daughter, he left her alone?”
Kathryn knew her mother was far more furious than the slightly elevated tone of her voice indicated, but that was simply how she was. Calming her down soon was the most important thing.
“Not entirely, Mom. He gave me more than enough money to buy food, and he found another way home, because the vehicle was waiting right where he’d said it would be. The driver helped me in and everything.”
“But he left you alone.”
She sighed. “Mother, I may be in a wheelchair, but I’m in my mid-thirties. I think I can navigate a shopping mall on my own now. Please, have some confidence in me.”
Eventually the elder Pine relented, letting that subject drop.
“So what exactly did you do wrong then?” she asked instead.
Kathryn finished her sandwich and washed it down with some cola, the cool ice brushing against her upper lip as she sipped and sending a shiver down her spine. The entire act of that left her feeling tired.
“I don’t know,” she said, yawning, the exhaustion not fading. It had been like that all evening and into the next morning. Bits of energy scattered amongst larger periods of tiredness. “All I can guess is that he got fed up with me at last and that it was all too much of a hassle in the end. Maybe he didn’t realize what he was signing on for?”
Her mother snorted, a full blast of air from her nose. “Darling, you can’t be serious? Two days of walking through the mall is too much for him? He didn’t realize he might have to, you know, go places with you? Come now. You’re being naïve and you know it.”
Maybe she was. But maybe she wasn’t. Her mother hadn’t seen the way Callan reacted. The troubled uncertainty and haunting pain in his eyes. She had. Whatever it was, it was no little thing to the big man. Something had happened to affect him so completely. She just didn’t know what.
Downing the last of her cola, she looked longingly at the glass, but knew better. Colas were treats, not a commonplace drink. She couldn’t justify a second one. Not over something like this, an issue she’d forget about in a weeks’ time.
“I’m going to go to my room,” she said somberly, black clouds gathering over her head.
She needed to have a good cry, and then get back to figuring out how she was going to go about rebuilding her life. All of that before her afternoon appointment, if she had the energy to go to it.
Her mother didn’t say anything as she wheeled from the room, and for that Kathryn was beyond grateful. She’d never been able to provide much in the way of material wealth in her life, but when it came to emotional support and know-how, her mother had been second to absolutely nobody. She knew when to butt in and when to leave her daughter alone so well it was almost uncanny.
Hitting the brakes, she prepared to haul herself out of the chair and into bed, even as a modest surge of energy filled her body. Not wanting to fall for that trick, knowing exhaustion would once again follow, she ignored it for what it was: a fleeting, waning sense of false hope.
There was a knock on the door.
The floor creaked uneasily as her mother went to answer it, an unsettling fact given her mother’s rather diminutive form. One day it was just going to give out under someone if they didn’t get it fixed.
“Kathryn!”
Her eyebrows slammed down as a mighty frown creased her forehead. Who the hell could possibly be at the door for her? Unless…
“Who is it?” she asked as the glowing face of her mother popped through the doorway.
“Take a guess.”
That could only mean one person. “He’s late,” she growled. “I’m in bed.”
“Oh please, you just got there. Get up and go say hello.”
Buoyed by a feeling of anger that fueled a burst of energy, Kathryn got out of bed and, disdaining the chair, walked to the front door. It was wide open, the stiff breeze fluttering at papers stuck to the wall on her left, threatening to take them down.
In the midst of it was the hulking form that could only be Callan. One hand was hidden out of sight as he casually leaned on the doorframe.
“What do you want?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her, forcing her legs not to wobble.
“To apologize for my actions yesterday,” he said formally.
“Right.” She turned to go.
“I’m sorry, Kathryn,” he said quickly, and she heard the house groan as he pushed off the doorframe and stood up. “I should not have done that. I have no excuse.”
She paused, the sincerity of his voice getting to her, making her want to hear him out, even if experience told her she shouldn’t.
Experience? What experience? He’s your assistant. Nanny. Caretaker. Whatever! Stop thinking of him like a boyfriend who wronged you.
“No, you don’t have an excuse,” she said, exasperated. “But it still happened. You left me in the middle of the mall, Callan. With only the vague promise that I would have a way home.” She shrugged. “You don’t like doing this, I get it. You signed up for all the wrong reasons, probably as a way to try and make you feel better about yourself. But I don’t need you. I was doing just fine before you, and I’ll manage fine now. So you can go.”
“I know you don’t need me,” he replied, not backing down. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t be of help.”
She continued to stare at the wall, only vaguely able to see him out of the corner of one eye. “You want to be of help?”
“I do.”
“All right. Then tell me what happened?”
“I can’t.”
She whirled on him, mouth open, ready to flay him with words.
“All I can do is apologize,” he said as she stood there, her mouth acting as little more than a flytrap while he handed the bouquet of flowers to her. “I’m sorry.”
Eventually enough control returned that Kathryn could move her jaw up and down like an elevator, though no sound emerged.
“Why did you get me flowers?” she said at last, reaching out to take them. “They’re beautiful.”
“I was told that flowers are still considered a sign of apology from a man to a woman. It seemed appropriate.”
Still? What does he mean still? But her mind was caught up in the mixture of orchids of varying colors. “They’re beautiful.”
“I can’t undo abandoning you like that. But I can promise that I won’t do it again.” He paused. “If you’re okay with it, I’d like to continue coming by to help you.”
Kathryn studied the flowers for a few more seconds. Callan was trying very hard to show that he was sorry, and even though he had run away from her and was unwilling to explain why. He’d still ensured she was able to get home from the mall, which meant he’d been thinking of her even as he fled.
As trepid as she was about letting the strange giant back into her home and life, especially while she was vulnerable, it seemed he was trying to make it up. Against her better judgment, she decided to give him a second chance.
“No malls today,” she told him.
“No malls. Agreed.”
The gratification on his face was so apparent she almost giggled. That would be rude, so instead she opted for a little smile, all the while hoping that she hadn’t just made a giant mistake.
“Katy dear, if you’re planning on going, you need to get moving shortly,” her mother called from the other room.
Typical. Of course she’d been listening in.
“Where are you going?” Callan asked her, trying to sound uninterested and failing miserably.
“Do you mean where are we going?”
He recovered swiftly, she would give him that. “Yes, of course.”
“Therapy.”
The hulking “assistant” studied her carefully. “I see.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I hope you like swimming.”
His throat bobbed up and down. “Like…water?”
“Yeah. It’s great for helping me rehab. I can use my muscles without the stress of gravity weighing down on them.”
“In the water?”
Kathryn stared up at him. “You can’t swim, can you?”
Callan scowled. “Of course I can swim. I just have a healthy fear of open water for very good reasons.”
“And those are?” she pushed gently, wondering what it was that bothered him.
“Dragons,” he said stoically, somehow managing to say it with a completely straight face.
“Ah. Right. ‘Here be dragons,’” she said with a pirate-y accent, as if reading the maps of old.
“Something like that,” he muttered under his breath.
“Well, let me get changed. I hope you brought swim trunks!”