Cal’s eyes remained on Haines as he walked to him but he knew Colt wasn’t going far. This was confirmed when Haines arrived and Cal glanced Colt’s way, saw his hips to the back of his GMC, his eyes on Cal and Haines.

“You got somethin’ to say?” Haines asked and Cal’s eyes went back to him.

“Stand down,” Cal told him.

His mouth got tight then he asked, “You shittin’ me?”

“You’re confusin’ Vi,” Cal explained.

“I am?” Haines asked then clipped, “Yeah, you’re shittin’ me.”

“This isn’t gonna end well for you,” Cal went on.

“No, Vi makes a stupid decision, Callahan, it isn’t gonna end well for her. I’m just positionin’ myself to be there to pick up the pieces.”

At his insinuation, Cal wanted to straighten from the truck but he forced himself to stay relaxed against it. It wasn’t like he hadn’t earned a remark like that with his history with women and his history with Vi.

“You think I’ll fuck her over.”

“You’re Joe Callahan’s son.”

This time it took everything for Cal to keep his back to the truck because his father sure as fuck hadn’t earned that remark but his voice vibrated when he asked, “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means you’re a one-woman man.”

“Yeah, I am. Hasn’t anyone clued in yet that that woman wasn’t fuckin’ Bonnie?”

He scored, direct hit. He watched it land as Haines’s chin jerked to the side almost like Cal had clipped him.

“I thought she was,” Cal forced his voice to steady, “but she wasn’t.”

“You sure?” Haines asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Cal answered.

“And how can you be sure?”

“’Cause no God is cruel enough to make the only woman you’ll love be the one who kills your kid.”

Another score, another direct hit. Haines’s jaw went hard.

Then Haines changed tactics.

“You’ve torn through practically every fuckable woman in the county,” Haines reminded him.

“Yeah, but none of them were Vi.”

Another score, a muscle jerked in Haines’s jaw, he knew Cal spoke the truth.

“She likes you,” Cal informed him. “She wants what she had back.”

“I’m not Tim.”

“I’m not sayin’ you are. I’m just sayin’ you represent what she had.”

“It isn’t just that, we got somethin’.”

Cal felt his own jaw tighten because he knew Haines spoke the truth.

Haines’s voice also calmed. “And what we got, you can’t give her.”

“Same’s true with me,” Cal returned.

Haines’s voice was actually soft when he asked, “What can you give her, Cal?”

“Everything,” Cal answered and he scored again, Haines blinked.

“She needs –” Haines started.

It was Cal’s turn to soften his voice. “I know what she needs, Mike.”

They stood staring at each other silently.

Cal broke the silence. “She’s gonna come to you, break it off, cut you loose, this time let her even if she tries to hold on at the same time.”

Cal watched Haines’s entire face go hard as the knowledge penetrated as to what Cal was saying and how much he knew of the game Vi was playing. It was a game she didn’t know she was playing, she didn’t have the experience, but she was running roughshod over Haines all the same.

“She was fifteen when Tim asked her out, she’s got no idea what she’s doin’,” Cal defended Vi.

“I know that,” Haines ground out.

“She’s lost, with Sam gone now more than ever,” Cal went on.

“You aren’t helpin’ her get found, Cal.”

“We’re all lost, Mike. The best chance we got is to wander this life with the people who matter.”

He’d scored again and he wasn’t looking for it. Haines went from angry to watchful.

“You don’t want her for her, you want her for you.”

“Yeah,” Cal replied instantly, “isn’t that what you want?”

“I want her because she’s Vi.”

“And I want her for the same but because she is, she can give me what I need.”

“And what’s she get?”

“She gets to give me what I need.”

“Nice,” Haines bit out, back to pissed.

“That’s who she is, man, haven’t you figured that out? Isn’t that what she does for you? Because if it isn’t then you don’t have her, nowhere near. That’s what she is, that’s what those girls are, that’s who she made them to be. They exist to give you what you need. It isn’t selfish, that’s how they get off. Fuck, when I went to the mall with them, Keira tried to be my personal shopper.”

Cal knew it cost him but Haines couldn’t help but chuckle.

Then he asked, “No shit?”

“She picked a pink shirt,” Cal told him then added, “with flowers on it.”

Haines chuckled again.

Cal kept going. “She ever shove her shoulder in your pit, make you put your arm around her?”

The humor fled Haines’s face but he didn’t answer which was his answer.

“Katy do it?” Cal pushed.

“Kate did it?” Haines whispered.

“Vi did it when I needed her, Katy did it when she needed me.”

Haines closed his eyes and looked away.

“Stand down,” Cal repeated, his voice quiet and Haines’s eyes opened and he looked back at Cal and when he did, Cal knew he’d won.

“You fuck her over –”

“I won’t.”

“You do…” he let that hang and Cal decided not to repeat himself so Haines finished. “You don’t give her everything, I’m back and I’ll bust my ass to do it instead of you.”

“I know that, she does too, so I reckon I better bust my ass so you don’t have to.”

“Wouldn’t be work.”

“Agreed.”

They again stared at each other silently.

Then Haines broke the silence but he spoke quietly. “You gotta know you’re killin’ me, man.”

Cal spoke quietly back. “I know, Mike.”

And he did, he couldn’t imagine standing down from Vi, not now. He’d pulled away twice thinking it was for his good and hers and neither time was the least pleasant. It was like tearing off a fucking limb.

Standing down for good would kill.

But if he knew Haines had with her what Cal had, he’d do it knowing he’d be doing it for her. Haines wasn’t stupid, he knew she was tied in knots and a woman like Violet didn’t get tied in knots for something that didn’t matter.

Cal mattered to her.

Haines knew that.

So he was standing down.

“Fuck,” Haines muttered.

Cal didn’t reply. There was nothing to say.

Haines studied Cal then said, “Anyone else, I’d be fuckin’ over the moon for you, Cal.”

Cal remained silent but that didn’t stop him from thinking that Mike Haines was a good man.

“Now, I’m not,” Haines finished.

Cal lifted his chin.

The muscle jumped in his jaw again, Haines nodded then he moved to turn away.

For some fucking insane reason, before he did Cal said, “She’s out there.”

Haines’s eyes locked on his. “What?”

“Whoever she is for you, she’s out there.”

“Fuck me,” Haines muttered.

“Mine moved in next door, man,” Cal pointed out.

Haines turned fully to Cal and his mouth was twitching when he mumbled, “Joe Callahan, romantic.”

Cal shrugged. Haines wanted to see it that way, fuck if Cal cared.

He pushed away from the truck, dropping his arms and turned to the door. He caught sight of Colt as he did it and Colt wasn’t fast enough to hide his smile.

Crazy fuck.

Cal looked back at Haines as he pulled himself up into the cab.

Haines gave him a nod. Cal nodded back, slammed the door, buckled up, hit the ignition and pulled out of the Station.

His phone rang as he drove down Grant. He yanked it out of his back pocket, looked at the screen, flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Yo, buddy.”

“Joe.”

Hearing her say his name, he grinned at the windshield.

“That’s who you called, baby.”

“Where are you?”

“In the truck.”

“Okay, but where?”

“On my way to your garden center to buy a dog bed.”

He listened to silence.

This lasted awhile.

Then he called, “Vi?”

“Yeah?”

“Honey, you called me, you actually gonna speak?”

“I, um… need you not to come home, I mean,” she said the last two words quickly then kept talking fast, “to the house for awhile.”

“Why?”

“I’m having an impromptu girl’s afternoon in.”

He’d left her on her belly in bed after making her sit on his face until she came then fucking her until she came again. She didn’t even twitch when he bent in, kissed her neck and whispered in her ear that he’d be back in awhile.

He hadn’t been gone an hour. Now she was having a girl’s afternoon in.

This meant she was going to tell her friends everything which didn’t make him happy because he didn’t like anyone in his business. Then she was going to get shit advice. Then, maybe, she was going to do something stupid.

“Who’s comin’?” he asked.

“Cheryl…” she answered.

Not good, that bitch was hard as nails.

“Feb…” she went on.

That was okay, Feb was cool.

“Dee…” she continued.

Wildcard. Dee Owens called ‘em as she saw ‘em and Cal had no clue how she’d see him.

“Jessie…”

Fuck, Jessie Rourke was a nut.

“Mimi…”

Christ, he’d fucked two of Mimi VanderWal’s close friends.

“And Jackie.”

Cal relaxed.

Jackie Owens was Feb’s Mom, salt of the earth. Even with the rest of the hens in that coup, Jackie’d be the voice of reason and not many people were stupid enough not to listen to Jackie’s reason, including Cheryl Sheckle and Jessie Rourke.

“Then, um… after, I’m goin’ to Mike’s,” Vi said in his ear.

Cal didn’t speak.

“Then, um… we need to talk,” she finished.

“I’ll go into the office after I get the dog bed. If I gotta stay gone, you need me to pick anything up?”

She didn’t answer his question, she asked, “The office?”

“Yeah.”

“What office?”

“My office.”

“You have an office?”

Had he been closed that tight? Christ, he had.

“Yeah, baby, I have an office in town. Got a girl named Lindy, schedules my meetings, my walkthroughs, sends invoices, does the books, arranges travel, orders the equipment if I do the install myself, shit like that.”

“In town? You mean, the ‘burg?”

“Yeah.”

“Lindy?”

“Yeah?”

“She live in town?”

“Avon.”

“Oh.”

“Take you to meet her,” Cal offered.

“That’s okay,” Vi replied quickly.

Cal sighed then let it go and repeated, “You need me to pick anything up?”

She hesitated then repeated, “Pick anything up?”

“Coffee, milk, beer, pick anything up.”

“Groceries?” she breathed, like the concept of groceries was foreign to her.

“Yeah, Vi, unless Armageddon hit while I was fuckin’ you this morning and we missed it, I’m thinkin’ grocery stores still exist and they’re all still stocked.”

He heard her soft giggle before she swallowed it.

His woman, Cal realized, was a nut.

“Vi?” he prompted.

“I don’t drink beer.”

“I do so we need it.”

“Do you have some in your fridge?”

“Buddy, my fridge is at the dump.”

“But wasn’t it a perfectly good fridge?”

“Yeah, but my Dad bought it at Sears thirty years ago so I don’t think Katy and Keirry are gonna dig on it bein’ in the kitchen they design.”

“Oh,” she said in a soft, sweet way he felt in his dick just like when she said his name.

He ignored it and asked, “So we need beer?”

“Um… yeah.”

Christ, that was a long conversation to get down to needing beer.

“Okay, stick with me here, buddy, and concentrate. Do we need anything else?”

“I don’t know, what do you eat?”

“Anything.”

“We don’t have Power Bars or Gatorade or anything like that.”

“Vi, I’m not in training for the Super Bowl.”

“Right,” she whispered.

Cal started laughing.

“What’s funny?” Vi asked over his laughter.

“You are, baby.”

“How’s that?”

“Gatorade?”

“Well, I saw you working out,” she defended herself.

“So I’ll buy water. You got eggs?”

“Yes.”

“Bacon?”

“Yes.”

“Oatmeal?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m set.”

“Okay.”

He pulled into the garden center parking lot and found a spot.

“I’m at the garden center.”