Prince Charming Wears A Badge

“You believe your version of events that night, so hearing mine won’t change your mind.” Callie spoke without emotion.

“I don’t understand.”

“That makes two of us.” She rose from the love seat. “I’d really rather not talk about this. You can believe what you want. Just know that I’d never do anything to upset or hurt your daughters.”

He nodded, deciding to drop the subject for now. Someday soon he’d love to circle back to it, wondering how she would reconcile what his sister, Isabelle, had told him about Callie’s hot temper. Or maybe he needed to speak to his sister about it next time they talked. Had she exaggerated Callie’s disposition? If so, why?

He checked his watch. “I need to make sure the girls get their dinner. Please don’t skip coming to dinner because of what I said yesterday.”

He left her room then, confused by their conversation. He still wasn’t ready to have her be around his girls when he wasn’t there, but their brief interaction had brought up more questions about her.

He went down the hallway to speak to his daughters, but they weren’t in their room. He entered his own room and quickly changed from his work clothes into shorts and a T-shirt. Then he headed downstairs in search of his daughters.

“Hey, girls, wash up for dinner.” He arrived in the kitchen to see both Alexis and Madison sitting patiently at the table.

“We already did, Daddy,” Madison told him, raising her hands, palms outward, to show him.

“Yeah,” Alexis added. “We’ve been helping Aunt Poppy with dinner and we always need to wash our hands before we do anything in the kitchen.”

“Good rule.” Tyler grinned. “So you two cooked dinner?”

The girls giggled. “No, Aunt Poppy cooked,” Madison said. “We just set the table and got ice for the glasses.”

“The water pitcher was too heavy for us to pour it.” Alexis was very serious as she explained.

“I’m glad you’re helping Aunt Poppy.” He glanced at his aunt taking a tray of roasted asparagus from the oven. “Just don’t get in her way.”

“Oh, they’re not,” Poppy told him over her shoulder. “They’re good helpers.”

“Glad to hear it.” He turned to the girls again. “Tonight is our appointment with Dr. Patty.”

“Yay! I love going there!” Madison was bouncing in her seat. “She has fun toys.”

“Okay, then don’t fool around during dinner so we’re not late for our appointment.”

“Appointment?”

He spun around to see Callie had entered the kitchen.

“The girls and I have a weekly appointment on Tuesday evenings.” Just like she didn’t want to talk about the past, he wasn’t ready to confide the reason his girls needed to see a therapist once a week.

“We like Dr. Patty,” Alexis told Callie. “And if we don’t want to talk about our mommy, then we don’t have to.”

Callie opened her mouth as if about to say something.

“Did you change your mind about joining us for dinner?” Aunt Poppy chose the exact right moment to change the subject.

“Yes. If that’s okay,” Callie told her while looking at Tyler.

He nodded and said to his daughters, “Let’s add a place for Ms. Callie.” The girls jumped out of their seats to get her silverware and a napkin, while he got a plate and a glass down from the cabinet. The girls then put ice in her glass and he poured the water from the pitcher.

“Thank you,” Callie said. “I didn’t mean for you all to make such a fuss.” She seemed overwhelmed by the rush to make a place for her at the table.

“We’re glad you’re joining us,” Aunt Poppy told her as she brought the dish of asparagus to the table to join the meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

“Everything smells and looks delicious,” Callie said. “I really worked up an appetite today.”

“Me, too,” Aunt Poppy agreed as she took her place at the table. “I don’t usually make such a heavy meal this time of year, with the heat and all.”

“I’m glad you did,” Tyler told her. “Your meatloaf is the best I’ve ever eaten.”

As the conversation switched from what the girls did at day camp to the threat of thunderstorms overnight, Tyler checked the time. “We need to get going, girls. Take your plates to the sink so we can get into the car.”

He’d been lucky to find Dr. Patty Schmidt and even luckier that she allowed them to have a seven o’clock time slot on a Tuesday evening so he didn’t have to leave work to bring the girls.

In the nearly a year that they’d been seeing the therapist, he’d noticed a positive change in both his daughters. When they’d first returned to Whittler’s Creek to take care of his dad when he got sick, they were very quiet and withdrawn. Nothing he said or did could bring them out of it. Now, thanks to working with Dr. Patty, they were blossoming into chatty little girls who seemed happy and confident.

He could only hope that what they’d been through while he’d been deployed to Afghanistan would someday be a very distant memory.

* * *

THINKING THE DAY spent picking up trash was the worst, Callie changed her mind at the end of the next day after cleaning the community center. She’d been put in charge of the kitchen and had spent the entire day cleaning off the grease and grime built up on surfaces she could barely reach—the small ledge over the commercial stove, the top of the double-wide refrigerator. If it had a surface, then it needed to be cleaned. At least she knew how to make it sparkle.

Maybe she should thank her stepmother for that. Callie was always assigned kitchen cleanup and was constantly told that she hadn’t done it correctly, no matter how long she’d worked at it.

By the time Callie returned to her temporary home at Poppy’s, she was tired and filthy. She stood under the hot shower in her bathroom for too long before finally drying off and putting on fresh clothes. She really wanted to slip into bed, but she’d gotten an email from her therapist that afternoon. He wanted to set up an appointment to video chat at seven o’clock that evening.

When she checked her bedside clock, she saw it was close to six-thirty already. She might have missed dinner because of her long shower.

She hurried downstairs, determined to get something in her complaining stomach and saw that everyone was still at the table.

“Sorry I’m late.” She shoved her still-wet hair back from her face. She should have put it into a ponytail, but it would take longer to dry that way. “I really needed a shower.”

“We’re having chicken casserole,” Alexis told her. “It has carrots and peas and potatoes in it.”

“Sounds delicious,” Callie said.

“It is.” Madison put a bite of chicken on her fork and stuck it in her mouth to demonstrate.

Callie smiled and said to Poppy, “I have a seven o’clock call, so I’ll apologize now for eating and running.”

Poppy pointed to Callie’s place at the table, already set. “You do what you need to. The girls knocked on your door, but when you didn’t answer, we went ahead and started.”

“That’s good. I must have been in the shower when they knocked.” She noticed Tyler was missing from the table. “Where’s Tyler tonight?”

“He’s got some police training he does Wednesday nights, even though this town doesn’t see much criminal activity. Tyler likes his officers to be ready, so he instituted regular training sessions.”

Callie nodded and took her seat. She scooped out some of the casserole onto her plate and took a slice of the warm bread Alexis passed to her.