The Matchmakers (17 page)

 
John whispered words of
encouragement and made the promises of a desperate man while Nick and Marty
Carson ran for rope and boards to shore up the edges of the hole. With help
from his crew, he’d dragged her to safety and held her in his arms until the
ambulance came for her. Nick and Marty had dealt with the police and the town
inspector in John’s absence. They’d broken the news to John over the phone that
the town had temporarily shut down the site. Through it all, Nick had been
unable to get Callie out of his mind. At first he’d pictured her injured and nearly
drowning in mud, and he’d thanked God that she hadn’t come to the site that day
for a visit. Then his thoughts turned on him. Her scent seemed to linger
wherever he went. Her voice played in his head. No less than a dozen men had
walked near the trailer that day. Why hadn’t one of them fallen through the
thin, unstable layer of soil that covered the hole? John had been offsite most
of the day, meeting with the owners and police regarding the vandalism, yet he’d
been present, standing only a few feet away from Teresa when she fell. If it
hadn’t been for his quick response, she might have drowned in the water at the
bottom of the hole. Nick had sensed John’s utter terror, his self-recrimination
at never telling Teresa how he felt about her. Once again, Nick had thought of
Callie. After making sure the site was secure, he’d driven around town for
hours. Rehearsing his argument, he played over every scene from the day and
questioned the evidence. Everything pointed to Callie. Vandals could not have
created the sinkhole and timed it to collapse so perfectly. By all the laws of
physics, a hole that large should have opened up weeks ago and sunk in during
the Halloween rainstorm. The fact that Teresa had only sprained her ankle and
swallowed some muddy water was another striking coincidence. She could have
broken her neck. It all seemed like Fae magick at work. Nick felt like a
lunatic for even considering such a thing, but when he added Callie to the
equation, it all made a sick kind of sense.

Never trust a woman
. Why had he
forgotten that? Why had he allowed Callie to get under his skin and into his
heart? That had to be why it hurt so much. Nick stood in the middle of the
living room now, reliving everything he’d said to her, trying to recall the anger
that had carried him to Farley’s on nothing but adrenaline. Somehow, now all he
felt was an ache in the pit of his stomach and a nervous tickle at the back of
his neck. Where was she? He wasn’t surprised she hadn’t come home. The look in
her eyes when he’d left her in the parking lot had been that of a wounded
puppy. He didn’t expect her to come around looking to get hurt again, but as
angry as he had been, the main emotion curdling his gut right now was worry.
Should he go look for her? What if she never came back? Wouldn’t he be better
off? He stayed awake the rest of the night, contemplating the answer.

Chapter Twenty-one

 
         
Callie
lay wrapped in a soft down comforter, a satin-covered pillow under her head.
Hayden’s couch beat Nick’s hands down for comfort, but Callie’s misery would
not allow her to rest. Her head ached again from the silent tears she’d shed
after Hayden went to bed. She’d tried so hard to get Nick to believe in her
powers, and what had it gotten her? How could he think she would do something
that would lead to Teresa getting hurt? Perhaps this further proved Freya’s
estimation of him. He couldn’t trust. Not even someone he cared about.
Therefore, he couldn’t truly love. Would he even notice if Freya visited her
lifelong punishment on him? Probably not. Callie wrapped her arms around her
stomach to ease the sour knot that lay below her ribcage. She curled up in a
ball and sighed, wondering how she would spend the rest of her life without
love. At least once the Oak Moon passed, her heart wouldn’t ache for Nick
Garrett anymore. Sharing a bathroom never seemed to be a problem at Nick’s, but
the next morning, after an hour of waiting for Hayden, Callie finally broke
down and knocked on the door. `Hey, are you okay?´ The muffled sound of sobbing
reached her through the door. Callie frowned. `Hayden? Let me in.´ When the
door opened a crack, only Hayden’s hand emerged. She held a white plastic stick
in her trembling fingers. `Tell me what you see,śhe said through a loud
sniffle. Callie eyed the object. `A coffee stirrer?´ `Look closer!Ćallie
took the stick from Hayden and turned it over in her hand. On the other side,
two pale blue lines filled a small rectangular window in the plastic. `What am
I looking at?´ `Do you see two lines?´ `Yes. Two identical blue lines.´ `Oh,
God.´ `Hayden, tell me what’s wrong.´ `I’m pregnant.Ćallie took a step
back from the door and squinted at the plastic stick. In her long life, Callie
had very little experience with pregnancy tests. Conception was not her
department. There were other Fae who helped pregnancies along and protected
unborn babies and their mothers. `Are you sure about this?´ Hayden opened the
bathroom door all the way. She wore her nightshirt and huge fuzzy slippers, and
her hair was twisted atop her head in a damp towel. Her eyes were bloodshot,
her face puffy. `Two blue lines means pregnant.´ Callie forced a smile. `Blue
is for boys, right?´ Hayden replied with a sob. `I’m sorry you’re not happy
about this.´ `Happy? How could I be happy? It’s a disaster.´ Hayden threw
herself into Callie’s arms and wept, her sobs rocking both of them. Callie
patted Hayden’s back and tried to soothe her. In the Fae realm the birth of a
child was a rare and momentous event. She wasn’t so naïve as to think this was
always the case in the human realm. Here, pregnancies were sometimes less than
pleasant surprises. `The worst part is, I hate myself for not being happy. This
is
my
baby, right?Ćallie blinked.
`It would have to be.´ `I should be happy. It hurts that I’m not. What am I
supposed to do now, Callie? I don’t know what to do.Ćallie held Hayden at
arm’s length and tried to put on a resolute face. `You’ll do whatever you have
to do. First you have to tell the father.´ This produced more sobs from Hayden.
She sank to the floor in the narrow hallway, cradling the stick in her hands. `What
if he’s not happy, either? That would kill me. My baby deserves everybody to be
happy for him«or her.´ `You still have to do it. This won’t be the first child
that came as a surprise to its parents. You’ll get over the shock eventually
and so will he. Now, who is the father?´ `Matt. He’s the only one I’ve ever«´ `Okay.
You need to go see him. Bring this.Ćallie held up the test stick. `What if
he hates me?´ `I’m sure he won’t hate you.Ćallie hoisted Hayden up from
the floor and guided her into the bedroom. `What do I say to him?´ `Show him
the stick. He’ll probably recognize it faster than I did.´ Hayden shed the
towel from her hair while Callie pulled a clean blouse and jeans from the
closet. The younger girl flopped on the bed and buried her face in her hands. `I
can’t believe I screwed up my life like this. I should have been more careful.
I mean, I thought I was being careful. I didn’t mean for this to happen.Ćallie
sat on the bed, put her arm around Hayden’s shoulders and squeezed. `From one
screw up to another, sweetheart, you’ll get through it somehow. I know you
will.´ `She’s right, this is horrible.´ Nick dumped his coffee in the sink
after one disappointing swallow and slammed the empty cup on the counter. He
turned to face the painfully empty kitchen and rolled his eyes ceilingward. `Callie?
Can you hear me?Áfter a full minute of silence, he paced across the room and
tried again. `Callie! Tinkerbell, come on. I’ve been thinking«and I don’t
believe you did it. I mean, I know you didn’t have anything to do with the
accident at the site. Come back and let me apologize.´ Nick tapped his foot
while the clock above the sink ticked away another two minutes. A mischievous faerie
was one thing. A petulant one tried his patience. `Tink! Come on. I know you
can hear me. You’re probably laughing at me right now, aren’t you?´ He tapped. The
clock ticked. `Fine. You don’t have to materialize. You can just listen. I’m
sorry. I realize you could never do anything to hurt anyone. I know you wouldn’t
go that far to bring a couple together. It’s no excuse, I know. But I was
upset. I was shaken up. If you didn’t do it, I mean, I know you didn’t, but
that means something else is going on. Whoever set the fire is trying to hurt
people, and that«that scares me a little. A lot. It could have been you.
Suppose you’d come to visit me at work like you did last week. You might have
gotten hurt. Teresa could have died. John’s business is almost shot to hell,
and twenty guys with families are out of work today. That’s a big deal. Whoever
is doing this, we’ve got to stop them before things get worse. So, can you
please come back?´ Nick waited a beat. Did he imagine the faint scent of lilacs
in the air? `Callie? I need to know you’re okay and you don’t hate me. Please
come back. I’m sorry.Ánother ten minutes elapsed, and Nick gave up staring at
the ceiling. `Fine. If that’s the way you want it. Fine. Even if you don’t
forgive me, I’m still sorry.Írritated, Nick grabbed his jacket and headed for
the door. He’d done all he could do, but he couldn’t wait around any longer for
Callie to decide to forgive him. Nick’s phone rang and rang as Callie paced
back and forth in Hayden’s tiny kitchenette. Once Hayden had left to find Matt,
Callie had busied herself cleaning up the breakfast she’d made for them. Scrubbing
dishes took her mind off Nick for a while, but only after she took a shower and
found the box from Hayden’s pregnancy test on the bathroom counter did she
begin to consider a terrible possibility. She’d completely forgotten about
Miranda’s visit on Sunday afternoon. While Callie turned the small cardboard
package over in her hands, the thought struck her that maybe the news Miranda
had wanted to share with Nick was similar.

Maybe Nick doesn’t
deserve to know.
Miranda’s words made Callie wonder if perhaps« The thought made her
nauseous. She’d never been nauseous before, and she hated the feeling. Anger at
Miranda suddenly clouded her thoughts, and Callie realized the feeling was
prompted by jealousy something else she wasn’t accustomed to feeling. If
Miranda was pregnant, then Nick had a responsibility to her, one that
superseded his promise to help Callie. There’d be no room for matchmaking«and
to that end, their failure would be assured. Nick would have a child he’d be
unable to love. No matter how angry he’d been with her or how unfair his
accusations, he didn’t deserve that. Neither did his child. Callie had to do
something. So she called his apartment, then his cell phone, but he never
picked up. Finally she gave up and left a message on his answering machine. She
told him about Miranda’s visit, though the words choked her, and urged him to
go and see Miranda and find out what she wanted to tell him. `He wants to marry
me.´ Hayden delivered her announcement deadpan, her eyes dull. She sat in the kitchen
with the late afternoon sun streaming across her pale hands as she twisted them
in nervous knots on the kitchen table. Callie didn’t comment immediately.
Hayden’s expression made it clear this, too, was not good news. `Well, that
means he doesn’t hate you.´ `Hurrah.´ Hayden moaned and dropped her head into
her hands. `I really didn’t think this day could get any worse.´ `Don’t say
that. Things could have gone a lot worse with Matt.´ `I don’t want to marry
him.Ćallie slid into the seat opposite Hayden. `Then don’t. It’s not like
it used to be. You can be a single mother.´ `I don’t want that,
either.Ćallie rested her chin in her hands and studied Hayden’s face. Her
tears had dried, but there was still a stark look in her dark eyes. She
obviously felt completely alone. `Why don’t you think about your options for a
while? You don’t have to make any decisions today.´ `Matt wants to apply for a
marriage license tomorrow morning.´ `You can put him off for a little while.
Tell him you need time to think. That’s not a crime, and it’s not a lie.´ `Oh,
Callie. I don’t want time to think. I want to pretend this isn’t
happening.Ćallie leaned forward and brushed a loose strand of Hayden’s
hair from her eyes. `This may sound crazy, but why don’t you give yourself
twenty-four hours and do just that? Put it out of your mind for now. Take a
break. It’s not like you’ll forget about it, but just let it hang out there for
a bit while you go and do something normal. Let’s get ready to go to work. We’ll
stop for pizza on the way, and we won’t talk about it.´ Hayden sighed, and a
brittle smile curved her lips. `That’s the best idea I’ve heard today.´ Hearing
Callie’s voice on his answering machine when he got home did nothing to improve
Nick’s mood. At least she was all right, but she hadn’t offered to come back,
and she hadn’t accepted his apology. He’d thought of ignoring the message about
Miranda. What would they have to discuss with each other at this point? After
rummaging through the nearly empty refrigerator and dumping what remained of a cold
pot of coffee down the drain, he reluctantly picked up the phone. Miranda
answered her cell phone on the first ring. `I’m surprised your girlfriend told
you about my visit,śhe said without preamble. `She doesn’t seem like the
type with much long-term memory.´ Nick didn’t have the patience for snotty
banter, especially when it concerned Callie. `Can we cut to the chase?´ `Not
over the phone. This is something I need to talk to you about in person.´ `Ah,
Miranda. Is this really necessary?´ Nick paced, then looked in the fridge again
and came up as disappointed as before. `If you want to know what’s going on at
the construction site, it is.´ That stopped him midstride. His blood grew cold.
He gripped the phone and forced the words through clenched teeth. `What about
it?´ `I can’t talk over the cell. Anyone could be listening.´ `So what do you
want me to do?´ `Meet me outside of town. How about the park in Grandview? The
place with the gazebo.´ Nick remembered the secluded spot that was so romantic
in the warm weather. Today it would be cold and desolate. Not a wise choice for
a rendezvous. He threw his better judgment out the window. `When?´ `How about
an hour?´ He sighed again. `All right.´ `I’m doing you a favor, Nick. I hope
you remember that.´ Miranda hung up, leaving Nick listening to dead air for a
minute before he slammed down the phone. Why was he letting another woman
manipulate him? Catfish and Ria, his new lady friend, kept the bar hopping that
night, and despite Callie’s concern for Hayden and her heartache over Nick, she
found herself having a good time. It felt good to see the wiry widower with a
genuine smile on his face. Ria, the redheaded former scarecrow, seemed to be
cut from the same cloth as Catfish. She had a bright smile, an infectious laugh
and a kind way about her that warmed Callie’s heart. She watched them wistfully
from behind the bar while Farley showed her the intricacies of the cash register.
`The week after Thanksgiving, I want to be set up for the lunch crowd,´ Farley
explained. `So if you want to take two afternoon shifts a week, you can. Hayden
already agreed to Tuesday and Friday.´ `Uh«okay. I guess I’ll take Wednesday
and Thursday. What about Mondays and weekends?´ `I’m still working that out,
but I’ll let you know. Now watch. The register key goes under the cash drawer,
and we don’t take bills higher than a twenty except from regulars like Marty
and Bud. Nick is okay, too.Ćallie nodded, certain she’d forget and annoyed
at the zing of emotion she felt at the mention of Nick’s name. She forced
herself to concentrate until Andrew walked by, his expression as grim and
lifeless as Hayden’s had been lately. When her first lesson in cash register
etiquette ended, Callie cornered Farley’s younger brother in the back room.
Though it was Hayden’s job, he was collecting empty glasses from the pool table
area. His dark brows lashed together in concentration, and his full lips were
compressed in a thin line. `You okay?śhe asked, offering her tray to
collect the glasses. A faint smile replaced his frown. `Bad mood, I guess.´ `If
you don’t mind my asking, is Teresa all right? I was worried about her.Ándrew’s
frown returned. He set the glasses on Callie’s tray and took the burden from
her before answering. `She sprained her ankle pretty badly and cracked a rib.
She has to be careful she doesn’t get pneumonia from the water she inhaled.´ `Oh.
Well, I’m sure the doctors will take good care of her«but that’s not what’s
bothering you, is it?´ He shrugged. `I really like her. I know we only had one
date. It’s kinda stupid, but I’m really hung up on her.´ `She doesn’t feel the
same way?´ `Ha. I can’t get close enough to find out. Her boss is in the way
all the time.Ćallie weighed Andrew’s words, wishing she still possessed a
spark of Fae magick. Was John finally staking a claim to Teresa now that he’d
come close to losing her? Which couple had greater potential for true love?
John and Teresa, or Teresa and Andrew? `I’m sure he’s just looking out for her.
What happened at the site had to have shaken him up a bit.´ `Shook him up so
much he moved in on my girl.´ `Your girl?Ćallie tried to hide her
amusement. She would never have pegged Andrew to fall so hard so fast.