Fall by Winter - Cara Dee Page 0,4
when I called William.
“Hey, I was just about to call you,” he answered. “Hold on, connecting to Bluetooth.”
I assumed he was on his way home from work too.
“There,” he said. “What’s up?”
I checked the rearview and switched to the left lane. Some people didn’t know how to drive in the rain. “Tell me I shouldn’t get a dog.”
He was silent for a beat. “Well, I mean…you could. If you do, we can watch it every now and then, and then maybe Kelly won’t want one too.”
I huffed a chuckle. “Does he?”
“He won’t fucking shut up about it,” he muttered.
“And you can’t say no to him,” I said knowingly. “Get a dog, William. I can watch it every now and then.”
“What the—how did we…?—no. You get a dog.”
“I like my idea better,” I replied. “I just want something to cuddle with sometimes. My job wouldn’t really allow for me to take several weeks off for puppy training right now.”
My job—I loved it beyond words, but it was a mess. I’d majored in design and minored in management, and when employment was scarce, I’d gotten creative. Now I had two part-time gigs, one that was taking up more and more time, and several smaller projects I ran as a small business owner. Most of my clients needed project managers for temporary assignments, and it was possible I’d signed on for more than a few lately.
“It could be a grown-up dog,” William pointed out.
“No, I want a puppy. They’re the cutest.” Then I shook my head and rolled my eyes at myself. “I’m not getting a fucking dog.”
William snorted. “I’m still getting used to you cursing.”
“What can I say, I have fewer fucks to give these days. Well—technically, more fucks. Oh, whatever. I’m sorry.” I winced at my own awkwardness. I had changed. “I listened to Eminem earlier, and then I almost said yo to a client.”
He laughed, way too amused.
A moment later, I passed the sign welcoming me home to Camassia Cove.
“With that settled,” I drawled, “why were you going to call me?”
“Thought I’d give you an update on Mason.”
“Oh, yeah. Shoot.” I returned to the right lane. While I was in the area, I might as well swing by Target. Aurora needed tampons, and I was almost out of trash bags and the cereal Brady preferred.
“Turns out he’s moving back home,” William said, and I was surprised, to say the least. “He’s currently house hunting, so I sent him the local listings. There’s one for sale on your street.”
“Hit rewind, William,” I said, shaking my head. “All I ever heard about Mason when we started dating was how he’d escaped Camassia as soon as possible—that he couldn’t wait to leave. Now he’s moving back? Just like that?”
He chuckled. “Trust me, I was surprised too. At first. But it makes sense when you learn that he wasn’t escaping the town so much as he was escaping our parents.”
Oh. Oh. Wow, another thing I hadn’t seen coming.
I’d had the blinders on for the longest time where their parents were concerned. I’d always found them sweet. Now I knew better. They were nice as long as they were satisfied with your accomplishments and, well, sexual orientation. When I found out they had told William they wouldn’t accept that he was now with a man, I’d been fucking livid. I hadn’t spoken to them since.
“I had no idea.” I shook my head and turned into the Target parking lot. “Man, the irony. He must’ve been horrified when they moved down to Phoenix after they retired.” To be closer to Mason, no less.
“That’s what I said,” William sighed. “But by then, Mason was with his second wife—and he had Tristan in high school.”
I hummed. “Doesn’t Tristan live in Vancouver now?”
Mason’s boy was twenty-three, if I weren’t mistaken. I remembered when I’d had dinner with Mason in the beginning of September; he mentioned that Tristan had met a Canadian girl and moved to the West Coast. Vancouver or Victoria, one of them. Either way, Camassia was closer to Vancouver than Seattle, so it would make sense.
“Yes,” William confirmed. “That’s why he’s going with Camassia. He wants to be closer to Tristan. Oh, and a bit of good news, I suppose. Tristan’s going to be a father in a couple of months.”
“What the fuck!” I exclaimed. As I pulled into an empty spot near the entrance, I smacked the wheel and couldn’t help but feel incredibly frustrated. “What is it with you men? Is it so damn hard