When Summer Comes (36 page)

“Baxter, what’s going on?” she demanded when she could hear the others.

“I think it’s time, Cal,” he replied. “I’m sorry.”

Time to be honest. That was what he had to mean. For the most part, she felt the same. But this scenario wasn’t playing out the way she’d expected. “All right. So...what is it that Kyle has to say?”

She heard Eve’s voice next. “Callie, when we were there earlier...”

“Yes?”

“Dylan recognized Levi.”

Callie sank onto the bed. “He what?”

“He’s seen Levi before, Cal. He just didn’t realize it until we came over this morning.”

Absently, she petted her dog, who was resting his snout on her lap. “
Where?
Where has he seen him before?”

“At a tournament in Arizona about eight years ago.”

She jumped up so fast Rifle darted away. “So? That’s no surprise. I know Levi used to fight.”

There was an awkward silence. Then Eve tried again. “Did you also know his name isn’t Levi McCloud?”

Yes! She knew that, too. But it made her nervous that her friends did. They wouldn’t like the idea that he’d been using a fake name. No one would. Did they also know why?

As she wondered how to respond, Dylan spoke up, brisk and to the point.

“Callie, his name is Levi Pendleton. He’s wanted by the police for assaulting two officers in Nevada.”

Assaulting two officers?
That was even worse than she’d imagined, worse than the far more innocuous scenarios she’d come up with to justify his use of a false name. “How bad...how badly did he hurt them?” she asked.

“One ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw. If several guys hadn’t pulled Levi off, I don’t know how things would’ve gone. The other cop was out cold.”

She couldn’t picture Levi acting out to that extent. He wasn’t a violent person. Although she hadn’t known him long, he’d been so kind, so gentle. “When was this?” she asked.

“Two years ago.”

He’d just returned from Afghanistan. She knew what kind of shape he must’ve been in, knew that had to account for what’d happened. She wanted to tell them, to explain the degree of his loss and what his childhood had been like. But why bother? He’d be gone tomorrow. She just hoped the authorities would take the extenuating circumstances into consideration when they caught him.

“Thanks for telling me,” she said softly.

“That’s it?” Kyle said. “Callie, he could be dangerous, like I’ve been saying you all along. He could—”

“Kyle!” she broke in.

Out of patience, he came right back at her.
“What?”

“It doesn’t matter!”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” Eve sounded even more scandalized. “You want a family, don’t you? What kind of life can you build with a man who’s wanted for a violent crime? Who might get violent again? What about any children you might have? What about your parents, who’d be heartbroken to see anything happen to you? What about the rest of us who care—”

She squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to block out the words that seemed to be hitting her like bullets from a machine gun. “Stop! I can’t build a life with anyone.”

Dead silence.

“What are you talking about?” Noah asked. “You’re a beautiful, smart, funny woman. You’ll find the right guy. Don’t settle for this one.”

She drew a deep breath. “Noah, Kyle, Eve...all of you.”

“What is it?”

That was Cheyenne’s voice. Callie recognized the fear in it. She’d had such a hard life. Callie hated that what she was about to say would only add to what was already a long list for Cheyenne. And not just her. They
all
knew something terrible was coming.

“Baxter can confirm what I’m about to tell you, because he was at the hospital with me earlier this week.”

“The hospital?” Kyle echoed.

“Yes.” She prayed her voice wouldn’t crack even though she could feel the threat of tears. “My liver’s failing. If I don’t get a transplant in the next few weeks, I’ll be dead before the end of summer.”

* * *

Levi dropped his hand. He’d been about to knock so he could tell Callie that dinner was ready. But he’d paused to see if he’d be interrupting something important and heard her say she’d been in the hospital earlier this week. That Baxter had been with her. That she was
dying.

At first, the words floating to him through the door sounded so preposterous he almost laughed. There had to be some mistake. She was young, beautiful, perfect. She’d been functioning as well as he had. He would’ve noticed if there was something wrong, wouldn’t he? They’d just been laughing with each other in a beautiful mountain creek this morning.

But there was that time he’d found her lying on the floor in the bathroom, so sick and weak she couldn’t get up. And she’d disappeared for two days earlier in the week. He’d thought that was odd, even at the time, but Baxter had said they’d gone sailing in San Francisco. Sure, she’d been short of breath or occasionally seemed tired. She’d lost a few pounds, too. But he’d questioned her about those things. She’d told him she was fine!

Heart pounding so hard he felt it might leap right out of his chest, he stood perfectly still, listening to the other voices coming from inside the room. Her friends were all on the phone with her. Except for Baxter, they hadn’t known she was ill, either. There was crying, and anger at having been deceived. Then Callie was trying to convince them she’d had a good life, as short as it was, that everything would be okay and she didn’t want anyone to be too upset.

After that, she asked them something that made Levi go numb. “Please, if...if you happen to see Levi again as he passes through town or whatever, don’t mention this to him. I doubt you’ll run into him, but just in case. I don’t want him to know.”

“Why?”
someone cried. “You’re obviously in love with him. And he might be in love with you. He has a right to know.”

She was having none of that. “No,” she said, adamant. “I don’t want him to see me die.”

* * *

The moment she heard Levi’s motorcycle start up, Callie knew. He was supposed to be in the kitchen, fixing dinner. He had no reason to be outside. Unless...

Feeling sick in a whole new way—sick at heart—she promised to call her friends back and hung up in the middle of Kyle saying...
something.
Then, hoping to catch Levi, she ran out of the house, but he was already turning from the drive onto the road. She wanted to shout his name, beg him to come back and let her say goodbye, to see that he was okay, but all she saw was a glimpse of his back.

“No!” If only she hadn’t taken that call. But what would her friends have done if they couldn’t express their concern?

They might’ve gone to the police.

With a sigh, she sank onto the top step, next to the pink helmet Levi had bought for her. If only she’d waited to tell her friends about her illness. One more day. That was all it would’ve taken. She’d
planned
to wait! But she’d gotten too caught up in trying to convince them that they didn’t need to do anything about Levi’s past, that they could just...leave him be.

Rifle’s cold, wet nose nudged her arm. She’d left the door open and he’d wandered out. Hooking her arm around his neck, she let him bathe her cheek with his warm tongue. “It’s okay, isn’t it, boy?” she asked. “Levi was going, anyway.”

The dog whined, but she doubted he could be as sad as she was. This changed everything. Now she couldn’t imagine Levi as happily oblivious whenever she thought of him. And he probably wouldn’t want to think of her at all.

“Shit, Rifle. I really screwed up.”

Suddenly so tired she felt she’d never be able to get up again, she lay down right there on the porch and rested her head on her arms. The sun was sinking behind the chicken coop. Rifle sat beside her, his tail thumping the wooden planks. As she watched the shadows stretch toward her, the exhilaration of the motorcycle ride she’d taken with Levi passed through her mind. His body had felt so safe and secure as she’d clung to his waist. Then there was the memory of his devilish smile when they’d stopped and he carried her kicking and screaming into that cold stream. After that came the moment when he’d walked out of the bedroom to meet her friends and she’d been so proud to show them she was with someone she loved so much. And last but not least was the comfortable, quiet companionship of cooking dinner together after her friends were gone. It all filtered through her mind, frame by excruciating frame, until finally, mercifully, the relief of sleep washed over her and dragged her into oblivion.

* * *

Kyle called Callie back several times. He, or one of the others, tried every few minutes for the next two hours. When there was no answer, they wanted to return to the farm to see what was going on, but he talked them into letting him go alone. He desperately wanted to speak with Callie, tell her how sorry he was now that he really understood. All along he’d thought she was making a bigger deal out of the fact that they’d slept together than she needed to. He’d been worried that, as a consequence, she might ruin their friendship and tear apart the group. He’d had no idea she was actually wrestling with something much bigger and felt guilty for not guessing, not somehow knowing intuitively. He’d spent the most time with her recently. He’d been out to the farm more than anyone else. And instead of simply being a good friend and listening to her—maybe she would’ve told him about her diagnosis—he’d taken her to bed and complicated everything. The biggest irony was that he knew she’d felt bad about his divorce and had been trying to help
him.

“Sometimes I think I am in love with you,” he muttered as he punched the gas pedal and barreled down the country road to the farm.

When he arrived, all seemed quiet. Rifle ran out to greet him as soon as he turned in at the gate, which was odd, since it was getting late. Callie’s dog was usually inside by now.

It didn’t look as if anyone was home. Callie’s car sat in the drive, but he couldn’t see Levi’s motorcycle and the house was dark.

Intending to knock, just in case, he parked. But as he was about to get out and approach the house, he spotted an odd shape on the porch and realized it was Callie. She was lying there, staring back at his headlights.

What the hell?

Leaving his keys in the ignition, he hopped out. “Callie?”

Panic gripped him when she didn’t answer. Maybe she wasn’t just staring back at him. Maybe she was dead.

Hoping it wasn’t too late, hoping he could still get her some medical help, he jogged the last few steps. But then she blinked and he clutched his chest as he took a ragged breath. “Shit, you scared me. Are you okay?”

There was no response. But tears gathered in her eyes. One slipped over the bridge of her nose.

He glanced around, once again looking for Levi’s bike. “Where is he?”

“Gone,” she said.

“I see.” With a curse, Kyle bent and scooped her into his arms. “Come on. It’s chilly out here. Let’s get you inside.”

“It’s just us again,” she said as he whistled for Rifle to join them and put her on the couch.

He covered her with a blanket, then smoothed the hair away from her face. “So we’ll work with what we have.”

“How?” She managed a brief smile as she wiped her tears.

Kneeling before her, he clasped her hands between his. “I’m going to take better care of you than I did,” he promised.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He brought her fingers to his lips. “I’m sorry about before. How I handled your loneliness. That was...selfish of me.”

“You were lonely, too,” she pointed out. “And I don’t remember complaining.”

That made him feel more confident that the past had really been forgiven. “Things will turn around. You’ll see.”

Her chest lifted as she breathed deeply. “And if they don’t?”

He didn’t like the thought of that. But it was a fair question. “Then I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

“You’re a good friend, Kyle,” she said and tucked the blanket up under her chin.

* * *

Levi couldn’t have stayed in Whiskey Creek even if he’d wanted to. There was no point. How could he be any kind of support to Callie when it was only a matter of time before Chief Stacy or someone else figured out who he was? The moment that happened, he’d be hauled back to Nevada to stand trial. So there was nothing to be gained by sticking around and watching her suffer, nothing to be gained by going through more of the same hell he’d endured when he lost Behrukh—especially because dying of illness was often a long, protracted affair. He preferred to remember Callie as she’d been this morning when they made love on the muddy bank of that stream.

So he had nothing to feel guilty about, right? He’d had no choice; he had to leave. And not saying goodbye? He’d done them both a favor. They’d had a fabulous final day together. Why ruin the memory of it? Now it was just him and his bike and the wind, like it had been for the two years since he’d returned from Afghanistan. This was how he coped. This was how he’d gotten through.

But somehow his life felt even emptier and more aimless now.

For the first time in a long while, his thoughts turned to his father. As much as he hated his old man, there were instances when he yearned for contact, when he missed having some type of anchor. Leo was so authoritative, so autocratic and demanding and controlling. But few things had ever felt more satisfying than achieving his hard-won approval. As a child, Levi had lived for those rare moments.

He guessed it was that better part of his father he was missing now. Not that he’d ever go back to see what had happened to Leo. The night Levi had come home from Afghanistan and they’d had that big blowout was enough contact to last him for
more
than two years.

And yet...as the miles passed and the night wore on, he found himself heading north, toward Portland.

Maybe the mistakes he’d made were Leo’s fault. But that last night...Levi had to admit he’d been responsible for the argument that ensued. Although his father had seemed eager to see him, grateful he’d returned, Levi had been filled with so much anger and resentment he’d been looking to take it out on someone or something, and his father had provided the perfect target.