Page 44 of A Matter of Time
“I don’t need them fussing and worrying,” Mr Callahan replied sullenly. “One mother hen is bad enough, I don’t need a whole brood.”
Mrs Callahan pursed her lips at her husband, but she didn’t respond directly to him, turning to me instead. “Right now, we really just need some help getting things in order.”
Once again, I couldn’t help thinking Tonia would be the obvious choice. “You think I can do better than Ms ‘A Matter of Time’ herself?”
That drew a smile from both of them, thankfully. “Tonia’s the best, of course,” her mom acknowledged. “But we need a practical head right now, not an emotional one.”
As someone who had been on the receiving end of Tonia’s emotional outbursts several times, I couldn’t really argue about that. “What do you need me to do?”
Their request consisted of, as she’d said, mostly practical arrangements. The Callahans had been visiting friends not far from Houston when the heart attack happened, which explained why they ended up at the hospital there rather than in Sandy Creek. The ranch had been left in the hands of some of their hired help for the day, but Mr Callahan wouldn’t be up to taking over again for some time, so plans needed to be put in place to ensure that things kept running smoothly until more permanent arrangements could be made.
Having me there to make the calls and deal with the business side of things left Mrs Callahan free to keep an eye on her husband and talk with the doctors when they came in to update them. Though I tried not to eavesdrop, I couldn’t help overhearing a few things in the small hospital room, especially the part about the doctor suggesting retirement should be strongly considered.
Mr Callahan had worked himself into a huff by the time the doctor left. “I’m only 52,” he pointed out angrily to no one in particular. “I ain’t retiring yet.”
“Bobby Jenkins died last year at 48,” his wife shot back. “You think that’s better than retiring a few years early?”
As they argued, I glanced up at the clock on the wall, and my stomach sank as I saw it had been almost an hour already since I left the bar. I needed to get Tonia a message so she didn’t think I stood her up. Since the Callahans were distracted, I pulled out my phone and started typing.
Hey, I’m just taking care of something but I’m still coming back. If you’d rather head home, I can come to your place instead, just send me the address. I still want to…
Mid-sentence, the screen went black.
Shit.
I had seen the low-battery warning when I was on the last call but I thought I had more time left than that.
“Mr and Mrs Callahan?” I hated to interrupt the argument still in progress, but this was important. “My phone just died and I need to send Tonia a message. I told her I’d be in touch with her tonight. Can I borrow one of yours?”
The two of them exchanged glances. “If you send her a message on my phone, she’ll know you’re with me,” Mrs Callahan pointed out. “And for right now, until we figure this all out, we’d rather none of the kids know anything about it.”
My stomach sank even further. “You don’t expect me to keep this from Tonia?”
“Only for a day,” Mr Callahan piped up. “We’re going to Dex’s gallery tomorrow, we’ll figure out what we want to say to them all by then.”
“That’s only if the doctor clears you to go,” his wife pointed out.
They continued to argue with their eyes before Mrs Callahan sighed and turned back to me.
“I think I’ve got a charging cord in my purse.” That was the first bit of bright news I’d got since arriving here, but my excitement quickly faded as we realized it didn’t fit my phone. “Oh shoot, I’m sorry, Cam, but don’t worry about Tonia. She’ll understand.”
I didn’t feel anywhere near as confident of that fact as they seemed to. However, maybe if I left right then, I could still get back to the bar before everyone left.
“Is there anything else you need for tonight, then?”
They told me everything was under control and asked me again to keep everything to myself until the following evening. I gave vague assurances but made no actual promises before I headed back down to the taxi rank outside. Traffic had never seemed as slow as it did on the way back downtown, and as soon as we reached the bar, I threw my cash at the driver, telling him to keep the change as I hopped out and ran back inside.
Frustration soon washed over me yet again as I realized she was gone. The entire group had left and the space where we’d been sitting had been occupied by a different group.
Cursing my luck and my timing and anything else I could think of, I made my way home and finally plugged my phone in. As soon as I could turn it on, I retyped my message, telling her I was at home but still wanted to talk and would come to her.
No reply came through. The message stayed unread, and when I tried calling her a few minutes later, it went straight to voicemail. Tonia’s cheery message made me feel even worse and I hung up without leaving one of my own.
The time was getting late and if it were any other day and any other woman, I would say that I’d wait and talk about it with her in the morning, but I’d made that mistake with Tonia before. The more time she had alone, the more she would get in her head and second-guess what happened between us that night and whether she wanted to talk to me about it at all.
I wouldn’t let that happen again. If she decided to reject me again, it wouldn’t be because of a lack of information. It was long past time we got all of this out into the open.
“Cam?” Dex’s sleep-filled voice made my guilt rise again as he picked up on the fourth ring. He and Shawna were probably exhausted and already in bed. “What’s going on?”
