Cal stared at his apartment and frowned hard. Sighing into the material of his scarf he pulled it tighter around his mouth and looked down the sidewalk. Each apartment had a small black fence around them and neatly trimmed bushes from the gardening help. A few of them had some blooms that were a pretty green in color.
Choosing his direction, he started walking. The cold was a bit biting at this time of the year but it hadn’t even snowed yet. He loved the first snow of the season. It was never a blizzard level thing. Always a soft flurry that romance movies were made of. But looking at the light grey of the sky he wasn’t going to get any snow any time soon.
Taking the side walk he ended up walking his way toward a nearby park, following its path. There weren’t a lot of people out though he did see someone one running with their dog. Going to a bench he sat, almost collapsed into it, and got his phone out.
The group chat was mostly dried up which he couldn’t blame Jack or Marco for not being that talkative right now. Losing Ben would kill him. He wouldn’t want to even keep going. Or wouldn’t know how to keep going. And Marco had to go through this twice. He couldn’t imagine Ben going through that.
Thinking about Ben made him lean forward and put his hand on his face. He looked at the golden ring around his finger and had to choke back a cry. Scrolling through his phone he called Kathryn. The phone rang a few times and he hit her voicemail finally. He started to leave one but decided not to. As he went to end the call though he instead hit the screen as a new call came in.
Working through the prompts of the annoying device he ended up accepting the new call which was his best friend calling him back.
“Sorry about that Cal. Trying to get ready for school.”
Get ready for school roughly translated to prepare for talking to the kid and hoping he decided to help them with Sarah. “It’s fine Kat.”
He could hear her moving around on the other side of the phone but she began to slow, “What’s wrong?”
He was already shaking his head despite not being in the same room, “Nothing major Kat.”
“Come on Cal. Don’t give me that.” She had stopped moving now. “What’s eating you? You don’t call me first unless something’s bothering you.”
He almost swore under his breath because she was right. They texted all the time but they didn’t really talk on the phone. If they wanted to talk they found a place to meet up and hung out over coffee or something. Though since he got married and she had started dating Seth they hadn’t done that in a long while.
Letting out a breath he sighed and figured it was time to come clean, “Me and Ben aren’t talking right now.”
“What the fuck? Why? What happened?”
He sighed leaning against the bench and stared back at the sky again, “I told him about what happened with Sarah. And he got mad I think.”
“Mad? At who? You?”
“Yeah,” Cal pulled his hands through his hair, shoving his hat back. “He doesn’t want me to go out there anymore. He doesn’t want to be a widower before our first anniversary. We got into a lot of shouting back and forth. I ended up walking out.”
“Shit Cal.”
Silence hung on the air for them and he could see Ben’s face. Hear the anger but beneath that the fear. He knew where it had come from, understood the feelings so cleanly but in the exact same tone knew the other half of things. Knew what would happen if he listened to Ben and stopped fighting with them.
“I tried to explain to him how dangerous it was,” Cal said. “That you all needed me or else we’d be at nothing or in even more danger. At least I think I did.”
“You think you did?”
“There was a lot of yelling,” he said sheepishly and hung his head again. “Jeez I was a jerk.”
“Probably but this isn’t exactly couples counseling 101,” she said. “I’m lucky or unlucky that Seth’s one of us. He gets what happens and he’s out there fighting with me. He has my back. Ben has got to be scared every time you leave the house and worry if you’ll come back alive.”
“I know. And last year he was great about things.”
“Last year you two weren’t married. And he found out about things half way through it all. It was only a few days after your proposed that the invasion suddenly happened.”
“So what do I do?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’m not the best counselor for these things.”
“I’m asking your advice Kat,” he rolled his eyes but he could just barely hear her smirk. “I’ll appreciate anything big or small.”
“Cool off for a bit and then talk to him. You guys have never had a big fight like this before. He’s just scared and I know he’ll understand given some time. We only have one more fight left and it’s going to be one of our biggest ones. But if we do this we won’t have to fight anymore.”
“That we know of.”
“That we know of.”
He sighed looking toward the ground and watched the park. A couple was coming by pushing a baby stroller. A pair of women, talking to one another but one broke away from their conversation to look into the stroller. A future that he had thought about closely and one he desperately wanted for them.
“You’re right,” he sighed and nodded again. “You and Seth are heading to meet Owen, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll meet up with you. Just in case things go wrong.”
“You think I’ll need more back up?”
“I don’t think it can hurt,” he said standing up. “Plus I need to do something that isn’t me sitting around.”
She snorted, “Yeah. We can swing by to you on our way to school.”
“Thanks Kat. For the talk.”
“Anytime Cal. See you soon.”
The Harlequin Library 