When Summer Comes (Whiskey Creek #3)(54)
Author: Brenda Novak

Baxter was generally dressed in either an expensive, hand-tailored suit, which he wore to work, or something equally classic and stylish for casual. But in honor of a lazy Sunday afternoon, he was wearing designer jeans, a button-down shirt and house shoes. “Indefinitely?”

If she lived at all. Wondering about the side effects, she frowned at the medication she’d brought in so she could take her first dose. “What other choice do I have? It sucks, but they can’t charge him with a crime just because I believe he’s guilty.”

“You could move back into town.”

“What good would that do?”

“It would get you out of the sticks and farther away from where Denny lives!”

“He won’t be staying in that house for long. He’s only leased it for the summer. Anyway, why should I let him chase me out of where I want to spend my final months?”

A hand went to his chest as if she’d just stabbed him. “Don’t say ‘final months’!”

“I’m sorry.” She shoved the medication into her purse so she wouldn’t have to look at it. “Anyway, where would I go?”

“Your parents’. Or…” He gestured at the hundred-year-old house behind them. He’d spent an inordinate amount of time picking flooring and paint and accoutrements so Riley, their contractor friend, could restore it, and it was lovely. “Heck, you could even come here. I have an extra bedroom.”

“And give you a front row seat to what’s going to happen to me?” She shook her head. “No, thanks.”

He clasped her hand. “I’d take care of you, Callie.”

“I don’t want you to have to.”

“Come on. That’s what friends are for.”

“I know.” She curled her fingers more tightly through his. “But I wouldn’t want to bring my Denny trouble into anyone else’s life. And I like being at the farm. That way I’ve got the privacy I need to cope with my illness.”

“You mean Levi’s there,” he said with a laugh.

She grinned. “That, too.”

Baxter gave the swing a push, and it started to sway. “I like him,” he said as they watched the cars, many of them tourists coming to see a genuine gold-rush town, pass by on the street.

She broadened her smile. “He’s hot, huh?”

“Not as hot as Noah, but…”

They laughed together. Then he sobered. “When are you going to tell him?”

“About what?”

He widened his eyes. “What do you think?”

“That I’m about to die? Why would I ever tell him?”

Baxter stopped the swing. “Callie—”

“Levi and I are just hanging out until the police can get to the bottom of this arson. Why would I need to let him know I’m a terrible investment of his time? That there won’t be any return?”

“Knowing you is a privilege,” he insisted. “No matter what.”

“Come on! It’s too intense for a new acquaintance. We’re not even sleeping together.”

He let go of her hand to tie the leather thong that was coming undone on one of his shoes. “I get the feeling things are drifting that way.”

“Well, they’re not. For your information, I dumped all my birth control last night.”

“Not a good idea.”

She tucked her feet under her. “What don’t you understand about…he’s not interested?”

“He might tell you that, but it’s not necessarily the truth. I wasn’t the only one who could feel the sexual tension between the two of you yesterday.” He bent his head to make his next words more meaningful. “Kyle mentioned it.”

“He did?”

“As soon as we left.”

“Is he…upset about that?” She missed Kyle. They’d spent so much time together in the past year and now that she’d put the brakes on sleeping with him, trying to reestablish the old boundaries felt so strained and awkward. But with everything that’d happened, what he knew about and what he didn’t, it wasn’t as if they could carry on the way they had before.

“He’s playing it straight,” Baxter said, “acting like he’d be happy if you could find a good guy.”

She toyed with the chain holding the swing. “Levi is a good guy, but he’s not that guy.”

“He’s obviously wrestling with some inner demons, Cal. Doesn’t mean they’ll win. Maybe he won’t wind up going anywhere. Maybe you’ll get that liver transplant and he’ll stay.”

“You’re dreaming!” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“He came back yesterday when you thought he was gone, didn’t he?”

A gentle breeze stirred the chrysanthemums that lined his porch. “Only because he feels responsible for getting me into the mess I’m in. If he’d shown up on someone else’s doorstep after that dog attack, it would probably be their barn that got burned.”

“Maybe he realizes what he has in you.”

“Let’s face it.” A door slammed and she lowered her voice because Baxter’s neighbor had come out to water his lawn. “That would be the worst scenario. I don’t want him to suffer any more loss.” She considered telling Baxter about the woman who’d been killed in Afghanistan, but since Levi had entrusted her with something that personal, she wanted to respect his privacy. “So the most I can hope for is a couple of great weeks with him before he takes off—and before this damn disease gets the better of me and I’m no good for anything.”

Concern etched deep grooves between his eyebrows. “Do you feel sick?”

“Surprisingly, I don’t. I mean…I have my moments.” Like the night she’d started throwing up and couldn’t seem to stop, and Levi had carried her to bed. “But most of the time I feel like the old me, except for a sense of lethargy. Many people have no symptoms at all, not until the very end.”

“Then, since you still feel good enough to want a man, I say you go buy more birth control.”

She gave his shoulder a shove. “Quit that. I’m determined to settle for being his friend, for knowing I helped him at a time when he needed someone.”

The neighbor waved and Baxter waved back. “I’ve been thinking,” he said.

“About your situation or mine?”

“Don’t try to change the subject.”