When Summer Comes (Whiskey Creek #3)(79)
Author: Brenda Novak

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.