She pressed her thumb on the home button and saw she had a missed call from Margaret’s son, Edmund. Julie groaned at the thought of calling Edmund back tonight. She wasn’t sure if she could deal with Edmund in the state she was in. Margaret had told her Edmund wasn’t happy about her leaving and she’d hoped he didn’t try to talk her into moving back.
She’d call him back in the morning when she’d had a chance to get some sleep and gather her courage. These days, it was hard to come by.
She grabbed a hot coffee and a piece of fruit inside the market for the road. She’d drive a bit and then go home. That is if she didn’t get on a long road and drive straight to Canada.
* * *
The next few days were unremarkable. She’d decided her brother was a typical bachelor. His apartment was void of color or anything that resembled décor, not that Julie was an expert. In fact, she had never decorated an apartment before except for the first apartment she’d filled with secondhand items she’d purchased at a tag sale. But if she was really going to be living under the same roof as him, she was at least going to get rid of the mismatched dishes in the cabinet and buy something that he could put on the table for company.
She’d spent the day driving to Billings and shopping in a department store chain. Of course, she’d ended up with a basket full of things including flatware, pots and pans, and curtains. She’d actually purchased curtains to replace the ugly ones her brother had. Caleb probably didn’t even realize the curtains were ugly. Or he didn’t care.
She got to the register and looked at the basket in horror. What was she doing?
And then she remembered. She’d done this not long after she’d moved to Olympia. Dr. Matthews said it was self-medicating. Instead of dealing with the pain of what had happened with the baby, she was filling a void by buying things she didn’t need but insisting she needed them.
She’d put all the items back on the shelf except for the curtains because she really did think Caleb’s curtains were ugly and she didn’t want to look at them all day.
She was just getting home and showing Caleb the curtains when he told her he was on his way out the door.
“Oh, I thought we’d have dinner together,” she said. “I wanted to show you what I got for the apartment.”
She pulled the curtains out of the department store bag and held them in front of her.
“Why did you buy curtains?”
“Because I hate your curtains. They’re white.”
He chuckled. “Yeah and they go with the color of the walls and furniture.”
“White goes with everything. It’s boring.”
“I’m heading over to the chapel to do some painting with Katie. Do you want to come?”
“And paint? I’d rather hang curtains.”
He chuckled. “Knock yourself out.”
“Will you be out all night?”
The words had flown out of her mouth before she could stop them. Julie couldn’t believe she’d just asked her older brother that question. The last ten years they both had done whatever they’d wanted to do without either one of them knowing. But the thought of being in the apartment by herself was daunting.
“I don’t know,” Caleb said with a smile. “Katie and I have made a lot of progress on the renovations at the chapel house. She’s been staying there by herself, but…”
“Say no more. I know you probably want to be there with her.”
She’d never seen her brother this happy before. She never remembered him with a smile on his face all the time. But things never seemed to bother Caleb the way they’d bothered her when they were growing up. He sort of went with the flow and that was okay with him. It felt strange to think of Katie, someone who had been her good friend, suddenly in a romantic relationship with her older brother.
Julie was happy for both of them. They weren’t kids anymore. Why shouldn’t Caleb and Katie grab onto whatever happiness they could have?
“Tell Katie I said hello, and that I’d love to see what the two of you have been doing over on Lookout Ridge.”
“I’ll tell her.” His eyes suddenly widened with delight. “Hey, why don’t you just come with me now?”
“I already told you I’m hanging the curtains.”
“No, I can show you everything that we’ve been doing. You won’t believe that it’s the same place that we used to party in when we were in high school.”
“I’ll wait for the grant reveal. I’ll make you both dinner.”
“Aren’t we supposed to do that for you?”
“I saw what you did to that frying pan last night. It’s still soaking in the sink. I almost bought a new set of pans today to avoid cleaning it. It’s probably safer for me and Katie to cook rather than you.”
He chuckled. “I was distracted.”
“On the phone with Katie?”
He nodded. “Hey, I picked up the mail and you actually had something in it.”
She frowned. “I did? Who knows I’m even living here besides you?”
“I didn’t look at the name.”
“Sure,” she said, eyeing him with suspicion.
He chuckled. “Okay, so I looked, but I didn’t recognize who it was.”
“Where is it?”
“I left it on the kitchen table with the newspaper. You know there is a festival being held this weekend, right?”
“Caleb, I used to live here. I know that there’s an annual festival every year even though I’ve missed it for the last ten years.”
“I’m just saying it would be fun if we could go, you
