Page 82 of The Embers That Remain

Cali looked at me. “You fixed the fence?”

“And the gate,” I said.

“And?” Jace nudged.

I shrugged. “The chicken coop.”

Her eyebrows lifted.

Jace shook his head. “Doc, I think Coach is allergic to relaxing.”

“I am not.”

“You fixed the fence because it annoyed you.”

“It was leaning.”

“Exactly. Normal people ignore leaning fences.”

I pointed my taco at him. “You’re lucky you’re good at football.”

Cali smiled and shook her head. Jimmy reached for a taco shell, paused halfway there, and stared at his hand like it had betrayed him. Cali quietly slid the plate closer. She didn’t sigh. Didn’t correct him. Didn’t make him feel like he was something she had to manage. She just helped.

“There you go, Jimmy,” she said as she placed another taco on his plate.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

The ease between them stirred something deep inside me. The way Cali cared for people without making a show of it. The way Jace teased her because he knew she’d always answer. The way Jimmy forgot things but never forgot kindness.

I’d spent most of my adult life surrounded by people. Teammates. Coaches. Strangers who knew my name.

But this was different. It wasn’t loud or showy. This was the thing I’d spent years looking for without knowing how to name it or even really realizing that I was searching for something.

“You’re staring again,” Cali murmured, low enough that Jace wouldn’t hear.

I leaned back in my chair and let myself look. I didn’t stop until a blush crept across her cheeks.

“So, my English assignment,” Jace started.

Cali turned toward him. “You are doing it tonight.”

“I know.”

“Actually completing it?”

“Yes.”

“No waiting until midnight.”

“That happened once.”

“Three times.”

“Okay, maybe three. You’re welcome, by the way,” Jace said with a grin. “I know you’d miss my personality if I went to bed earlier.”

“That’s one word for it,” she laughed.

The conversation moved on. I’d spent years surrounded by noise, success and fame. I never realized the thing I wanted would sound like a kid complaining about homework and an old man repeating a fishing story and nobody caring that they’d heard it before.