Always Dakota - Debbie Macomber [47]
The week before she called her mother, Calla had narrowly escaped being arrested. Her father had held another of his infamous parties. Luckily, she’d been on her way to work when the place was raided. Ten minutes earlier and Calla would have been there when the narcotics officers arrived. The worst of it was that her father had taken the money she’d saved from her job to help bail himself out. Every cent was gone. That money had been her freedom fund, her chance to escape.
Following his arrest, her father had turned ugly. It’d gotten so bad, Calla was ready to swallow her pride and move back to Buffalo Valley. Naturally, she wasn’t telling her mother or Dennis the real truth about Willie; if she did decide to stay, she wanted her mother to be grateful.
“Everyone’s dying to talk to you.”
That bolstered Calla’s ego. In six months she hadn’t managed to make one good friend in Minneapolis. Between school and her job at BurgerHaven, there hadn’t been much opportunity to cultivate friendships. All this time, she’d assumed that attending a big city high school would mean lots of advantages—interesting programs and people she’d never see in a hick town like Buffalo Valley.
True, she had access to programs far beyond the reach of anything offered at school here. Unfortunately, participation in many of those programs required money and time, neither of which was available to her. She could go to Europe with the German class, for instance, but she had to pay her own way. Like her father was ever going to fork over any money! That was a joke. Half the time she was the one who supported him.
Calla didn’t know why it’d taken her so long to figure it out. Her father was an irresponsible freeloader—and worse.
“Do you want to see your mom a little later?” her grandfather asked when he stopped at his house—the only home Calla had ever known.
“You mean she’s not here?” Calla had assumed her mother and probably Dennis would be at her grandfather’s waiting, with dinner all ready and a decorated Christmas tree with wrapped gifts beneath it. She felt more than a little hurt that they weren’t. She’d been hoping for a resumption of the family’s traditional Christmas festivities as part of her “welcome home.” She hadn’t realized until now how badly she’d wanted that.
“Your…mother hasn’t been feeling well lately.”
Both her grandfather and Jessica looked at Calla, waiting for a response.
“Is she all right?” Apparently, whatever was wrong seemed to be lingering, because her mother had been at home the day she’d phoned.
“She’s fine.”
“Actually, everyone’s heading over for Christmas Eve service at the church later. You’ll come, won’t you?” Jessica pleaded.
“Father McGrath is here for Christmas Eve?” Calla asked. The old priest only came into town occasionally, and never for Christmas Eve, not since the church had closed.
“We have a new minister,” Jessica told her eagerly. “He used to live here.”
“Larry Dawson,” her grandfather cut in. “He was a good friend of mine.”
Calla had never heard of him.
“He’s great, too,” Jessica continued. “There’s plans to start a teen group after the first of the year. Everyone’s excited about that.”
“The whole family’s going tonight,” Calla’s grandfather said. “You comin’?”
“I’ll go, I guess.”
“Sit by me, okay?” Jessica urged.
Another time, an earlier time, Calla would have found the request childish, but after the trouble she’d had making friends, it felt good to be wanted. “Sure.”
“Joe Lammermann will be there.”
Calla shrugged as though that was of little concern. Actually she was dying to see him. A year ago they’d gone to the Sweetheart Dance together, but soon afterward Joe