She recognizes the man’s actions and smiles again. She may not have gone into the field, but she always joked wherever she went that she must have a magnet implanted inside her. If she took Taylor to the zoo, they’d sure to be in line with a family who had a special needs child that would offer her a shy smile. If she was at the doctor’s office, in would walk an adult with their helper and plop down next to her and ask, “You be my friend?” So even though she never fulfilled her dream of working with the population, she’d honed a few skills over the years.
She watches the man as he examines the confections in her store and sizes up the stools at the counter. He inhales and sighs then quirks his head to the side with a quizzical expression on his face.
“You can have a seat and I’ll get you a plate of whatever you want.”
Without making eye contact, she notices that he looks at her just slightly off to the right of her face. The man says, “I’m not from here. I’m a tourist.”
“Um, that’s okay. You don’t need to be from here to enjoy dessert.”
“I do like sweets.”
“Okay, then what can I get you?”
“A social clue, my girlfriend to forgive me, and my life to not suck.”
Colleen stares slack-jawed at the man who just blurted that out like the best of them then she shrugs and asks, “Okay, how about a piece of salted caramel fudge and a few pieces of saltwater taffy to start? We’ll fix your life once we know each other better.”
The man makes eye contact with her as a shy smile crosses his face and his cheeks slightly redden. Then he chuckles. “Was that the wrong thing to say? I mean, you wanted my order, I get that, but sometimes I just say what’s in my head. It’s usually not the right thing.”
“Your order would have been fine for now, but hey, that was an icebreaker, right? I’m Colleen, by the way, I own the place. What’s your name, kid?”
“Ian,” the man who was in Falls Village undercover to find the guy that was stalking one of his best friend’s exes, lies. His name isn’t Ian, it’s Callan Black, but he can’t tell anyone that. “I’ll have the taffy you mentioned and maybe a small piece of each fudge flavor.”
“Each? I have twelve today.”
The man shrugs. “Yeah. One of each, please.”
Colleen smiles and heads into the back to search for a larger plate than she keeps up front for her typical customers and maybe the number of a local dentist. If this kid is going to eat twelve pieces of her fudge, he’ll need one within the hour. Most customers take their orders to go in a baggie, the ones who do stay to eat, only usually require a small dessert plate, so it takes her a few minutes to locate what she needs.
She returns to find Callan, aka Ian, head down and scrolling through his phone. “Whatcha looking at?” she asks, and he looks up at her expressionless.
“I need to find a place to stay. You know of any? Those Anchor Ridge Apartments look like a fucking dump. What’s up with that? I drove around town and most of it isn’t like that.”
Colleen throws her dish towel over her shoulder and reaches into the display case to retrieve Callan’s desserts. She plates them and comes to stand in front of him. “Falls Village has changed over the years.”
“You’re from here?” he asks before he takes the first bite of his confection. He groans when the sugar hits his tongue. “Fuck, this is so fucking good. I’m coming here every day.”
Colleen laughs. “Well, I have an apartment upstairs if you want to be close to those all the time.”
Callan’s eyes open wide and he nods his head. “I’ll take it.”
“Don’t you want to see it or know how much first?”
“Nah, I’m good with anything and the price won’t be a problem.” He didn’t care what it would cost, his boss was getting the bill, and he didn’t plan to be here for long. After Elliot’s wedding to Courtney, he’d throw himself full force into this case and have it tied up in no time so that he could get back to his regular routine with Jordan back in his life.
The new friends spend the next couple of hours getting to know one another without the antisocial man realizing what was happening.
Colleen shares some of the stories of her younger days in Falls Village, telling Callan that she grew up in town and had had plans to leave for college before her plans had been altered.
“What happened?” he asks.
And right on cue the bell above the door chimes and in comes an attractive woman with a teenager looking haggard beyond her years.
“Hey, honey,” Colleen greets the child. “Come meet Ian. Ian, this is my best friend, Kim, and her daughter, Patty. They’re here for the next few days while Kim signs the paperwork on her parent’s house.”
Kim extends her hand and Callan glares at her offering, not sure how to avoid touching a strange hand with unknown germs without looking like a douche as usual.
Colleen interjects and saves him. “So,” she begins as she comes around the counter and wraps her arm around Patty, “I was just about to tell Ian how I came to run the store.”
A sad smile appears on Kim’s face. “Her mom passed away and left the shop to Colleen. She had wanted to be a special ed teacher, but she stayed in Falls Village instead of going off to school.”
Callan raises his eyes to Colleen and asks, “Really, why?”
“Why?” she returns. “Why did I want to be a teacher or why did I stay here?”
“No, why special ed?”
Colleen shrugs. “Because I like helping people. I guess I like a challenge and I didn’t want to do the same thing every day. In special ed, you never know what each day is going to bring.”
“Usually bullying and bullshit.” Callan scoffs. “Why didn’t you go to school?”
Colleen looks toward her best friend and Kim answers for her. “Because she found out she was pregnant.”
Colleen rolls her eyes. This was an argument she had had with Kim and Diana for the past twenty-plus years. They had insisted that she could have still gone to school back when she found out she was pregnant. She wasn’t due until April and could have completed her first semester well before then.
“Yeah, and be six months pregnant in a dorm with a bunch of drunk kids by the time the semester ends? No,” Colleen had argued. “I’m not going to school.”
“Why?” Diana had whined. “Coll, you could go close by here and then maybe after the baby comes, move on campus.”
“No,” Colleen had insisted. “I’m staying here and working at the shop. It’s whatever.”
Not wanting to get into all the details with this virtual stranger, Colleen simply says, “I stayed in Falls Village, had Taylor. It worked out for the best. I love my job.”
Callan, not one for small talk lets it go at that, then turning the conversation back to himself, briefly shares that he’d hated his time in school and would never want to return to his younger days. He chews another piece of fudge to end that topic.
A few minutes after coming in, Kim gets a text from Beckett Fischer, her real estate agent, and says she needs to leave. She kisses Colleen on her plump cheek, and waves goodbye to Callan. He nods, then tells Colleen that he should get going as well.