Blink and you’ll miss it. How many years had it been, since they last saw each other? Cal… didn’t know what to say. Didn’t even know who would answer the door he knocked on, and when it was David, it was surprise written all over the Merchant’s face.
“…hi.”
One word. One word and Cal’s mind wandered, back to when David’s voice used to sound so familiar. Back when David’s breath wouldn’t lodge in his throat and he wouldn’t look so relieved and pained when Cal knocked on his door.
“Daddy daddy who is it?”
David looked over his shoulder, down at the pint-sized brat that squeezed his head between the doorframe and David’s leg to look up at the stranger. Cal would have apologised about interrupting – dare he say it – family dinner, but he was stunned and silenced by the appearance of a boy – one who didn’t look a lot different from a little English boy he used to know.
Mrs. Riedmaier pulled the door open wide. Librarians weren’t welcome here – that much was evident in the way she glared at them before leading the little boy away.
“I uh… Guess I’ll be going.”
“No.”
David reached out, and it was David’s familiar hand on Cal’s wrist. A silent cry for help in the way they recognised from back when they were Romeo and Juliet’s age. It was a familiar expression on David’s face – the slight furrow of the brows, tongue swiping over his lower lip absent-mindedly; it was a decades-old tell, that one was. A tell, not of a lie, but – could Cal admit it? – fear. But of Mrs. Riedmaier? Or Mr. Bishop?
“Stay,” David asked, letting go of Cal’s arm almost reluctantly. It was evident then, that it was fear of neither her nor him, but fear of letting Cal go.