By the following morning, Sparkle had decided the man needed to be pushed into getting outside himself. Sitting in the kitchen with him the night before had been interesting and more revealing than Kaleb Brantley would have liked, Sparkle was very sure about it.
Though he had a gruff, cold exterior, Sparkle had seen enough in his eyes to convince her that the real man was hidden somewhere beneath that hard shell he carried around with him.
She had known Kaleb had been trying to avoid seeing her again by staying late in his workshop. Which was why she’d been waiting for him in the kitchen. Sparkle had always believed that it was better to face a problem head-on rather than dance around it and hope it would get better. Which, by the way, never happened.
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His mouth twitched and Kaleb shook his head.“People think I’m weird.”“I don’t.” Sparkle said it quickly and wasn’t sure why she had until she saw a quick gleam of pleasure in his eyes.“Be sure to tell Martha,” he added, and left, still shaking his head.“Bye, Kaleb!” Hayzel’s voice followed him and Sparkle was pretty sure he quickened his steps as if trying to outrun it.“Mommy, you think Kaleb is mad at us?” the little girl asked.“No, baby,” Sparkle replied caressing her face. “Why would you think that?”“He looked at me a little funny and he didn’t want to eat your pancakes.”“I’m sure he’ll ask for them
Hayzel laughed and shook her head so hard her pigtails flew back and forth across her eyes.“I go to pre-K because I’m too little for Big-K because my birthday comes too late because it’s the day after Christmas and I can probably get a puppy if I ask Santa and Mommy’s gonna get me a fairy doll for my birthday because Christmas is for the puppy and he’ll be all white like a snowball and he’ll play with me and lick me like Lizzie’s puppy does when I get to play there and…” So... instead of halting the rush of words and noise, he’d simply given her more to talk about… And she could do it without breathing in between words…Wow! Kaleb took another long gulp of his coffee and hoped the caffeine would give him enough clarity to follow the kid’s twisty thought patterns. 
Late at night, the big house was quiet, but not scary at all. That thought made Sparkle smile to herself. She had assumed that a place this huge, with so many windows opening out onto darkness, would feel sort of like a horror movie. Intrepid heroine wandering the halls of a spooky house, alone, with nothing but a flashlight… until the battery dies. She shook her head and laughed at her own imagination. Instead of scary, the house felt like a safe haven against the night outside. Maybe it was the warmth of the honey-toned logs or maybe it was something else entirely. But one thing Sparkle was sure of was that she already loved it. Big, but not imposing, it was a happy house. Or would be if its owner wasn’t frowning constantly. But he’d smiled with Hayzel, she reminded herself as she heade
Kaleb swiveled a look at her.“If you don’t mind, I don’t really feel like talking.”“Oh, you don’t have to. I like talking.”“No kidding… For a moment I thought differently…” Sparkle smiled and thought she saw a flicker of a response in his eyes, but if she had, it wasn’t much of one because it faded away fast.“You can’t get to know people unless you talk to them.” He scraped one hand across his face.“Yeah, maybe I don’t want to get to know people. How about that?”“I think you do, Kaleb… You just don’t want to… want it.”“What?”“I saw you today with Haze.”&nb
About forty, Ken Taylor had pulled his black hair into a ponytail at the base of his neck. He wore a heavy brown coat over a flannel shirt, blue jeans, and black work boots. He opened the gate at the back of his truck, then grinned at Kaleb.“One of these times, though, you should come into town yourself so you can see the reactions of the people who buy your stuff.” Shaking his head, he mused.“I mean, they all but applaud when we bring in new stock.”“Well… Good to know,” Kaleb replied.“Still, you should show yourself…” It was odd, he thought, that he’d taken woodworking, which had once been a hobby, and turned it into an outlet for the creativity that had been choked off years ago. Kaleb liked knowing that his work was appreciate
“Oh, God, look at her with that puppy,” Sparkle said on a sigh. Her heart filled and ached as she watched Hayzel laughing at the Golden Retriever puppy jumping at her legs. How could one little girl mean so much? Sparkle wondered. When she’d first found herself pregnant, Sparkle remembered the rush of pleasure, the excitement that she’d felt. It hadn’t mattered to her that she was single and not exactly financially stable. All she’d been able to think was… she would finally have her own family. Her baby. Sparkle had been living in Boise back then, starting up her virtual assistant business and working with several of the small businesses in town. One of those was a custom motorcycle shop owned by Jimmy Nesbitt.&nbs
A few hours later, that question was still on her mind… Well, Sparkle was thinking about protecting Hayzel, helping Kaleb, preparing for Christmas, keeping up with all of the holiday work she had to do for her clients... Oh, whom was she kidding? At the moment, Kaleb was uppermost in her mind. She was determined to drag him back into the land of the living, and she had the distinct feeling he was going to put up a fight. That night, things were different… Sparkle could feel that… When Kaleb came to dinner in the dining room, she and Hayzel were already seated, waiting for him. Since every other night, the two of them were in the kitchen, he looked thrown for a second. She gave him a smile even as Hayzel waved at him.“Hi, Kaleb!” If anything, he looked warier than jus
Kaleb used to hate the night… the quiet of the night was so heavy on his soul. The feeling of being alone in the world. The seemingly endless hours of darkness. It had given him too much time to think. To remember. To torture himself with what-might-have-beens. He couldn’t sleep because memories became dreams that jolted him awake… or worse, lulled him into believing the last several years had never really happened. Then waking up became misery, and so the cycle went. Until nearly a week ago. Until Sparkle… Kaleb had a fire blazing in the hearth as he waited for her. The night was now something he looked forward to. Being with her, hearing her voice, her laughter had become the best part of his days. Having her there wa