Chapter 14

Walter Peterson. Was carved on the gold plaque sitting on her father's desk. Faith sat with her back as straight as she could, biting her lower lip and fidgeting with the cube in her pocket while her dad organized some paperwork. He still hadn't apologized for the argument they had a few weeks earlier, and they hadn't had a proper conversation since the fall festival, either. In her lap, there was a folder containing her ideas for the orchard, about the wedding venues and other future projects, but she wasn't sure it was the right moment to talk to her father about it.

Every visit to the office made her feel overwhelmed and stressed. The corporate atmosphere made her feel out of place and like she would never be good enough to have an office right beside her father's. Faith would only go to the office if her presence was absolutely necessary, otherwise, she would much rather work from the comfort of home and only show up to the meetings she couldn't escape from. Work in the shadows and never be seen, much better that way... She thought as she fidgeted with the nicer outfit she had put, instead of her usual jeans and sweater or t-shirt combo, depending on the weather, of course.

"Here you go." Her father handed her three thin binders and three sets of keys. "One of the properties is still under renovations so be careful when you go in. Everything you need is in those. Call me if you need anything else. I'll be in the office the whole afternoon."

Faith nodded and quickly went through the binders. Three properties that she could show to Callum. "Thanks dad." She got up and started walking through the door.

"Don't you have anything else to discuss with me?" Walter pointed at the folder Faith had been holding the whole time.

"Oh, this? It's nothing. We can talk about it some other time. Don't worry about it."

"Faith," he sighed and reached his hand forward. "Sit. Show me."

As she was told, she sat back down, and with her heart pounding and with her hand trembling, she handed her father the folder. "It's about the wedding venue thing and some other ideas to improve the crops and..."

Walter raised his eyes above his glasses, glanced at his daughter, and went back to reading her report. The report was extremely well structured and organized, which didn't surprise him at all. He didn't expect anything less from her. What surprised him was the fact that Faith had finally taken the initiative to get her projects moving. The projections seemed good, and Walter had no reason at all to say no. He only wished that Faith had done it sooner.

"I'm impressed. Let's schedule a proper meeting to discuss this. Prepare a presentation. Mira's wedding is this weekend. You won't have a lot of free time before that, so how about we do it Monday at eleven am or Tuesday at three pm?"

"Really?" Faith couldn't believe it. She had some many ideas for the farm that had never left the page but now some of those were about to get approved. "Monday. At eleven. It's perfect." She smiled from ear to ear.

Walter smiled proudly at his daughter. "I'll hold on to this until then. I want to read it alone and get some notes ready for our meeting."

"Of course. Thanks, dad." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"And Faith?"

"Yes?"

"I'm proud of you, kid. You did a great job with the festival too, and I'm excited to see how your plans for the orchard turn out."

"What?" Faith blinked twice as she looked at her father, wondering if perhaps he had been replaced by a long-lost twin or an alien.

"You're finally stepping up. Taking charge. That's all I ever wanted."

"Then why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Faith, that's not how it works. It had to come from you. You had to want it. Have the will to fight for what you want. Not doing it because I'm asking you to. I know you will do a good job no matter what I ask you to do. But I want you to be a leader. I want you to be someone who can stand by my side and standalone, where I'm standing one day. If you ever want to, of course."

"Then why do I always feel like I'm disappointing you?" her voice trembled, her eyes got teary.

"You're not, Faith. You never disappointed me. I'm the proudest dad in the world. Don't ever doubt that."

"What about the engagement? You were disappointed, then." At this point, Faith had already started crying and couldn't control it.

"I wasn't. I was sad. It saddened me that you were willing to get married just because you thought it was the right thing to do."

"What?" She sobbed.

"You need to take charge in your own personal life as well as our business, Faith. I want you to be happy and I want you to be your own person. You're already wonderful. And that said, I can't wait to see the amazing things you'll achieve." Walter got up and hugged his daughter as tightly as he could. "Now off you go. I have work to do. Let me know if Callum is interested in any of the properties after the visits."

"Will do," Faith said as she smiled and cleaned her tears.

As soon has his daughter turned her back, Walter cleaned the tears from the corners of his eyes and smiled as he saw her walk away.

***

After lunch, Faith and Callum agreed to meet at the first property on the list. A small house, a little further from Dr Clark's clinic, but with a lot more space than the other two flats that they still had to visit. But even though the house was adorable, Callum felt that getting an actual house was maybe too much of a commitment and he didn't need that much space either. He had travelled with just the essentials, and he didn't plan on keeping anything from his old life. He truly intended to start over from scratch. Besides, the emptiness of a big house would just make him feel alone. Specially after having spent the last few weeks in the company of his uncle, and even though he was a man of few words, Callum still had appreciated his presence.

Once they were done with the second property on the list, a one-bedroom flat right that was a lot closer to the clinic, they started to get hungry, and it was finally time to stop for a snack. Faith introduced Callum to a cafe, that according to her had the best croissants ever and while they waited for their food to arrive, they couldn't help but notice something suspicious on the front page of the local newspaper, just sitting there, on the empty table next to theirs.

"Oh, look. Dr Grant," Faith grabbed the newspaper, "you've made it to the front page too." She chuckled as she read the headline. New Doctor in town. Dr Brooks retires. And in smaller letters on the right corner, Dentist voucher inside for kids between the ages of 5 and 12.

"How does he do it? I haven't even started yet." Callum opened the newspaper and speed-read the article. "He did a background check on me. Knows where I worked and where I studied. This is both weirdly impressive and disturbing."

Faith laughed. "He's insane, but he is good at his job."

"How is this news?"

"It's not." She shrugged.

"Are there any secrets in this town?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Are there any real news in here?" Callum asked while flipping the pages.

"Church events. School events. Sports. Restaurant reviews. Book reviews. The schedule for the movies in the movie theatre in the next town and the buses that will take you there too. If you rip out the gossip section is actually really good and informative."

"I don't know what to say." He was still in disbelief as he read the remainder of the gossip column. There was a runaway sheep that had been found a week after its disappearance as it had been presumed stolen, but it turned out it had just wondered around into another farmer's pasture. There was also a middle school kid on the library's naughty list because he hadn't returned a book yet. There was some drama between the local high school and the one from the neighbouring town, because of the next lacrosse tournament that would take place that weekend.

"You'll get used to it. Look at the bright side. There are no crimes or robberies. Everyone knows that if you try to do something shady, Josh will know and write about it. Some high schoolers did a nasty prank with a lot of paint in the school gym last year and Josh was the one who found out who did it."

"Well, I guess you are right. There's a bright side. And does he do this a lot?" Callum pointed at the dentist voucher.

"What? The vouchers and promotions?"

"Yes."

"He does. It helps both businesses and people with fewer means."

Their croissants and cappuccinos arrived, and Faith was indeed right. The croissants were the perfect mix of crispiness and softness, layered but light and buttery without being overbearing at all.

"By the way, Rapunzel, what's up with you today?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Something feels different." It wasn't about Faith's outfit. Callum thought she looked gorgeous no matter what she wore. To him, the clothes she was wearing were just a little more formal than her usual casual attire. But there was something else that was different about her. She seemed more confident and relaxed, and he couldn't help but notice that she hadn't picked her skin as much as she usually did. Neither had she fidgeted as much in her seat.

"Bad different or good different?"

"Good. Definitely good." Callum smirked.

Faith blushed and looked down at the crumbs on her plate. "Are you done? We should go. There's only one place left, and it's getting late."

"Let's go. And Faith," Callum gently grabbed her wrist before she could dash towards the door, "thank you. For helping me out with this." His touch made her blush even more and her heart raced just a little bit. Faith nodded and smiled before walking outside, and Callum couldn't help but to smile at how adorable she looked when flustered.

The last apartment was close enough to the clinic so that Callum could walk to work every day, and it was in a very cute street with only other apartment buildings and townhouses, making it nice and quiet even though just a few streets down there were stores and cafés.

"This one should be done soon, final touches and finishing painting the walls, but it has a decent size, two bedrooms, a great location, and the view isn't bad either. Since it's the last floor, you can see a bit of the mountains," Faith said as she opened the front door. "Some of the walls were painted today, so careful not to get any paint on you."

The apartment was completely new, but the instead of the typical modern white and grey, there were wooden floors, dark cabinets in the kitchen that contrasted against the white tiles. It had a warm and rustic feel to it, but it also felt contemporary and clean. The juxtaposition of the rustic elements with the cleaner modern lines and golden accents worked perfectly.

"Come here, doc." Faith started walking towards the balcony door, trying her best to not touch the still damp paint, aware that her clumsiness would very likely make her cause a disaster in a place that's covered in tarps and with buckets of pain everywhere. "Great view from-" Dammit... Faith thought as her foot got stuck on a tarp even though she was doing her best to be as graceful as a normal person.

"Careful there, Rapunzel. We don't want to get any paint on us, right?" Callum grinned with one arm wrapped around her waist.

Faith turned red. "Are you a vampire or something?" She narrowed her eyes as she studied him.

"What?" Callum frowned. "Are you watching too many movies?"

"No," Faith glared at him. She was. She was indeed watching to many romantic movies during her free time, but she wasn't about to tell anyone that. "How do you keep catching me? Somehow, you always catch me. Seems unnatural. Because of you, I'm not used to hitting the floor anymore. Which is bad. Because I will keep falling all the time. And what will I do if you're not there, don't catch me?" Faith blushed even more as soon as she processed the last words she blurted out. She felt her entire body tense up and freeze with the embarrassment.

Callum laughed. "Good reflexes, I suppose. But don't worry, I'll do my best to keep catching you. Lucky you, right? No more scrapes or bruises while I'm around." He smiled.

Her stomach felt weird, her skin was burning, and she knew then that she had just turned into a tomato. "Right... Lucky me," she said with a nervous giggle. "And lucky you if you get this place because it has the best view you can get downtown. Great view, right?"

Callum looked at Faith and smirked. "Yes, indeed."

"Right," she started walking back inside. "Take your time thinking about it. We can revisit any of the properties if you want. And feel free to look at other options, too."

"No need. I want this one."

"Are you sure?"

Callum nodded. "One hundred percent sure. I know what I want." He said with his usual charming smile, but his gaze was intense, and solely focused on Faith.

"I... Good. Great. That's... That's great." Faith felt a whole swarm of butterflies flying around in her stomach and she wasn't sure if her heart was beating too fast or if it had stopped working completely, but she definitely knew that it felt weird. Tachycardia, maybe? She wondered, trying to rationalize the weird things her body was doing on its own just because of one look from the handsome gardener slash doctor that had bumped into her life out of the blue. Faith had always dreamt of a butterfly worthy romance, but getting a whole flutter felt a lot scarier than she had ever anticipated.