Picking up her phone again, she opened her messenger app.
The baby kicked for the first time tonight. Just keeping you informed.
And then, turning out the light, she lay down and let the television talk her to sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Wood was out in the shed, gluing and nailing the last of the crib frame, when Cassie’s text came through.
He read it once. Continued to work. Read it again. Worked some more.
Kept picturing Cassie’s belly bump with his hand on top of it. Imagined her smooth, soft skin. And couldn’t come up with any idea of what that kick would feel like to him. He’d never felt a baby kick on the outside, let alone from inside a sac of fluid, through layers of protective fat and skin. And maybe he never would—feel it from the outside.
But he wanted to.
Just as he’d been antsy to text her all night. But Elaina’s words were still rankling. Still demanding he make sense of them.
His idea, that she thought herself too good for him, had hurt her badly. Not that he’d ever made the exact claim, but his comment to her had been laced with a resentment that had been building inside him for too long.
The idea that he’d been harboring a wrong assumption all these years still hung there. Suspended.
As though awaiting trial. More evidence.
Something.
As the night had grown late, and he was starting to bother himself with how much Cassie was on his mind, he’d determined that it was probably best that he go one night without checking in on her. One night.
She’d gotten along fine without him her entire life. One night wasn’t going to make a difference to anyone but him. And he needed to do without her or risk messing up his entire life. And her and Alan’s lives, too.
And so it went for much of the night. By the time he fell into bed a couple of hours before dawn, he’d completed four spindles. Had no answers. And hadn’t texted Cassie back.
* * *
Wood mowed the lawn first thing Sunday morning. He played with Retro for over an hour after that, working on having her sit and stay until Wood gave the command to let her go find the ball he’d thrown.
He talked to the dog about Alan, though. For a good part of the morning. And when Retro finally tired of playing, sitting in front of Wood, her tongue hanging out, Wood slowed down, too. Met the dog’s gaze and realized that he just needed to do what Retro did. What Wood had always done. Tend to his people. Period. Retro didn’t question herself. Didn’t worry about what could come.
Wood was making too much out of everything. Elaina. Cassie. The baby. They were all in his life at the moment, which meant that he would be there for them. He couldn’t predict the future. Couldn’t control it, either, God knew. But he could trust himself to deal with it.
He was a smart man. A strong man. He’d never failed his family before. Never not met his obligations. Even at seventeen, he’d come through. There was no reason for him to doubt himself now.
Peace settled within him as he went in to shower.
He was planning to spend the day in his workshop. With perhaps a side trip to the beach. Some of the guys on his crew were having a family cookout and sand volleyball tournament later that afternoon, and he figured he’d put in an appearance. He’d put up the money for the hamburgers and hot dogs.
But first...after dressing in shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops, he grabbed his phone off his nightstand. Opened the text message app. Clicked on Cassie. And hit Call.
“Wood? Are you okay?” She’d picked up on the first ring. He heard tension in her voice.
“Yeah,” he told her. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.” About to make some blow-off excuse for the fact that he hadn’t returned her text the night before, he saw Retro sitting there, staring at him. “You have any interest in meeting my dog?” he asked, ideas coming to him as he stood there. “We could take her for a walk along the ocean path...” Several miles of pathed path, converted railroad track, accessible only from private beach access.
“I’d love the exercise,” she said, sounding better already, and he pushed back the twinge of guilt that came with her improved disposition. Guilt for not having contacted her sooner.
Guilt for the sudden adrenaline surging through him. Something he’d never felt at the prospect of spending an afternoon with anyone.
He shook that off. Asked her how soon she could be ready. And offered to come get her. The day seemed just about perfect when she agreed to have him collect her.
* * *