“Yeah.”
“Yeah? That’s all you got?”
He turns off the football game and sighs. “Look, man, I’m not the best guy to go to for relationship advice…obviously.”
“You’re all I fucking have right now.”
“Oh, so I was the last resort?”
“No, Lance was the last resort. You are whatever falls before that.”
Walker laughs. “You’re not as dumb as I thought you were.”
“Here’s the difference between my situation and yours,” I tell him, bending forward and resting my elbows on my knees. “You didn’t care. I love her.”
“Love is such an overrated thing, Cross. What’s it really mean, anyway? How long does it last? Who the fuck knows. I’m with Sienna not because I love her, although I do, I’m sure, but because there’s no other option I can live with. Period. There are too many variables to make decisions based on love.”
“Maybe I don’t know what it is.”
“Know what what is?” Peck asks as he rounds the corner. “By the way, the alternator is changed on the SUV in the shop.”
“Do you knock?” Walker asks. “But good work on the SUV.”
“No, and thanks. Now, what are we talking about? You look so serious.”
I take a minute to fill Peck in, getting more irritated as I go. Before I’m finished, I see he’s side-eyeing Walker.
“First of all, whatever that jackass has told you, ignore it—all of it,” Peck says.
Walker shrugs. “He asked.”
“Second of all, you need to head that way now and apologize.”
“Me?” I bark. “I didn’t do anything.”
“And do you really want the rest of your life messed up because you were so worried about your ego that you wouldn’t apologize?”
I snort. “It’s not ego. It’s principle.”
“You can call it whatever you want, it’s the same damn thing. Either you want to feel like you have some high and mighty set of principles, which we all know you don’t, or you can get the girl—your pick. I’d pick her, because she’s really hot.”
Narrowing my eyes, I watch Peck laugh.
“Nah, not really because she’s hot, because she’s nice. She’s sweet. She gave you a second chance,” he throws in. When I don’t react, he stands. “Do what you want, but don’t come a-cryin’ to me when she’s at the bar with someone else.”
“I’ll kill them,” I snarl.
“Then avoid prison and go apologize.”
He tells Walker something about a transmission, but I can’t hear it over the roar of blood over my ears. Walker turns the television back on, but I can’t figure out who has the ball or what the score is because I’m mulling over Peck’s advice.
The thought of going home and never having her in my kitchen, in my bed, on my sofa again twists me up so bad I don’t even want to go. My phone sits in my pocket, and its failure to ring or buzz with a call or text from her hurts my heart.
I sit for a few more long minutes before I just can’t sit any longer. “I’m gonna go,” I tell Walker, standing. “May as well get a workout in since all I want to do is hit something.”
Walker doesn’t even look up. “Tell Kallie I said hi.”
Thirteen
Kallie
The bags crunch as they hit the countertop, and Mom starts sorting through the groceries. She doesn’t even have to look at me to know something is wrong.
“Are you going to tell me or do you want me to guess?” she asks.
Curled up on a kitchen chair, my hair in a messy bun, I sniffle. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“If you didn’t want to talk about it, you would be in your bedroom or driving around a back road, not sitting in the kitchen.”
Putting my feet on the floor, I straighten my shirt. I don’t know how to talk about this with my mother. She loves Cross maybe as much as she loves me, and I’m not sure her opinion will be unbiased. Yet, she’s my mom. I just need my mom.
“Did you date Daddy in a small town?” I ask.
Her hand stills in the air before she puts the jar of peanut butter in the cabinet. “We dated in Detroit, mostly. We were newlyweds when we moved down here. Why do you ask?”
“Nora and I went into Carlson’s today and Veronica told me Cross had a woman in his car today, buying lunch.”
“I see.” She turns around and leans against the counter. “Did you ask him if it was true?”
“Yes, and he admitted it.”
“He did?” she asks, surprised.
“He said she wouldn’t leave the gym and he had somewhere to be,” I say, testing the words out loud for the first time since I calmed down.
“Do you believe that?”
“Megan is that way, but he shouldn’t have had her in his truck.”
She takes a deep breath before turning back to her groceries. “I’m a little bit in shock.”
“Me too.” I sigh. “I hate this, Mom. I hate the way everyone gossips and almost sets you up to be a joke.”