Reed's Reckoning

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black. Who’s the last ‘nice’ girl you dated?”

Looking away because I don’t have an answer, I walked straight into that one. How in the world are we talking about this right now? But a part of me wants to take the hurt away from her for a few minutes.

“Actually, I’ve met someone. Well, not really met, I re—”

“Cara! You’re awake!” My mom comes in and interrupts. She moves to the other side of the bed and runs her hand over Cara’s cast softly.

“Yeah, Mom,” her small hand clutches mine and she starts to get upset again.

“Listen, I saw a Panera around the corner. Let me go get us lunch.”

Both women nod and give me their orders. My mom hands me back my phone discreetly and I leave the hospital.

As I wait for our order at Panera, I flip through my messages and see Sophie and my mom actually talked. The timer says they talked for eight minutes, which makes me nervous. The attendant calls my number and hands me the food. When I get into the car, I call Ari but get her voicemail.

“Hey, babe. I saw Cara and she’s going to be fine. I think I’ll hang around a few days and be back Tuesday. I’d like to tell Davis goodnight before he goes to bed later. Will you call me? It’s been a shit day and my sister had some crazy news. Tell you about it when I see you. I lo—” Shit I hang up before I finish. She’s going to freak. Did I almost tell her I love her on a voicemail? What a fucking tool.

Walking into my mom’s house, I fall onto the sofa, exhausted. Cara’s doctor is keeping her overnight because she has a severe headache and they want to watch her after the D&C procedure. She finally asked for something for the pain and to help her sleep. We left as soon as she closed her eyes and promised to be back tomorrow morning. Besides getting lunch, I only left the hospital room once, to take Davis’s call.

Hearing his voice was exactly what I needed to help with my shitty day. He babbled on for five minutes telling me about the beach. I was glad to know he found all the new beach toys I left on the porch. I promised him we would go again next weekend.

When Ari got on the phone, my pulse started racing. Her perfect fucking sexy as hell voice made me forget I was standing in the hallway at a hospital. I gave her a brief version on what happened with Cara, but left out the miscarriage because I wanted to tell her in person. She didn’t mention my blunder on her voice message this morning, which made me wonder if she even heard it. We only talked for a few minutes before she had to go but I promised to be back no later than Tuesday.

“Reed, I know you’re exhausted, but we need to talk.” Mom hands me a beer and sits across from me on the couch.

“About what?”

“A lot has changed in the last month. I was in shock when you called me Friday night. Now that it has sunk in, I worry about you. What do you think? How are you feeling? What are you going to do?”

“Not sure if I can explain it. The way I felt when I saw Davis and then Ari almost brought me to my knees. She’s so fucking amazing. All she sacrificed and went through—it’s unbelievable. Davis is an incredible little boy. All these years, I’ve been given everything on a silver platter. She’s had to work so hard and had very little help. She’s got a great support system, but I should have been there. We don’t talk about it much, but I can’t figure out who in the hell wanted to break us up. I never had a girlfriend before her so it wasn’t like I had broken hearts around campus. She had dated a guy her sophomore year, but he was harmless. A part of me thinks it’s a huge fucking coincidence we broke up on the day she found out she was pregnant.

“What I’m going to do now, is spend the rest of my life making up for my absence in their lives. Ari was very hesitant at first when I showed up, but she has dropped her guard. Her friends and family have been accepting of me as well. I don’t deserve it, but I thank God for it.”

“Have y’all discussed what comes next? You’ve got a life in Jacksonville. How is it going to work?”

“Shit, mom, I don’t know. We’ve been living day by day. If I tell her what I want, she’ll run liked a scared jackrabbit. I have a lot to prove before we have that conversation.”