Bettie disconnects the call before I can scream at her. I stare at the screen of my phone for a few seconds and then toss it back on top of the bed. I can hear Emma Jo moving around downstairs and I know I can’t keep hiding up here in her spare bedroom forever.
Hopefully there’s still enough wine left in this house for me to forget about Leo for the time being and not do something stupid like accuse my best friend of sleeping with him. I mean, who cares if that’s true anyway? It’s not like I want the guy.
* * *
“Are you sleeping with Leo? I mean, it’s totally fine if you are. It’s not like I care or anything. You two make a cute couple. He’s all tall and hot and cocky, and you’re all short and cute and quiet. Opposites attract and all that. I won’t tell anyone if you’ve been cheating on Jed and you’ve been planning to leave him, if that’s what you’re worried about. I mean, after what that asshole has been doing to you all these years, it’s completely justified. Your secret is safe with me!” I ramble, grabbing a newly opened bottle of wine from the kitchen counter.
Emma Jo stares at me with wide, shocked eyes while I drink from the bottle like some sort of animal. You know, if that animal felt like an idiot and had diarrhea of the mouth.
“It’s none of my business what you do with your personal life, as long as it makes you happy. But as your oldest friend, I’ve got to say, I don’t know if Leo Hudson is the best boyfriend material. I mean, secret lover – sure! But as a boyfriend, he kind of sucks. He obviously knew about what Jed was doing to you, otherwise he wouldn’t have shown up at the hospital, and he definitely didn’t look shocked when he saw your face tonight. Pissed off, yes, but not shocked. What kind of a boyfriend wouldn’t kick Jed’s ass or throw him in jail for that shit years ago?”
I finally stop talking and take a breath. And then chug some more wine from the bottle just so I’m not tempted to open my mouth again and spew more crazy at Emma Jo. Bettie is right, I totally sound jealous. I hate when Bettie’s right. She never lets me forget it.
“Okay, first of all, I think you’ve had enough wine,” Emma Jo informs me, taking the bottle out of my hand and setting it on the counter next to us with a clunk. “Secondly, I am not, nor have I ever, slept with Leo Hudson. I wouldn’t know the first thing about having an affair and even if I did, Leo wouldn’t be my first choice. I already told you he’s like a brother to me.”
I cross my arms over my chest and lean my hip against the counter, pretending like I’m not completely thrilled by this information, because that would make me a hypocrite and Bettie would be right about yet another thing.
“So, Leo just showed up at the hospital because you two are friends?” I ask.
“Yes, he showed up at the hospital because we’re friends. And you’re right, he had some suspicions about Jed and the abuse, but he never had any proof because I always covered for him,” she explains quietly, picking at the label on the wine bottle nervously. “Leo was nice enough to never come right out and ask me about it because he didn’t want to embarrass me, but he’d always ask me if everything was okay. I knew that he knew, but just like I’ve been doing with everyone else, I lied and I pretended, and I covered it up because I was embarrassed.”
Reaching up between us, I grab a clean wine glass out of the cabinet above our heads, not wanting to stop Emma Jo from talking just to go into the living room and grab the one she was using earlier. I pour her a full glass and hand it to her.
“So, how did he know you were in the hospital? Did you call him?”
I do my best to keep more jealousy out of my voice when I ask this question. It was kind of nice knowing I was the only person in the world Emma Jo trusted with this situation, and all of that will be for nothing if I find out she trusts Leo just as much. Maybe even more since he’s been here, living in Bald Knob with her, and she can go to him with her problems so much easier than she could with me.
Emma Jo shakes her head when she grabs the wine glass from my hand and takes a sip.
“He told me he has a friend who’s a nurse and was working in the Baptist Health emergency room when I came in. I guess she works as a temp nurse and travels all around Kentucky. She recognized my name from when I went to a different hospital she was working at about six months ago and I put down Bald Knob as my hometown instead of making up a different one like I usually do.”
Tears fill my eyes when she tells me this and I grab the wine bottle from the counter and take another big gulp to try and stop myself from dwelling on the fact that Emma Jo has been bouncing around to different hospitals all over the state for years, lying about where she’s from so no one would find out what was going on.