We’d be losing a couple of the guys when they went to college, but Jared was still going to be around. He didn’t know yet that Cece was quitting. A replacement would have to be found for her along with the members who were leaving.
After the server brought our drinks, Jared wandered over, his stare on Caleb. “Hey, man, so they let you out?”
Despite my earlier discouragement, Caleb’s arm was around my shoulders. He slouched further back into his seat, letting off an unconcerned vibe. “Got out early last month. Ian is still stuck there for a few more weeks.”
Jared and Caleb would never be best buddies, but at least they could be civil now. Caleb had bonded with Ian over shared confinement, but miracles didn’t happen twice.
“There’s blood,” Cece said out of nowhere.
“What?” I asked, thinking she was making an odd joke.
Her face twisted in pain. “It hurts.”
Jared gazed down at her with a confused expression. “Your stomach?”
Her hands were pressed against her lower abdomen. “Gianna, I think something is wrong with the baby! I’m bleeding!” Head tilted down, she gazed at her lap in horror.
“Caleb, let me out!” I yelled, pushing at him.
He jumped out of the booth and got between a dumbstruck Jared and his sister. He kneeled down in front of a whimpering Cece. “I’m going to pick you up and carry you out to my car.”
“We have to get her to the hospital, Caleb!” I urged him, hovering as he spoke gently to her.
Cece nodded, sobbing, “Okay.”
“What’s happening?” Jared asked, his tone panicked and confused.
While Caleb carefully lifted Cece off her seat, I turned to Jared and spoke softly so the other diners and his sister wouldn’t overhear, “Cece might be having a miscarriage.”
“What?” he shouted.
“Shh!” I told him. “We’ll drive her to the hospital, but can you please find your parents and ask them to meet us there?”
He shook his head slowly in a daze. “They’re in the back office doing paperwork.”
“And call Dante,” I added, following Caleb as he carried Cece out of the restaurant.
At one final look back at Jared, I caught his face hardening at the mention of Dante.
*****
“I’ll be right outside,” I assured Cece as Dante lingered in the doorway of her hospital room
She nodded, her brown eyes incredibly sad. “Tell Caleb I said thank you.” Dante’s eyes held equal sorrow as he brushed past me on his way to Cece.
“Okay.”
Caleb waited in the hallway with Jared and Cece’s parents. My dad had offered to come down when I’d called to let him know why I wouldn’t be home until late. Jared leaned against a wall looking agitated and her parents were having a hushed argument not far away. They were disappointed and angry, but overshadowing those emotions was sympathy for their daughter.
My mom and dad had gotten pregnant with me while they were still in high school and it had caused a permanent rift with my mom’s parents. I’d rarely seen them growing up. My other grandparents were sweethearts, but they’d retired early and moved away.
Taking a seat next to Caleb, I let him take my hand. “Cece said thank you.”
“I wish we’d known something was wrong. We could have got her here sooner.”
Squeezing his hand, I told him, “The doctor said there was nothing they could have done.”
“Dante is feeling the loss,” he murmured. “He was just freaked out before.”
Biting my bottom lip, I watched as Cece’s doctor approached her parents. “I don’t think she’ll forgive him.”
“If they love each other enough, there’s always the hope for forgiveness.”
I tore my eyes away from the adults to meet his hazel ones. “Not always.”
Bringing up our joined hands, he kissed mine. “Do you forgive me?”
“For the paintings?”
He nodded, his eyes begging me for understanding.
“I don’t know, Caleb.”
Dante exited Cece’s hospital room, tears streaking down his face. Without a word to any of us, he rushed down the hallway.
“You should go with him,” I told Caleb.
“I know,” he said, lifting himself out of the plastic chair. “Jared, will you take Gianna home?”
The question pulled Cece’s brother out of his thoughts. “Sure.”
Caleb leaned down, brushing his lips against mine. “I’ll be over early tomorrow morning.”
“I’m going to stay here awhile with Cece.”
“Call me when you get home.”
“Okay.”
I hesitantly entered Cece’s hospital room a half hour later after her mom left it. She was curled up on her side. “You okay?”