I turn my head, watching Ben carry Mia into the house, her hands threading through his hair while she kisses him. Beth and I continue down the driveway as Tessa and Luke get into their separate cars.
I look over at her. “Yeah, I realized I didn’t have shit to say to him after that. Not that anything I had already said to him did much of anything, besides piss him off more. I should’ve just stood there and offered myself up as a punching bag.”
Beth opens her car door, lifting a teasing eyebrow. “And mess up that pretty face? What about your service to the state of Alabama? You wouldn’t want to send all the women here packing, would you?”
I smirk down at her as she settles into her seat. Grabbing the door, I prevent her from shutting it. “I don’t care about all the women. Just a handful. As long as they stick around, that’s all that matters.”
She looks up at me, holding my stare through several deep breaths. Blinking away, she anxiously reaches for her belt. “I should go. Find out what’s going on with my aunt and uncle.”
She backs out of the driveway, hesitating to pull down the street when her eyes can’t seem to leave mine. I don’t look away when she finally manages to pull her attention to the road and drive away from the house.
She didn’t want to leave.
If she hadn’t gotten those phone calls, she’d still be here talking to me, smiling, getting comfortable with me again. That’s what I want, and I’m going to get her there. Fuck CJ. That’s my smile. Nobody’s making her that happy but me.
I step up to the front door, hand on the knob, listening to the sounds of Nolan giggling somewhere in the house. Ben and Mia need this time together, just them and the boys. After all this shit, it should just be the four of them, healing with each other. I don’t need to stick around for that.
I get in my truck and back out of the driveway.
Staying off the main roads, I take to the back ones I like to take when I’m not in a rush to get home. It’s after six o’clock now, so there’s no need for me to go back to the job site. Work’s closed for the day.
Windows down, I inhale the cool night air as it blows against my face. Silence surrounds me, the only noise being the wind whipping around the bed of the truck. The tight coils of tension in my shoulders slowly unravel. I focus on the road in front of me, the quiet night, the faint smell of flowers nearby. My phone rings on the seat and I glance down at the name flashing on my screen.
I hit speaker phone, grinning like a fucking idiot.
“Miss me already?”
She laughs, but there’s a nervousness to it. One I’d have to be fucking deaf to ignore.
“Yeah, I . . . okay, this sounds really crazy, and stupid, and you’re probably going to laugh at how ridiculous I’m being right now, but is there any way you could talk to me for a little while? I know you hate talking on the phone, but I’m, I just . . . I would really, really love to talk to you right now.”
I move the phone to my lap while my hand shifts gears. Her voice worries me.
“Beth, what’s going on? Why do you sound like that?”
The squeak of a mattress comes through the phone. “My aunt and uncle had to go out of town. That’s why they were trying to reach me, to let me know that they had to leave. I got home and found a note from them in the kitchen, and now I’m going to be in this house by myself for a few days and I’m freaking out a little. I just, I don’t like being alone, Reed. I don’t like not having someone to talk to.”
I shift again, picking up speed while a pressure forms in my chest. She’s not freaking out. She’s fucking scared. Her breath is anxious against the phone, she keeps moving around on the bed, restless. Getting her to talk would be one approach, but she needs to hear my voice right now. She needs to know she’s not alone.
Cue the most random shit I can think of.
“I had this dog when I was little that I rescued. He was so nervous all the time, like his fucking hair would fall out if you sneezed around him. Or if you made any sudden movements when he was near you he’d piss everywhere, and then he’d lay in it.”
Beth laughs quietly as I turn onto another road.
“Oh my God.”
“We would’ve gotten rid of him, but we felt bad because his previous owners abused him, so it wasn’t his fault he was like that. Those assholes kept him tied up outside all day, neglecting him, and they gave him the worst fucking name.”
“What was it?”
“Butter.”
“Butter?” she chokes on a giggle. “Why would you name a dog that? That’s so weird.”
“Yeah, I know. I tried changing it and calling him Hulk, ‘cause I was obsessed with wrestling at the time, but he wouldn’t respond to anything except Butter. I fucking hated that name. I wanted this bad-ass dog, you know? I didn’t want to be hollering out the name Butter when he got off his leash.”