I breathe out a sigh of relief, but then wince when Michelle says, “Just give me your key now and I’ll run really quick to make a copy.”
Kate shoots me a panicked look, which I think I return to her. Then resolution fills her eyes and I know she’s getting ready to take my back again and try to put Michelle off. I stop her, though…deciding I need to nut up and handle this once and for all.
“Michelle…there’s no need to get another key made. I’m putting the house up for sale and moving.”
Michelle’s head snaps my way and I see Kate give me a thumbs-up behind her back. But then I’m forced to look at Michelle when she practically screeches at me, “You’re selling Gina’s house?”
This is not “annoying Michelle” trying to flirt with me. This is “Gina’s friend Michelle” who is now seeing the last tangible connection to her dead friend start to slip away. This I understand.
I grimace in response, drop my head in shame for a moment, and then take a deep breath. I look back up at her and say, “Yes. It’s something I need to do.”
Michelle’s eyes turn almost black in fury, but her voice is shaming when she hisses at me, “It’s not even been five months. You couldn’t mourn for her just a little longer? Couldn’t keep her memory alive here for Ben just a little longer? You selfish bastard.”
Every word cuts into me deep as she manages to express every single chastisement I’ve laid on my own doorstep before I made this decision. The guilt becomes oppressive and my chest tightens in pain.
“Get out,” Kate says quietly from across the kitchen. She says it so very quietly, and yet the anger in her tone causes me to jerk in surprise.
Michelle just swivels her head toward Kate slowly. “What did you just say?”
“I said get out of this house,” Kate replies.
Michelle’s mouth drops open, just for a brief moment, before her eyes narrow at Kate and she says, “Just what gives you the right—”
Kate cuts her off as she starts stalking across the kitchen toward Michelle. Her voice is low, though, so it doesn’t carry into the living room, where Ben can overhear. “Who in the fuck do you think you are to lay judgment on Zack? What gives you the right to dictate the way he mourns? You know nothing about him or the pain he’s still in. You don’t see the way he keeps Gina’s memory alive every day with Ben, talking about her so their little boy never forgets. You don’t know a fucking thing about Zack and you certainly have absolutely no right to voice your opinion in this matter. You’re the one who should be ashamed for even trying to make him feel bad when he’s already still grieving, so I will repeat once again…you get out of this house right now or I will throw you out myself.”
This last statement is made as she rounds the corner of the kitchen counter and comes nose to nose with Michelle.
I’m shocked stupid, so I just sit there and watch as fury blazes from Kate’s eyes and Michelle tries to hold a staring war with her.
She’s not going to win this one, though.
Finally, Michelle’s gaze drops in defeat and she pushes off the stool she’s sitting on. Kate takes a step back to give her room and waits quietly as Michelle grabs her purse and heads for the front door. We both watch as she doesn’t turn back to look at us or say a thing. She merely leaves quietly, and I wait until we hear the front door open and then close before I let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Fuck,” I mutter as I scrub my hand through my hair, all the way to the back of my neck, where I rub at it hard to relieve the stiffness.
Kate doesn’t say a word, but calmly walks past me toward the staircase again.
In a total replay, my hand strikes out, grabbing her wrist. She turns to look at me and I study her face. Pure passivity right now, when twenty seconds ago she was ready to throw down.
“You didn’t have to say those things,” I tell her.
Kate shrugs. “You shouldn’t have had to listen to the things she said. She’s wrong.”
Something rattles and then breaks free from deep within my chest. I can’t identify what it is, but suddenly I accept what Kate says.
Michelle is wrong. She has no clue the way I suffer over Gina. Hearing Kate and the way she laid it all out…it gave me peace over my decision.
“Thank you,” I tell her sincerely, and she gives me the sweetest smile in return.
“Anything for you, Pumpkin Butt.”
Shaking my head with a grin, I let her wrist go. She starts back toward the stairs, but before she goes, I tell her, “I want you to go with me and Ben today to look at the houses with the real estate agent.”