by Beth Ehemann
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “I promise to take care of it later.”
I pushed my legs apart in an effort to keep my thighs from rubbing against my balls. “I hope so. I’m going to be walking like I just got off a horse for the rest of the damn day.”
She tried not to giggle as she apologized again. “I really am sorry. Do you have blue balls?”
“No. I have navy blue balls.” I groaned uncomfortably. “Feels like I got kicked in my junk. Have you ever heard of anyone dying from this before? If not, I might be the first.”
“Mommy, Miss JoAnn said it’s time for lunch,” Piper hollered.
“Okay, baby. We’re coming.” She chuckled and threw her hand over her mouth, realizing what she’d just said.
“We were about to,” I growled at her as we walked toward the ladder.
I sailed through the doors at work, still on a complete high from my wonderful weekend with Brody and the girls, determined not to let anything spoil my day.
Famous last words.
“Good morning, Darla!” I sang out as I tucked my lunch bag in my cubby and took off my hoodie.
She took a bite of her apple and cocked an eyebrow at me. “Uh oh. Someone got some this weekend.”
I tried to hide my smile, but every time I thought back to the surprised look on Brody’s face when I started to go down on him in the barn, I couldn’t help but grin. However, the look on his face a few hours later when I relieved the poor guy’s pain and finished what I’d started was even better. Who knew his dad’s workshop could be so much fun?
“I don’t blame you. With a boyfriend as hot as yours, I’d be on him like a goddamn spider monkey.” She giggled, tossing her apple in the garbage.
I laughed and shook my head at her. I really did like Darla. She had absolutely no filter and spouted out whatever came to mind, but she made working here not just tolerable, but fun. The fact that Maureen really liked her and Darla often talked me up to her was an added bonus.
“Whose boyfriend is hot?”
My heart leapt into my throat as I turned around to hang my hoodie up. It didn’t matter how much time had passed, that voice still sent me into a tailspin, just for different reasons now.
“Kacie’s. He’s a hockey player, a professional one,” Darla chimed back. “I’m waiting. I’ll totally take sloppy seconds on that one. He’s too hot to pass up.”
“Oh really?” Zach said curiously.
“Yeah.” She sighed. “Gorgeous brown curls, the dreamiest green eyes you’ve ever seen and an ass made for slappin’.”
Oh God, Darla, please stop talking. Right now.
“Doubt I’ll get the chance, though. From what I hear, he’s pretty damn smitten with her.”
“What’s his name?” Zach asked nonchalantly.
“Bro—”
“None of your business.” I spun around, interrupting Darla.
Zach grinned at me, a heart-stopping grin. A grin that I used to love. A grin that used to melt my heart. “None of your business? That’s a weird name.” He was leaning on the tall counter at the desk, his hands folded in front of him.
“I gotta get to work,” I said coldly, walking over to check out the charts.
“Actually, I tried to call you. Maureen had to tweak the schedule a bit. You don’t start for an hour.” Darla gave me a lopsided frown. “Sorry.”
I groaned. That meant I’d have to stay an hour later, and while I came in to work happy, suddenly I was looking forward to getting out of here and heading home.
“Hey, that worked out nice. I’m about to go on my break.” Zach stood up straight. “Can we talk?”
Darla looked back and forth between the two of us. “Do you two like know each other?”
Four years’ worth of glares and resentment poured out of me as I glared into his dark brown eyes. How dare he put me in this position at work?
Asshole.
“I’m busy.”
“Sweet Darla right here just said that you can’t start work for another hour. Come on, please?” His eyes were soft, begging me to hear him out, but I wasn’t having it.
“No, thanks,” I said flatly.
“What’s going on?” Darla’s eyes were huge, wondering what it was she was missing.
“Kacie doesn’t want to talk to me, even though I’ve been pleading with her to hear me out for a couple weeks now.” Zach answered Darla without breaking my stare.
“Why don’t you shut your mouth?” I snapped at him. “You’re very good at keeping quiet. Try it now.”
Darla’s mouth fell open as she slumped into her chair slowly. “Whoa. I don’t know the history here, but it’s deep, huh?”
“You could say that. I’m the father of her twins,” Zach said, emotionless.
My blood boiled. I charged around the counter and stormed past him. “Let’s go, dick.”
Maybe if I walk fast enough, I can lose him in one of these winding hallways.
“Slow down!” he called, jogging a few steps until he fell in step next to me.
No such luck.
“I can’t believe you,” I snapped, spinning on my heel to face him. “This is emotional blackmail. How dare you confront me at work? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I know that was a shitty thing to do and I’m sorry I did it that way,” he apologized half-heartedly, “but I was desperate to talk to you.”
“Oh, really? Wow.” I turned and continued down the hall, still spouting off as I went. “A few weeks of me ignoring you has you desperate, huh? Imagine what five fucking years feels like!”
He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and put his head down, deciding not to argue back anymore.
A very smart decision on his part.
We got to the cafeteria and I marched over and sat down roughly at one of the tables, crossing my arms over my chest. “Let’s get this over with, please, so I can go back to my normal, happy life.”
He sighed. “I’m going to grab coffee. Want some?”
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and looked over to my left. A couple was sitting together at a table quietly, holding hands. Tears poured down her cheeks as she rested her head on his shoulder. His lip trembled as he tried to remain strong for her, for whatever they were going through.
Was their child sick? A parent? Had one of them lost a sibling?
That was the hard thing about my job. You usually met people on one of the worst days of their lives. They wouldn’t remember you, but you would never forget them.
“Sugar?”
I was pulled from my own thoughts and glared up at Zach. “Don’t call me that,” I snarled.
He laughed and shook his head. “I was asking if you wanted sugar in your coffee. You used to like it that way; not sure if that’s changed.”
“I hate sugar in my coffee,” I lied, refusing to give him the satisfaction of his memory being right. “I’ll take it black.”
He set two cardboard cups down and pulled the chair out across from me. Neither of us spoke. I was not about to make this easy on him by starting with meaningless small talk. Sitting there with him was the last place on the entire planet I wanted to be right then. Research tent in Antarctica? I’d take it. Swimming with crocodiles in the Amazon? Give it to me. Crawling across a desert in Egypt? Cakewalk compared to this moment.
“So…” He sighed. “What’s your boyfriend’s name?”
I narrowed my eyes at him and leaned forward. “The only reason I’m even sitting here with you in the first place is because you wouldn’t shut your damn mouth with Darla and I don’t want everyone knowing my business. You want to feed me some bullshit about where you’ve been the last five years? Fine. Suit yourself, but my boyfriend is NOT something I’m discussing with you.”
He flinched slightly at my words and looked down at the table. An ache spread through me.
No. Fuck that ache. He deserves this.
“I deserved that,” he said.
“Finally, something we agree on.” I ro
lled my eyes and sat back in my chair, my arms still crossed.
“This isn’t easy for me either, you know,” he said softly. “For years, I’ve thought about what I would say to you if given the chance. Now here you are, sitting right in front of me, but my brain is paralyzed. I know that nothing I say will justify the decision I made five years ago and I’m not trying to justify it. I just want you to know where I’m coming from.”
I didn’t give a rat’s ass where he was coming from, nor did I want to hear it, but I knew that he wasn’t going to back down until I let him explain himself. In that moment, I decided to keep my trap closed and let him get whatever it was out. Then I would let him have it.
“I know you knew I was drinking back then, but you had no idea how much. I was out of control. I would go to work and put in just my eight-hour shift, even though overtime was always available. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and go drink.”
Remembering back to how much we went without because of how tight our money situation was, I gritted my teeth but let him continue.
“I didn’t even need anyone to drink with me. I would get a case of beer and just sit in my car by myself and drink. Then I would come home, you would go to work, and after I put the girls to bed, I’d drink until I passed out. It got to the point where I would have to have a beer in the morning on the way to work just so I could get through the day without the shakes.”
I sat there, staring at him in shock. I knew he drank—there had been beer cans here and there around the house—but I had no idea it had been that bad.
“I was sick. Then one day, I got pulled over and was arrested for a DWI. I should’ve been put in jail immediately, but if you remember, my mom worked in an attorney’s office back then. He worked his magic and got me released and my charges dropped on a technicality. A month later, I hit a car and the couple inside was seriously injured. Another DWI, another arrest, more charges. That time they stuck.”
I was fully engrossed in what he was telling me. I’d had no idea about his arrests.
Who had bailed him out? How had he been able to keep that from me?
“That’s when I decided that I was no good for you and the girls. Whatever happened to you three, you would be better off without me. I also knew that if I told you I was leaving because I was such a fuckup, being the devoted girlfriend that you were, you would have fought for us. Most likely, you would have won. Walking away from you and the girls was the hardest and stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
My heart hurt. Knowing that he was in all that pain and had all those problems, and I was so oblivious was rough.
“Anyway, you thought I was at work one morning, but my mom took me to meet with the lawyer she worked for, who proceeded to tell me I was in deep shit. Later that afternoon, Christina came over to babysit and I made a split-second decision. I threw my shit in my car, scribbled a note to you, kissed the girls good-bye in their sleep, and that was it. I sobbed as I kissed them. That night, I drove past the house at least a dozen times, so fucking close to coming home and begging you to forgive me. I pulled in the driveway once. I remember it clearly.” He stared at the table, lost in his memory. “You had Lucy on your hip, still wearing your scrubs. You pulled the curtain back to see who it was, but you were blinded by the headlights. I started to pull out of the driveway and you walked away, assuming it was just a car turning around.”
Oh God. I remember that. It was so dark. I prayed it was him, but the car pulled out and I lost all hope.
He sniffed and wiped at the corner of his eye, still not making eye contact with me. “Anyway, after that I spiraled. I moved from couch to couch, drinking a case of beer a day, sometimes more. After awhile, beer wasn’t enough, so I started drinking more hard liquor. I just wanted to numb everything. When I was sober, all I thought about was you and the girls and all I was missing out on. I chose liquor over my girlfriend and daughters. It was the lowest point in my life, or so I thought.”
My eyes teared up and I was thankful he wasn’t looking at me. Like him, I’d also imagined what it would be like the first time I saw him after all these years. I pictured myself screaming at him, slapping him, spewing the most hateful things I could come up with at him. Instead, I was pinching the inside of my arm as hard as I could to try and distract myself and keep from crying. Those five years’ worth of anger I’d clung tight to had evaporated instantly into confusion as I found myself hanging on his every word.
“Somehow by the grace of God, and my mom, I was able to stay out of prison. My mom pleaded with me to get help. She offered to pay for rehab, threatened to come to you and tell you everything, and begged my dad for help; but as you know, he was a drunk himself. I was turning into him a little more every day and I was too out of control to notice. One day, I was sleeping on the couch of some girl I met in a bar and my sister found me. She told me that Mom had just had a freak brain aneurysm and died the night before.”
I couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. Zach had a rough life growing up. His dad was a loser drunk who used to beat his mom up. Finally, when Zach was a little boy, she got sick of it and kicked him out. She worked really hard to raise him and his sister, Tara, on her own and provide a good life for them. His dad was constantly making plans with him and then leaving him on the porch waiting with his overnight bag. His mom never complained about his dad, though. She just worked extra hard to make up for what he was missing from him. In hindsight, she probably loved Zach too much and in turn, enabled him to become his father. Zach was as big a mama’s boy as I’d ever seen. I can’t imagine how her death must have affected his already unstable life.
“I tried really hard to stay sober the next couple days. I helped Tara plan the funeral and put on a smiling face for my gram, but it all became too much and I went on a major drinking binge the night before her services. The next thing I remember is being woken up by loud banging on the door. I opened it and Tara started beating the shit out of me. She pounded on my chest and punched me in the stomach. Then, she reeled back and spit in my face.” His voice cracked and I had to swallow a sob. “Her boyfriend, Tony, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back while I wiped her spit off my face with my T-shirt. She was screaming at me, but all her words were blurring together. She turned and cried uncontrollably into Tony’s chest. I asked him what the fuck was going on, and he glared at me and told me that they’d been trying to get ahold of me for hours, but I was too passed out. I slept right through my mom’s whole funeral.”
The sob I’d swallowed worked its way back up and escaped as I clasped my hand over my mouth. Zach reached over, grabbed a napkin from the next table, and handed me one before wiping his own eyes. “Needless to say, that was the lowest point in my entire life. My drunk ass was so selfish and so in love with the bottle, not only had I lost my kids, but now I missed my mom’s funeral. I checked into an inpatient rehab the next day and lived there for six long ugly months. While I was there my dad died too, but I chose not to go to his funeral. In my mind, that would have been a betrayal to my mom.”
I took a deep breath, trying to absorb everything he’d just thrown at me. “I’m so sorry about your mom, Zach. I know how much you loved her,” I finally said in a shaky voice.
“Thanks.” An awkward fake smile crossed his lips. “After rehab, I changed my life completely. I started working out constantly, I went to school to become an EMT, and I started a dependency program here at the hospital. I craved stability in my life. My goal was to get myself situated and healed and then come see you. I figured you’d probably be married and maybe have other kids or something, and I didn’t want to drum up any hurt, but I was hoping at some point I could earn your trust back and have some sort of role in the girls’ lives.” His chin quivered. “Please, Kacie. I don’t want to be like my dad.”
I sat, stunned. That was not at all what I was expecting to hear—any of it. I figured he’d tell me he was young and dumb and selfish, and in a way, he was, but it was so much deeper than that. Then
I did something impulsive, without a second thought, something that shocked me to my core. Before my brain realized what my body was doing, I reached across and put my hand on top of his.
“I’ve craved stability too. We’ll figure something out… slowly.”
“Holy crap! Are they going off to college?” I stared down at the mile-long list of school supplies for Lucy and Piper, wondering why the hell they needed fifty #2 pencils—each.
“Welcome to school supply shopping.” Kacie giggled as she walked over and grabbed a cart.
I looked down at the cart and back at her. “I don’t think that’s going to be big enough.”
She grinned and shook her head. “Oh boy. You’re in for a rude awakening. Girls, come on!” Lucy and Piper returned the tiny stuffed animals they were playing with to their bin and bounced over to us.
“They’re six. Why on Earth do they need one hundred pencils?” I mumbled to myself as I followed along behind Kacie. “I’m twenty-seven. I don’t think I’ve used one hundred pencils in my entire life.”
By the time we were on the second half of the list, I was having more fun than the girls, throwing everything not nailed down into the cart.
“Brody, we need regular crayons, not glitter ones.” Lucy frowned as she peeked over the edge of the cart.
“Oh, did I grab glitter?” I grabbed six of the biggest packages of regular crayons they had and tossed them in the cart. Lucy reached in to grab the glitter ones and put them back, but I stopped her. “No. We’ll get those too.” I winked.
Kacie came back from the bathroom with Piper and her eyes got wide once she saw the cart. “Whoa!”
“I know. We’re having fun.” I laughed.
Kacie tugged on my shirt, pulling me away from the girls. “Brody, listen. I appreciate all the fun you’re having with them, but I’m on a budget. I can’t afford all this.”
“You don’t have to. I can buy my girls school supplies.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Kacie, have I ever told you what to do with your money?”
