“I was in love with her,” I counter. “Can we focus on the fact that I was left at the fucking altar yesterday, and I’m hurt?” I try to pull the sympathy card, and it only works for the girls while Brody just glares at me. “What?”
He points at me and mouths, “That’s fucked up.” Even though I didn’t think I would ever smile again, that makes me crack a smile. I didn’t think I would ever have a reason to smile again. But now, looking down at my family who showed up to protect me from the storm, I have to have faith that tomorrow will be a better day. At least, I hope so!
Chapter Seven
Crystal
“You sure about this?” Blake asks from beside me when he finally turns off the truck. I look around at the houses that line the street, nodding.
It’s been three weeks since Eric died; two weeks since his brothers came to the house and ‘claimed’ all his belongings. Two weeks since Hailey was served with papers demanding she cease and desist slandering Eric by insisting he married her.
As if she could forget she married him, that she loved him, that for that one minute, he wasn’t really hers.
I get out of the truck, looking at the little gray house with flowers lining the walkway. The brown door with the hanging ‘Welcome’ sign. I look down at my feet, take a big deep breath, and then walk toward the house, Blake right behind me. I put one foot in front of the other until I get to the porch and reach out, ringing the doorbell. The sound can be heard from the open windows upstairs.
We hear footsteps coming toward the door. “Here we go.” I open and close my hands, and my nerves start to get the best of me. My heart starts to beat even faster against my chest as the footsteps approach the door. I hear the lock turn and watch as the handle turns right.
The door swings open, and there standing in the middle of the doorway is the woman I came to meet. The woman with long, straight blond hair that lays over her thin shoulder. Her big brown eyes are too big for her face now, something that probably wasn’t there before. Her clothes look five sizes too big for her. “Can I help you?” Her voice comes out soft.
“I’m Crystal,” I say, my voice wavering a bit, but her eyes go big when she finally recognizes the name.
“We are sorry to just barge in on you,” Blake starts saying when she looks at him. “We were wondering …”
Samantha moves out of the way. “Please, come in,” she says as I walk in, followed by Blake. “Don’t worry about taking off your shoes,” she says to us as she turns and walks into her house. The entrance is closed in, and when we walk into the home, we both stop in our tracks. Pictures of Eric are everywhere; the pictures of his family cover the whole wall in the living room. Pictures of him and the girls scattered throughout the room.
Samantha turns around and watches us take in all her pictures. She points at the big portrait of the four of them. “That was taken the day we found out we were expecting our third child. Two weeks later, I miscarried.” The picture hangs in the middle of the living room wall “Would you like to sit here or in the kitchen?”
“I can’t sit in this room,” I tell her. “It’s just too much.” She nods her head as if she understands.
I follow her into the dining room as she turns and goes into the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Water,” I say, my throat now dry. She goes to the fridge, opening the door, and we see the drawing on the fridge. “It can’t fucking be,” I mumble to myself.
She comes back, handing us each a bottle. “I don’t know what the protocol is for any of this, so I don’t want to be rude in any way.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“We just want to talk,” Blake finally says, and she nods at him and walks to the table.
“I need to sit down.” She almost collapses in the chair. I take a seat on the opposite side.
“Are you okay?” Blake asks her as her eyes fly to his while he takes a seat in the chair next to me.
“No, actually, I’m not okay. I’m the opposite of okay,” she sighs. “I have to pick the girls up in an hour,” she starts and places her hands on the table as she wrings her fingers.
“Did you know?” I come right out and ask the question, a question everyone must be thinking.
Her head shakes from right to left. “Not a fucking clue.” She wipes a tear from her face. “How long were they together?” she asks, and I finally get it that she must have just as many questions for us as we have for her.
“They were married for the past six months but dating for about eighteen,” I tell her the truth; it’s not about lying, it’s about fucking closure, for her and for us.
She nods her head. “I just thought we were going through a rough patch.” She doesn’t try to wipe away the tears this time. “I even felt him get distant, and we spoke about it.” She sniffles as I listen to her. “He said it was all in my head.”
“Do the kids know?” Blake asks, and she shakes her head.
“My in-laws will not permit me to tell them anything except that he died in a car crash.”
“Your in-laws are not your boss.” I sit straight up, my spine going rigid.
“I’m a foster child and grew up in the system. They are the only family I have, so they are not the boss of me, but they are my family.” She sits up. “It is also none of your business how I handle my children.”
I’m about to freak out, and Blake must feel it because he puts his hand on my arm. “You’re right. They aren’t my business, and you aren’t my business, but my cousin, his other wife, is my business,” I start, and I don’t stop now, my voice getting higher and higher. “You had your fucking closure. You got to say goodbye to him, but she didn’t.” She glares at me, but I don’t care. “She had to sit in the middle of her fucking living room, that they shared together, and read a fucking cease and desist letter, telling her that everything they had meant nothing. That is my fucking business.”
“You done?” She has the nerve to ask, and I nod. “You think I had closure because I got to see him in a box? He was dead. You think just because I got his body that I got closure? You think it was easy for me to be the wife and mourn by his casket when all I wanted was to tell everyone what a fucking fake he was? If you think I got the better end of the deal, that is where you’re wrong.” She stands up now. “Your cousin gets to have the time to cry and ask questions, but I have to hide my pain and all my tears because I have two girls who I have to live for. I cry into my pillow at night quietly, so they don’t get up and ask me, “Do you miss Daddy, Mommy?” when the whole time I don’t fucking miss him. I fucking loathe him. He took our wedding vows and made a mockery out of them. He took me and made me look like a fucking fool. Do I have his name, yeah, but I would give it back to him. The only thing I can’t hate him for is giving me my girls.” She swallows. “When I look in their eyes, which are just like their father’s, I can’t hate him. So don’t sit there thinking you know anything when you know nothing.”
“We are very sorry,” Blake starts, and she puts her hand up.
“Please, spare me the fake sorrow. I don’t have the privilege to bash him and his ways because my in-laws hold him on a fucking shrine. I can’t look at them and tell them what a piece of trash their son was because then I will be left by myself. I play the wife role; I take the well wishes of the people who come up to me, but at night, when all the lights are off, when the kids are tucked into their bed, I’m left picking apart every single memory I have.” She raises her voice. “And it’s a lot more than eighteen months.”
“This was a mistake,” I say softly, looking at Blake.
“You came here to see who I was, and I get it. I wanted to do the same. I wanted to meet the woman who he felt he loved so much he lied and married her. But I can’t because, at the end of the day, those girls need me.” Blake nods then stands, and I walk out of the house without another fucking word. I walk down the step, climb in the truck, buckle my seat belt, and look straight ahead.
“Well, th
at was a good idea,” Blake finally says when we are far enough away. “Great fucking plan that was.”
“She is more broken than Hailey is,” I finally say out loud. “Hailey can forget about him, but she will never be able to move on.”
“You going to tell her about this?” he asks me, and I nod. “When?” he asks the million-dollar question.
“When she can handle it. Right now, the only thing she can handle is her bottle of wine. It’s got to fucking end.”
He nods. “Give her another week.” He stares ahead, not even bothering to look at me.
“Another week.” I throw my hands up. “I don’t give a shit what you say or that you’re older than I am and wiser. Next week, tough fucking love starts.”
“Deal.” He looks over at me. “And I won’t even give you a hard time about how you treated Samantha.” I roll my eyes. “She isn’t the enemy.”
I don’t bother to answer him. Instead, I close my eyes and devise a plan that I will put into place exactly one week from today.
Chapter Eight
Gabe
“Come in,” I say when I hear the knock on my office door. I’m sitting at my desk going through resumes, looking for someone to replace Laura, my head nurse who took off with Bethany.
“Oh, son, I’m glad I caught you before you left,” my father says, and I don’t know if he’s being sarcastic or not. I’m here at the practice every single night till at least nine o’clock. The house is just too much for me to take in right now. But it’s getting easier. Once we got all of Bethany’s shit out of the way, I called the decorator back to make a couple of changes. Luckily, she was able to exchange the things I didn’t want, so now it’s almost my style. Almost.
“I met with Alan this morning, and I think having him on as the pediatrician would be a great idea.” I nod at him, thinking that adding on that part of the practice will be great.
“Walker’s building a lot of new homes, meaning new families are moving to town. I think it’s a smart idea.” I agree with him. “But now you know that we are going to have to add a couple of nurses, right? I think I found someone to replace Laura, but she’s from the city, so I don’t know if it’s a great idea. She will probably be bored out of her mind and then leave us high and dry.”
He nods his head. “Yes, I was thinking of that.” He puts his hands in the pockets of his white lab coat. “Son, you need to stop this.”
I lean back in my chair. “What is that?”
“Staying here till it’s dark, coming in on Sunday just so you aren’t home. If you hate that house, sell it.”
“I love that house,” I tell him, and I really, really mean it. “It’s my dream home.”
“Then start living in it,” he tells me. “Stop making it her house and make it your house.”
“Dad, it’s been two weeks,” I tell him. “What would you do if it was Mom?”
“I’d chase her down and drag her ass back,” he tells me. “Did you ever stop to wonder why you didn’t chase after her?”
“Dad, she left me at the fucking altar. I’m pretty sure she was done with me.”
He rolls his eyes at me, literally rolls his eyes at me. “But you never went after her. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“Yeah,” I agree with him, “that I’m not a fucking doormat.”
“Bullshit. If you loved her, like really loved her … loved her so much your heart would stop beating if she was gone. Like you didn’t think you could breathe without knowing you are going to wake up next to her every single morning. Loved her so much you would have followed her and fought her every step of the way, then we wouldn’t be here.” I don’t say anything. “That is love, and if you felt that, you wouldn’t just let her walk away.” He nods at me. “Don’t stay too late.” He turns and walks out the door, leaving me with my thoughts.
“I love her,” I tell the wall, but I think about what he just said, and then I think about the love he shares with my mother. There is no way he would have let her get far without putting up a fight. He would fight for her with his last dying breath. I think about Brody and Darla. If she left, he would basically go fucking caveman on her and literally build an island she wouldn’t be able to escape from.
I stack the charts together, locking up and make my way outside to my truck. Not a car in sight in the deserted parking lot.
I look over at Walker Construction, which is just next door, and see the glow of the red sign. Not one car in their parking lot either. I make my way through the town where I grew up. I take in the shops and the hustle of town for almost seven p.m. on a Friday. I pick up my cell phone and call Walker.
“Have you eaten?” I ask him when he answers.
“It’s seven o’clock, and I have a four-year-old. I ate at five like a senior citizen.” He laughs at the last part.
“Okay. Mind if I swing by?” I ask him even though I know I don’t have to. I can just show up, and he wouldn’t even care. It’s always been like that.
“Like you have to ask.” He chuckles. “I have to go. I just heard Mila ask why bubbles are coming over the bathtub.”
He disconnects as I make my way over there. I open the door and head straight to the kitchen for a beer. I check out to see what leftovers he has and score big time when I find warm lasagna on the stove.
“Uncle Gabe!” Mila says, running out of the bathroom naked. “Daddy is lost in bubbles,” she yells and then runs back in the bathroom. I follow her to see the bubbles everywhere.
“What?” I ask, seeing Walker try to swat the bubbles down. “I think you put too much.”
“This is your fault,” he huffs. “While I was talking to you, she emptied the whole jug of bubble bath into the bath.” He looks at Mila, who shrugs and then bends to pick up the bubbles in her hands and blow them in the air. I watch him try to contain the bubbles for twenty minutes, and he finally plops Mila down inside the tub. I turn, going back to my lasagna while he bathes Mila.
Mila comes to kiss me goodnight while I flip through the channels on the television. Walker comes out ten minutes later and heads straight to the kitchen for a beer. He comes back to lie on the couch.
“You think if I really loved Bethany, I would have gone after her when she left me?” I ask him. He eyes me sideways, knowing I’m asking out of curiosity and not because I’m moping. “Dad said if I really truly loved her, I would have chased her down.”
“Well, I mean …” he says, taking a pull of his beer.
“So would that mean you didn’t love Julia with everything that you have?”
“Bethany didn’t have an affair with your best friend. She also didn’t have a kid and not know who the father was. Julia didn’t just leave me; she left her daughter. That is fucked up, and there is not enough love in the world to forgive that or to fight for it.”
“Okay, fine, but do you agree with him?” I ask him, and he just shrugs his shoulders.
“I’m not saying I agree with him. I’m saying I think you would have fought harder.”
I shake my head and turn back to look at the screen. I want to argue with him, but instead, I ponder the words in my mind.
I spend Saturday and Sunday working in my yard. My yard. Doing what I want to do. I call in the guys to add a pool. I walk through the rooms and make a checklist of what I want to change and what I’m going to keep.
When I finally pull into work on Monday, I feel refreshed. Debra, our receptionist, smiles at me when I walk in. “Good morning, Dr. Walker. How was your weekend?” Her smile bright on her face. She has been with my father almost since the beginning.
“It was great, Debra. What about yourself?” I ask as I walk past her.
“Great.” She nods. “You have a full day ahead.” I nod, walking back to my office. I open the door, dumping my bag. Slipping on my white lab coat, I grab my stethoscope and throw it around my neck. I walk out to the middle of the practice where the nurses’ station is. It is almost like a hospital emergency room with the nurses�
�� station in the middle and the examination rooms in a circle.
“Good morning,” I tell the nurses who are all around sharing their stories of the weekend.
We have a total of five nurses with us. Emma usually works with my father. Olivia just started, and she usually handles the newer patients. Ava has been here for three years and is usually my go-to. If there is something I need right away, I give it to Ava.
Mia has been here the longest, and she works with all of them, making sure everyone is taken care of. Since she has the most experience, they usually bounce ideas off her.
Corrine works hard and plays harder. If I had to pick anyone who would try to hook up with me, it would be her. I, of course, would never put myself in that situation, especially after Bethany.
“Morning,” they all say.
“I heard we have a big day ahead of us,” I tell them, looking at the whiteboard with all the appointments listed. “Who is working with me today?” I look back at them.
“That would be me.” Ava puts up her hands.
“Lost the bet, did you?” I smile at her, putting my hands in my pockets. I’m a hard person to put up with when I’m working. It’s got to be go time every single time. The phone buzzes, telling us we just got an emergency walk in. “Let’s go, people.”
I clap my hands, getting ready for the start of the day.
The hours fly by today, so fast I don’t think I even chewed my lunch. I finally pick up my phone to look at my messages, and I’m flipping through them when I see one from Theo, the medical equipment supplier.
Hey, we are having a medical convention in two weeks. It’s from Monday to Wednesday, and your father already confirmed your attendance. See you then.
Great.
He knew I would have said no, so he went behind my back to my father. Asshole. I shrug off my lab coat and unbutton my cuffs, rolling up the sleeves. I sit down at the desk to begin finishing the paperwork from today, and it dawns on me that I didn’t think of Bethany all day. Not once. I smile. It’s going to be a great week.
Unexpected Love Story Page 4
