by Beth Ehemann
“How about a vacation? What if you guys went to Hawaii for a week— a month? Maybe you just need to reconnect?”
“Brody, your offers are all very sweet, but they’re not necessary.” She looked at my dad who gave her a tight smile. “We’ve talked about this at length. We’re okay with it. We’ve even hired the same lawyer and settled everything already. We’re content with our decision.”
I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. My eyes were wide, darting back and forth between the two of them. “How long have you known you were doing this?”
“A year.”
“A year?” I exclaimed, jumping up from the table. “You guys just celebrated your thirtieth anniversary in May. Shae and I threw you a surprise party for fuck’s sake!”
“Brody,” my dad warned.
“I know.” Mom covered her face with her hands. “We were mortified the whole time, but we had no idea. What were we supposed to do? Announce the split in front of all our family and friends?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed, pacing the kitchen. “This can’t be the end, though. It just can’t. I know you two still love each other.”
My mom looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you, Brody. I can’t begin to imagine.”
“No. You can’t. I’ve gone my whole life with my parents together and loving each other. Once I hit adulthood, I felt pretty secure that you two were a forever thing.” I frowned at both of them. “I swear I think it would have been easier to find this out at seven than at twenty-seven.”
“We’re so sorry, Brody.” My mom cried softly.
“When Dad called, I thought something showed up in one of your scans. I’m obviously relieved that’s not the case, but this is equally as shocking.” Opening the back door, I whistled loudly for Diesel.
“What are you doing?” Mom’s eyes looked sad, worried.
Diesel trotted through the back door and we headed toward the front of the house. “I gotta go. I need to think.”
“Brody, wait!” Mom hurried after me. “It’s so late. Why don’t you just stay here tonight?”
I opened the front door and turned to face my mom. Dad had followed her out of the kitchen and had his hand resting on her shoulder, rubbing her arm lovingly. I stared at his hand for a second longer than I should have, wondering what the hell happened and where everything had gone wrong. I looked her straight in the eye. “Not a chance,” I said coolly and slammed the door.
By the time I’d started my truck, Mom had looked out the living room window three times. Knowing her, I’m sure she was hoping I would turn the truck off and head back inside. I probably should have. She and Dad didn’t deserve the way I’d treated them, but I was beyond pissed.
I felt duped. I felt betrayed.
Flooring the gas and spitting up gravel as I sped off, I fishtailed out of the driveway onto the road, but I wasn’t heading home.
After the week I’d had, I felt out of control. I’d played like shit the last two games, and now my parents dropped the bomb that they were getting divorced. Tonight, I needed the one constant in my life.
My compass.
My anchor.
My more.
I headed straight for Kacie’s house.
Lucy and Piper wrapped their tiny arms around my neck and squeezed as hard as they could. I groaned playfully as they cut off my air supply.
“I’m going to hug you so hard your guts are going to spill out!” Piper giggled.
“Noooo!” cried Lucy, pulling back. “Leave Mama’s guts alone. She needs those.”
I laughed heartily. “My guts are okay, Lucy. I promise. Now, how much do I love you guys?”
“More than all the stars in the sky and all the waves in the sea,” they recited in unison.
“You got that right!” I kissed each of their foreheads and tucked them into bed. “See you in the morning. Love you both!”
“Love you, Mama!” they called out as I flipped on their night-light and pulled the door shut.
After my miserable meeting with Alexa and Lauren, I was mentally exhausted. I should have been ready to crash, but for some reason I wasn’t ready to sleep yet. Normally, once the girls went to bed at night my life was a bore. Now that Brody’s season had started and he was traveling more and more, I would sometimes go a whole week without seeing him. I missed him so much, sometimes it physically hurt. We hadn’t talked all day, and it was unlike him not to call me as soon as the girls were tucked into bed, so I shot him a quick text.
HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY TODAY. CALL ME LATER! :)
Tucking my phone in my back pocket, I snuck off to the kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal. Fred and my mom were snuggled up on the couch watching TV. I took my bowl into the living room and plopped down next to them.
“Whatcha watching?” I shoveled a bite of Lucky Charms into my mouth.
“Chopped.” Mom sighed. “Though I’m fading fast.”
Fred looked down at her. “Me too. I have to get up early in the morning and change the oil on your truck.”
“Awww!” I grinned at them. “Cooking shows and oil changes. You two are so romantic.”
“Someone is feisty tonight,” Fred joked as he picked up a small throw pillow and tossed it at me, narrowly missing my cereal bowl.
“I know! I had coffee at work today, way later than I usually do. I’m wired.” I threw the pillow back at them. “And now you two losers are going to go to bed and I’m stuck here all alone with the Chopped contestants.”
My mom giggled as she leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Sorry, baby girl. See you in the morning.”
Fred stood up and my mom followed, walking him to the back door.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a tight squeeze. She lifted her chin, angling her mouth to line up with his. He tilted his head to the side and looked her straight in the eyes. “I love you.”
Her cheeks puffed out as she smiled. “I love you too.”
He pressed his mouth against hers passionately and I started making fake gagging noises.
They pulled apart and grinned at me like a couple of proud teenagers as I brought my hands to my throat and pretended to pass out.
Slightly dramatic, yes, but I was having fun teasing them tonight. Fred delivered one more peck and disappeared out the back door. Mom turned and rolled her eyes at me. “You’re a pill.”
“I know.” I giggled. “But you know I really love you two. And I love you together.”
A sweet smile slid across my mom’s face. “Want me to hang with you tonight?”
“Nah, I’m good. I’m just waiting for Brody to text me back and then I’ll hit the sack.” I returned her smile. “Thank you, though.”
Mom blew me a kiss and walked down the hall to our apartment. I heard the door close behind her as I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see if Brody had answered. Nothing.
My show was over and I had just finished up my cereal and put my bowl in the kitchen sink, when I thought I heard a quiet knock on the front door. Pausing, I listened again. Another knock. I raced through the hallway, excited at the thought of another surprise visit from Brody. Maybe more pier sex?
Whipping the front door open, I stopped dead in my tracks. “I was hoping it was—” I blinked, not sure if I was seeing what I was really seeing. “Zach?”
“Hey!” A lazy grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Are the girls awake?”
Confused, I slowly shook my head back and forth. “No, they’re in bed.”
“Aw, crap. I really wanted to see them again. They’re cute.”
I took a step closer to him and sniffed. “Have you been drinking?”
“Oh, yeah,” he slurred. “It was so good too. I forgot how fucking good it tastes.”
Oh, shit.
“Listen…” I stepped out onto the front porch and closed the door quietly behind me, praying my mom hadn’t heard him. “What can I do for you? Is there someone I can call? A spo
nsor maybe?”
“No, fuck that.” He waved off. “He’s an asshole. Always bossing me around and never letting me have any fun.”
“Zach,” I said calmly, sitting on the swing, “I know this isn’t what you want. You’ve worked so hard to stay sober all this time.”
“One thousand one hundred and seventy-five days!” he yelled, thrusting his fist into the air.
“Shhh!” I hissed. “Come sit down. What’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on. I just liked sitting with you at the park and I wanted to see you again.”
I frowned at him. “You saw me at work today, remember?”
“Yeah, but there you’re always busy with patients and preoccupied.”
“Zach, you’re not making any sense. Really, who can I call to help you?”
“No one!” he snapped. “I have no one, remember? My mom is dead, my dad is dead, Tara got married and moved away from me. I have no one!”
I cringed at how loudly he was yelling. “Shhh, it’s okay. Come sit down.”
He staggered over and dropped down on the swing so hard, I was worried the bolts were going to fly right out of the ceiling. “Talk to me. What brought this on?” I asked.
“You. Them.” He sniffed, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
“What?” I searched his face, looking for any clue as to what he was talking about. His blonde curls peeked out from under his baseball cap as the muscles in his biceps flexed over and over. He was extremely agitated and I had no idea why.
“You, but mainly them. That day at the park.” The muscle at the corner of his jaw was popping as he clenched it in between sentences. “It was remarkable watching them. They are people, real little people, with opinions and personalities and thoughts. You’ve formed them into these tiny beings that are amazing to watch and I… I had nothing to do with any of it. I’ve missed so much, their whole lives, really. So much time gone that I can never get back. And then there’s you.”
Oh no.
He turned his head and captured me in his gaze like a wounded animal. My heart was racing and a small part of me felt very nervous sitting here with him. Unsafe. I barely knew him anymore and I had no idea what he was capable of, especially in this state.
“Me?” I asked, barely audible.
“I never stopped loving you, Kacie. After all these years, I’ve thought about you constantly, compared every woman I’ve been with to you, wondered what you were doing every second.”
Oh God, no.
“All this time, did you think about me at all?”
“Um…”
“You didn’t.” He stood up and angrily marched to the edge of the porch, raising his hands above his head and gripping the trim. Looking out across the property, he continued, “I don’t blame you, though. I wouldn’t have thought about me either. I was awful to you and you did absolutely nothing to deserve it.”
I stared down at my hands, which were folded in my lap to keep from shaking, too scared to respond. The fear of saying the wrong thing and setting him off gripped me like a vice.
“Sorry is a stupid word,” he mumbled, though I was unsure if he was talking to me or to himself.
Keeping my head down, I peeked up at him with just my eyes.
“Think about it,” he continued into the air. “You say it when you bump into someone in the grocery store or when you’re late for a doctor’s appointment. How the fuck can that word possibly be the only one in the English language appropriate to say to the ex-girlfriend that you royally screwed over? How do you apologize for the biggest mistake of your life?” After a minute, Zach walked back over and sat down next to me again, pulling my hands into his. “I’m sorry, Kacie. I’m so, so sorry. I’ll gladly say it to you every day for the rest of my life. I wish more than anything I could take back that day, take back that stupid moment when I decided you guys would be better off without me. Who knows? That may have been the case, but I wasn’t better off without you. You were my life and I threw you away. All of you.”
What the hell was I supposed to say to that? I would never know what my life would have been like had he stuck around, and honestly, I didn’t want to know. I was happy where I was, proud of what I’d been able to accomplish as a single mom. My hands were shaking in his as I thought about what to say back, how to follow that up. Before I could form a coherent thought, headlights appeared at the end of the driveway.
We both looked up, squinting our eyes at the approaching lights.
“Who is that?” Zach asked, not letting go of my hands.
As the car got closer, I realized it wasn’t a car at all, but a truck. A big black pick-up truck.
Brody.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I pulled my hands back quickly as the truck screeched to a stop. I’d barely made my way to the end of the porch when Brody came walking purposefully up the steps. “What’s going on?” he questioned, looking from me to Zach.
“Nothing, baby. Let’s go inside and talk.” I put my hands on his chest, hoping to slow him down, but he walked right through me.
“Brody Murphy!” Zach grinned as he walked over with his hand out. “Nice to meet you. I’m Zach, Lucy and Piper’s dad.”
The world moved in slow motion as I watched the realization of what Zach had just slurred reach Brody’s brain. His head slowly turned to look down at me. His normally crisp green eyes were filled with anger. Intense, seething anger. I could only imagine what he thought he just saw as his chest heaved under my hand.
I cupped the sides of his face, trying to get him to look at me instead of through me. “Listen to me, this is not what you think it is. Let’s go inside and talk. Please.”
“Don’t leave me hanging, bro.” Zach laughed, motioning toward his still outstretched hand.
Brody was looking at me, but his mind was somewhere else. When Zach laughed, Brody’s eye twitched and that was it. I grabbed a fistful of his sweatshirt and pulled back as hard as I could, but I was too late.
Brody reeled back and swung with his right arm as hard as I’d ever seen anyone hit another person. It happened so fast, Zach didn’t even see it coming. He was still smiling when Brody’s fist connected with his jaw, making the most horrific crunching sound. Zach stumbled back, holding the left side of his face. His hat was askew and he was obviously disoriented and in severe pain, but that didn’t stop Brody from lunging for him again. He grabbed a handful of Zach’s shirt and pulled him forward, hard.
“What the fuck are you doing here, dickhead?” Brody roared through clenched teeth.
“Whoa, whoa!” Zach threw his hands up in front of himself. “Calm down.”
“Fuck you!” Brody snapped, punching Zach even harder than before, this time with his left fist. After another fierce collision, Zach covered his head with his hands, either in pain or self-defense and wobbled his way over to the railing.
“Brody! Brody, stop!” I screamed. I tried wrapping my arms around his core and pulling him off of Zach, but I would’ve had better luck trying to move the Empire State Building. I barely got out of the way when Brody reared back and punched Zach once more, sending him flying over the porch railing and onto the grass down below.
Brody walked over and stood at the railing, glaring down at Zach. Blood droplets fell from his knuckles onto the porch, but it didn’t seem to phase him one bit.
“I’ll ask you again. What the fuck are you doing here?”
After he rolled around in the grass for a minute, Zach sat up and held each side of his jaw, which I was sure was broken—probably in more than one place. “I came to talk to Kacie about the girls,” he mumbled, opening his mouth as little as possible.
“The girls? You have no goddamn business discussing anything about those girls.”
“The fuck I don’t. I’m their father.”
Brody’s eyes grew wide and I thought he might jump the railing and kill Zach right there on the lawn. “Their father? What the fuck do you know about being th
eir father? I’m their father! You’re a deadbeat sperm donor—Kacie’s big fucking mistake in life. The hell if I’m going to let her make the same mistake twice. Now, get the hell out of here.”
Zach narrowed his eyes at me. “He doesn’t know, does he?”
“Know what?” Brody growled.
I sighed, pulling my shaking hands up to my face. Alexa was right, I should’ve told him a long time ago. This was so much worse than I ever imagined it could be. My stomach cramped like I was going to throw up.
“Know what?” he roared again, causing me to flinch.
“Know what?” Kacie flinched as I demanded an answer for the second time.
“We work at the hospital together,” Zach said through clenched teeth, still holding on to the side of his head.
“You what?” I yelled at Kacie, pretending it was her that told me and not Zach.
Her hands fell from her face just enough for me to see her tear-filled eyes. “We work together.” She pulled her hands all the way down and reached for me, but I stepped back. “But not really. He’s an EMT, so we don’t see each other every day, just occasionally. I had no idea he worked there, Brody. I saw him my first day and-”
“Your first day?” I shouted. “That was weeks ago!”
What. The. Fuck.
The front door to the house flew open and Sophia stepped out onto the porch. “What’s going on out here? I can hear yelling all the way from my bedroom.” Her eyes panned the front yard and stopped suddenly on Zach. “What are you doing here?”
Zach didn’t answer her; he just looked down at his lap.
“Brody, let me explain.” Kacie ignored her mom as her chin trembled and tears poured from her eyes.
Normally when I saw Kacie cry, I would walk through walls of fire to make her stop, but right now I just couldn’t. She put those damn walls up and needed to get out from behind them on her own.
I was seething.
“Wait,” Zach interrupted. “Before you do, I’m gonna go.”
“I would say that’s a good idea.” Sophia walked to the edge of the porch and crossed her arms across her chest.