Pause
Page 19
His phone lit up and his throat was suddenly dry. “Hey, Sheriff. How are you?”
“I’m good. How are you, Trey?”
“Not too bad, just heading to the school for Alex’s Star Day.”
“Oh yeah, my grandson, Trace had his just a few weeks ago and it was about the cutest thing in the world.”
“I’m sure it was. What can I do for you today?”
“I’ve found out some more information on your mama’s friend and I think it would be a good idea if I came out to the house and talked it over with you and your family.”
Trey’s heart pounded wildly in his chest. “Um…you know what Sheriff? I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
“Now Trey, please listen to me. This is some pretty important information and I’m not sure if Eve is aware of it. It seems suspicious and it’s something that could possibly make Callie a threat.”
“Sheriff, Callie and I are together.”
There was a heavy silence on the other end of the phone, “You mean, you two are dating?”
“Yes, we’re dating and I’m hoping it’ll turn into something more than that. Something permanent. I’m definitely grateful for everything you’ve done for me and all the hard work you’ve –”
“Trey,” the sheriff interrupted, “you’ve got to listen to me.”
“There’s nothing in Callie’s past that will change the way I feel about her. Whatever it is, in time, will come out and we’ll deal with it then, as a family.”
Trey pulled up in front of the school, shut his truck off, and grabbed the stuffed firefly. “I don’t mean to be short, Sheriff, but there are a whole bunch of people I love waiting for me inside of the elementary school and I don’t want to be late.”
“Trey, I’m sorry but you’ve left me no choice but to tell you right now over the phone. You need to hear this.”
Trey was spinning while the sheriff’s words echoed through his head. Everything around him faded as he struggled with each breath. He gripped the steering wheel tightly with one hand as he stared at the phone in his other.
He could still hear the sheriff calling out his name as he dropped the phone onto the seat next to him. As he walked into the school, he felt nothing – no fear, no anger, just dead space inside. A robot, moving one foot in front of the other, closing in on his family’s truth and Callie’s lies.
The sound of his boots echoed through the empty hallway as he neared Alex’s classroom. He could hear the buzzing chatter of the kids inside and it was then he felt the trembling in his hands. He stepped inside the room and his entire body burned. The sight of his family seated in small chairs in the front of the room was almost more than he could take. A slight sheen of sweat covered his forehead.
Callie looked over her shoulder and greeted him with her stunning smile and all at once, it broke through – her lies, her betrayal. She pointed to the seat she had saved next to her, but he didn’t move. His eyes met hers and he hoped his intense stare conveyed the hurt and betrayal he felt. He remained where he stood, her eyes widened and panic flashed across her face. She slowly turned away and he watched as Jade leaned over to her and then glanced back at him with worried eyes.
“Mr. O’Brien. Would you like to take a seat?” the teacher asked. He could only shake his head. The teacher’s eyes lingered on him for a few seconds before she nervously cleared her throat and clapped her hands in front of her. “Okay, girls, would you like to go get our Star?”
Three of the girls who were sitting on the floor in the front of the room jumped up giggling and ran from the room. A few seconds later, they escorted Alex back in. She was draped in a red cape with a star crown on her head. She took her place at the front of the room.
“Alex, would you like to introduce your family to your friends?”
Alex nodded as she made a dramatic sweep with her arm, stopping as she got to Eve. “This is the best grandma in the whole entire world. She bought me a pony and makes me grilled cheese sandwiches whenever I want them. My beautiful mama, Lauren. She’s my very best friend and likes to take me camping in our front yard so we can lay under the stars and talk to Daddy. And this is our favorite guy, Andy. He has my back for sure and is always on my side.” Alex threw her arms around Andy’s neck and made a growling sound like she was hugging him as hard as she could.
Then she side-stepped to stand in front of Callie. “This is my aunt, Callie. Well, she isn’t really my aunt yet, but I’m hoping one day my uncle will figure out she’s the best thing that’ll ever happen to him and give her a big, fat diamond ring, bigger than the moon! And this is Jade, Callie’s super cool sister who lives in New York City and buys strings of pearls from the Mob. And, as rumor would have it, kissed Jesse Casey in the backroom of Tipsy’s last night.”
Jade made a sound like someone had just punched her in the stomach as Alex looked at her, winked, and gave her a thumbs up. The kids sitting on the carpet around them giggled as Jade slumped down in her seat, covering her face.
Alex’s teacher rushed to the front of the room, “’Okay, Alex, moving on. What about the gentleman at the back of the room?”
“That’s my uncle, Trey. The best uncle in the whole world. He tells me all the time that he loves me most of all. Isn’t that right?”
“That’s right, Firefly.” He walked to the front of the room and bent down on one knee as he handed her the stuffed animal, then leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Don’t you ever forget that either.”
“Thank you, I love it!” she said as she hugged her new toy.
As Trey stood, Alex turned and pointed to a picture of Jamie on the whiteboard. “And this is my daddy. Wasn’t he handsome? He’s up in Heaven with the angels but he checks in on my family and me all the time and makes sure nothing happens to any of us.”
“How do you know that?” asked a little boy from the front row.
“Well,” Alex started in a careful voice, “sometimes when I wake up scared in the middle of the night, I cry for him.” She placed a little hand over her heart and continued, “He gives me this warm feeling right here and then puts happy memories in my head. It always makes me feel better. And he does things like sending Andy to me and Mommy. He knew we were going to need someone to take care of us because we are a handful. And just when we thought we were going to lose Uncle Trey, he sent Callie. She loves him so much – it brought him back and now we are all together again.”
That’s all he could take. Trey turned and stormed out of the room, his heart breaking when he heard Alex yell out his name.
It wasn’t but a few steps before he heard her behind him, trying to whisper his name so she wouldn’t disturb the other classrooms.
“Trey, wait. Please!”
But he didn’t wait, because he didn’t want to see her. He didn’t want to be anywhere near her right now. Or any of them. He picked up his pace, he needed to get away from her.
“Trey… Can we talk?”
Trey made it to his truck, leaning onto it with both hands. He dropped his head between his shoulders, trying to slow his breathing and make sense of everything. It just couldn’t be. How could this happen?
“Trey, I’m sorry,” Callie cried.
He gripped his truck as tight as he could, “Yeah? You’re sorry, Cal?” He pressed his forehead against the cold metal of the truck. His stomach twisted into knots. “What are you sorry for? Huh?”
When she didn’t respond, he pushed himself off the truck, turning to face her. Callie stood with the help of Jade, who was now trying to comfort her. Eve was there with an arm stretched toward him, her eyes pleading and full of sadness, while Lauren and Andy were rushing out of the school toward them.
“Trey, please. Let’s talk about this,” Eve begged.
“No, Mom. I’m not talking to anyone but Callie right now, and I asked her a damn question.”
He looked back at Callie, “I’m only going to ask one more time. Callie…what are you sorry for?”
He stepped closer to
her, his piercing stare never leaving her face. “Are you sorry my brother is dead? Huh? Sorry that he was ripped from his family? From his daughter? Are you sorry about that? Or are you sorry that with everything we’ve been through in the past few weeks, you forgot to tell me the only reason you’re alive is because his heart beats in your chest?”
Callie sagged against her sister. “Yes, everything. I’m sorry for all of it.”
“Are you now? Because the way I see it, you’re alive because he’s dead.” His voice cracked, and he covered his mouth as he looked above her head. With a shaky breath and tear-filled eyes, he looked at her and said, “You were supposed to be my future, the person who was going to help me get past this, but instead I’ll never be able to look at you the same.”
He took a deep breath, letting his shoulders fall. A lone tear slid down his cheek. He raised his arm to the side, shaking his head as he walked backward toward his truck. “Now you’re just a walking reminder of everything I’m trying to forget.”
Callie rushed to him, “Give me a chance to explain.”
“I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that you lied to me this entire time and obviously got some sort of sick enjoyment out of it, or that you let it go so far that you allowed me to fall in love with you!”
Eve took a step toward her son. “Trey listen to me, this isn’t her fault. It’s what Callie does. She finds families who have lost loved ones and helps them grieve through the transplant part. I struggled so hard knowing Jamie had given his heart to someone. It didn’t seem fair to me. Callie reached out to me on Building Bridges, she didn’t know who I was at first, only that I had lost a son. Our stories were so similar, she was hoping she could bring me some peace. It was months before we actually took steps to find out she had been the one to receive your brother’s heart.”
Trey began pacing, running his hands through his hair and pulling at it, looking to the sky.
“I asked her to come here and help us. To reach out to you and help you see that everything is going to be okay.”
“Okay? Are you serious, Ma?” He pointed over the top of his mom, “So that’s what this is? You swoop in, make people fall in love with you, and then what? Just up and leave town? Gypsy spirit and all that, right? No roots, no way to track you? You steal my brother’s heart and then leave a trail of broken ones in your path?”
“No,” Callie choked out a sob, “that’s not it at all. I’ve only ever loved one man.”
Trey covered his ears, not wanting to hear her voice anymore. All the emotions were strangling him, the pain in his chest stole his breath and refused to let up. He closed his eyes tightly, shaking his head and letting his anger take over.
“No, listen to me! All of you, right now. From this point on, I died in that alley next to Jamie, like I should have. I don’t want to hear from any of you. I don’t want to see any of you…ever again. You have all lied and betrayed me! How can I forgive you for that?”
“No, wait, please! I can’t let you go.” Callie rushed to him, grabbing ahold of his hand. Trey stilled, his jaw grinding as he looked down at their joined hands.
“I don’t belong to you anymore,” he snarled as he yanked his hand away. “Time to move on, Crazy Girl,” he added angrily as he rounded his truck. “You’ve done enough damage here.”
Twenty-Five
It had been forty-eight, horrible hours since Trey had learned the truth about Callie.
She had Jamie’s heart. His death had saved her life.
He’d spent the last forty-eight hours fighting against the stabbing pain in his chest. As much as he tried, he couldn’t make himself feel any better about it. It was the betrayal and the secrets that hurt him the most. At least that’s what he kept telling himself. The aching of raw emotions that swirled around inside of his head was driving him to the edge of sanity.
He jumped from his truck before he barely got the damned thing to a stop. Leaving the truck running and the door wide open, his voice boomed, “Callie! Get out here, damn it! I have something to say to you!” his voice cracking in the middle of her name.
Lauren was the first one out onto the porch and her eyes widened at the sight of him. “No, not you,” Trey snapped as he pointed at her. “I haven’t even begun to process all the awful things you’re responsible for in this shit show I now call my life.”
“Callie!” he bellowed once again and then returned his attention to Jamie’s widow. “But I guess I deserve everything I got, right, Sis? I mean, it is my fault that Jamie is gone. It’s my fault he was taken from you and Alex. Do you feel better now? Vindicated somehow? Now that you’ve finally hurt me almost as badly as I hurt you?”
Trey waved his hands in front of his face, trying to wipe the vision of Callie’s face from his mind like he’d tried doing for the past two days. He needed to get this over with.
“You know what? Never mind. I can’t even be mad at you. You’re right. I deserved every single bit of this pain I’m going through right now.” He pounded a closed fist against his chest a few times, trying to think of something other than the crippling pain that seemed to intensify the longer he went without seeing Callie. “So just go back inside and get Callie for me. I’ll say my piece and you’ll never have to see me again.”
“What’s going on?” Andy asked gruffly as he walked out onto the porch.
Trey threw his hands into the air, groaning, “Oh great, and now you. Well since you’re here, let’s talk about what a jackass you are. You just couldn’t wait, could you?”
“What in the hell are you talking about now? Look at yourself. You’re a mess, and you need to calm down and lower your voice.”
“Yeah, well I wonder how great you would look if you found out the only girl you’ve ever been in love with didn’t actually show up to save you from the hell you’ve been buried in. But to tell you the reason she’s alive is because she took the heart right out of your dead brother’s chest!” Trey held his hands up in front of him, “Oh wait, there’s more. Your entire family knew, but they just went ahead and let you fall in love with who you thought she was. They let you feel a connection, to become protective of her, and let your guard down…and it never crossed anyone’s mind to tell you the truth! How do you think you would feel?”
“You are so self-absorbed!” Andy hollered. “Callie is the girl you fell in love with. She’s smart, kind, and a perfect fit in this family…and for some unknown reason, she fell in love with your stupid ass. She is heartbroken because you can’t see past this guilt you’ve surrounded yourself in. Yes, we all knew that Lauren had made the decision to allow Jamie’s organs to be donated and it was the hardest thing she’s ever done, but after seeing and meeting Callie, why can’t you see it wasn’t Jamie’s death that saved Callie’s life, it was Lauren’s strength to make that decision. Don’t you think your brother would’ve wanted that?”
“Don’t you talk about my brother. I bet the dirt wasn’t even settled on his grave before you came sniffing around Lauren. Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Lauren cringed like someone had physically hit her, and Trey watched as her reaction fed Andy’s fury. “That’s enough,” Andy growled while taking a step in front of Lauren. “You want to be an asshole? Fine, be an asshole. But only to me.” He glanced over his shoulder at the house. “You leave Lauren and the rest of this family alone and lower your damn voice.”
Trey released a forced, cold laugh. “Or what? You’re going to kick my ass? Come on down here then.”
“Someone should’ve done this a long time ago,” he fumed as he attempted to leave the porch, but Lauren grabbed his arm, pleading with him to stop.
“This is such a waste of time. All I want is Callie!” he raged. He looked past the two standing on the porch and yelled once again. “Are you too afraid to face what you’ve done to me?”
Eve walked out of the house as calm as could be. “She isn’t here, Son,” she informed Trey as she wrung her hands in front of her.
Eve lifted her chin slightly, keeping her eyes locked on her son. “She’s not coming back. She left this morning with Jade. Heading home, I guess, back to the coast.”
Trey began to pace, shaking his head and running his hand through his hair. “You’re a liar,” he accused, pointing a finger in his mother’s direction. “She wouldn’t leave you guys. Callie! Come out here right now!”
“I’m not lying, Trey.”
Trey stopped, his eyes dropped to the ground and he clenched his jaw tightly.
“Son, that girl is in love with you. She may have come for me, but she stayed for you. And now,” Eve lifted and dropped her shoulders when Trey’s eyes met hers once again, “she’s broken and lost. She thinks if she stayed, it would only cause you more pain.”
Eve took a deep breath, filling her lungs slowly. “Now you can stand out here and yell her name all day if you want, but it won’t do any good. She’s gone, and she isn’t coming back.”
A heavy silence hung between all of them before Trey found the strength to speak again.
“I can’t believe you would betray me like this.” He shook his head before waving a hand in the air at all of them. “I’m done. I’m done with all of you!” he roared as he turned his back on everything he’s ever known and loved. His life, his family…Callie. His stomach twisted into a tight ball as he headed toward his truck with nothing but his mother’s sobs floating in the air.