Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Soon. I’d have to cling to that and hope to God I found some clarity and fast.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Tony
I’d reached the point in missing Caleb where my brain and heart hurt too much to keep mulling over ways to keep us together. Consequently, I was scrubbing Eric’s kitchen like an army medal might be on the line. The more I cleaned, the less I had to think.
“You don’t have to do the whole kitchen on your own.” Maren, who was in town for one last visit before the college semester started, wandered into the kitchen and immediately started putting away pots from the drying rack.
“I like it.” I protested more because I was in the mood to be alone with my funk than out of a genuine love of cleaning.
“No one likes dish duty.” Naturally, Maren saw right through me. She moved from the pots to lining up knives in their wooden block on the counter. She always managed to sound far wiser than her years, an eldest kid trait I knew well. “It’s why everyone else ducked out after dinner.”
“Yeah, but Wren cooked, so they had an excuse. Rowan left to meet some kids at the ice cream place, and John has friends over.”
“And you and Jonas are pushovers.” Maren rolled her eyes. She’d missed dinner, or she certainly would have wrangled the other kids into helping clean up.
“Maybe.” I had to admit I wasn’t nearly as good at getting the kids to help as Sean or Eric, who both had that innate dad energy. “Jonas got called in for a shift at the hospital while we were eating, or I’m sure he would have insisted on helping.”
“Ugh.” Maren released a pained groan. “I was hoping he was still here. I need to talk something out.”
“Wanna try talking to me instead?” I wasn’t sure I was fit company for anyone right then, but I couldn’t walk away from Maren in obvious distress. “You’ve been in a huff your whole visit. Worried about going back and the start of the school year?”
“Sort of.” Her bow-shaped mouth twisted. Like Rowan, she was tall and thin with dark hair and elfin features. “Mainly, I’m worried about Diesel because Stephanie broke up with him.”
“Isn’t he still in the hospital?” Last I’d heard, Diesel was facing a lengthy recovery from his hiking accident. He’d had a few infection setbacks before finally being transferred to a medical rehab facility back here in Mount Hope to work on regaining mobility.
“Exactly.” Maren made a disgusted noise. “He’s still not back home with his dad, and Stephanie pulls this crap? And yeah, Diesel is annoying, but no one deserves to be broken up with simply because they got hurt and their injuries are quote-unquote ‘gross.’”
“That sucks. Poor kid.” Done with my counter-scrubbing mission, I patted her on her slim shoulder. “And I saw that happen too many times to count in the military. Some relationships can’t survive hardship.”
“And some can.” Her voice came out extra strident like she needed that to be a fact.
“Yep,” I agreed. Before this summer, I would have said very few relationships could last under the best circumstances, let alone medical hardship. But now, I was less sure about that stance. Eric and Montgomery had lasted right up until the end. Angel and her husband were the picture of happiness these days, but they’d been through their share of rough patches. And then there was Caleb.
Caleb, who made me believe some relationships could work out. Long-term wasn’t terrifying anymore. What was truly scary was the idea of never getting a chance. And unlike some fickle college kids, I couldn’t see either of us bolting in the face of a health crisis. In fact, when Scotty had been injured, I’d wanted to be with Caleb more, not less.
Maren gave a lengthy sigh that broke through my ruminating. “Anyway, I’ve been spending a lot of time at the rehab facility trying to cheer up Diesel, but I’ll worry about him when I go back to college.”
“Ah.” I made a noise like I understood, but we were wandering into murky territory where I wasn’t sure what advice to give. If I suggested that perhaps there was more than friendship at stake, Maren was likely to shut me down. I’d met her a few times when I’d visited on leave, and she was very much the type to keep her cards close to the vest. Never dated in high school, and if there was a college relationship, I hadn’t heard of it. The few times the other kids had teased her, she’d scoffed at the very idea of a crush.
Not unlike me. Funny how one could deny a thing right up until it smacked a body square in the face. And then, those feelings you’d always assumed were make-believe seemed like the most real thing in the world.