I’m in the kitchen refilling the salsa bowl when I hear Jake’s voice ring out over the chatter of the lively group.
“Hey, Knox?”
Something in his tone has the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
“Yeah?” I answer, peering around the corner to see Jake holding my cell phone.
Shit.
Before I can ask him what the fuck he’s doing with my phone, he says, “Why is your ex-wife calling you?”
The bowl of salsa slips from my hands and shatters on the spinning floor at my feet. Someone calls my name, but I can’t make out whose voice it is over the sudden pounding in my ears. Next thing I know, there’s a hand on my elbow, and my ass lands in a chair.
“Knox?” It’s Jake calling me, but all I can do is shake my head.
She wouldn’t,I try to tell him. But nothing comes out.
Except that she is. Her name is still lighting up the screen.
“Knox!” Jake barks again, pulling my eyes from the phone to him. “Why is Karen calling you?” Jake has never made hisopinion of my ex-wife a secret. His disdain for her is worse than anyone else’s, even though none of my friends are big fans of hers.
“I don’t know,” I reply truthfully, finally finding my voice.
Mercifully, the screen goes black, signaling the end of the call, but Jake keeps his eyes pinned to me. I feel so vulnerable, like all the pain I’ve tried to keep buried is rising to the surface, painting my features for everyone at this table to marvel at like a piece of disturbing art.
Somewhere to my left, Hudson asks, “Has she reached out before now?”
I shake my head.
I haven’t heard from her since the night before she walked out, leaving everything behind, including me.
“She didn’t leave a voicemail,” Jake announces. “Maybe it was accidental.”
That would be the cruelest butt-dial of all time.
I sit unmoving as he sets my phone on the table between us.
A sick part of me is dying to hear her voice again. The curiosity to know what she could possibly have to say after all this time is rolling through me in waves. But even if she had left a voicemail, I couldn’t listen to it while they’re here. I already know all my possible responses would be shameful. There’d be tears, or drinking, or throwing things. Maybe all three.
“Block her number,” Jake demands beside me.
“I can’t,” I whisper, hating how pathetic that truth makes me.
“Youcan,” he says, growing frustrated.
“You don’t get it!” I slam my hand down on the table, matching his frustration. “Karen was everything to me for overtwo decades, Jake. That’s almost your entire fucking lifetime!”
I feel everyone suck in a breath, pulling the oxygen from the room. You could hear a pin drop if it weren’t for my heavy breathing.
“Yeah,” Jake says calmly, “and then she walked out the door and didn’t even have the decency to tell you why. So, you’ll excuse me if my grace period for her bullshit is non-existent. Look what one phone call’s done to you. No one should have that kind of power over you, Knox.”
But it wasn’t just one phone call.
It wasthisphone call on top of all the other shit going on in my head. My internal monologue has been fucked up ever since that night at the karaoke bar and has only gotten worse since running into Taylor Landry again, not to mention our late-night text conversations.
Phoenix holds his hands up. “Okay, everyone, take a deep breath. I think poker’s over. How about we let Knoxy out from under the microscope, yeah?”
Hudson looks at his watch. “Yeah, sure. I’ve gotta get home anyway. I’ll stay and help clean up, though,” he offers while I stay seated at the table, too embarrassed by my outburst to look at my friends.
