April
My hand shook around the glass tumbler.
“Is that vodka?” Jamie looked at me with an accusatory stare, her eyes squinted, brow furrowed, and an exhausted Laurel hanging on her hip. Poor baby girl had been running a fever for two days straight and keeping my brother and Jamie up for hours in their luxury suite in Cabo, where we were on location. Finally, she’d been diagnosed with an ear infection. We’d visited the doctor together yesterday when I foolishly opened my mouth about how I hadn’t been feeling great.
“No. It’s still water, thank you very much. Sparkling makes me feel like I have to burp constantly,” I responded while telling my brain to slow down.
Jamie stepped closer and I reached out, brushing my hand through Laurel’s red curls the same color as her mom’s.
“She’s precious,” I whispered.
“You need to call him, Bill,” Jamie answered, being direct, avoiding flattery and conversation about my niece.
“It’s late there.”
“He’s a doctor. That means he’s used to odd hours. You know that.”
Walking backward toward the rear edge of the sofa, I nudged my butt on the top of the ledge. I was as physically uncomfortable as I was emotionally. “Did you really have to come on this trip?”
Jamie knew I was being sarcastic, but she still answered. “Yes. Your brother wanted his daughter on set.”
“And now she has a cold and an earache.”
“Yes, but that’s not why I’m standing in your room. She’ll be fine and so will you.”
“You should go take Laurel for a snack. There were cookies in the lounge.”
We were in a five-star resort, arguing in my room instead of having a cocktail by the pool. I guess that was what happened when you brought a baby to a movie set and ended up in the state I found myself in. This certainly wasn’t the scenario I wanted for my sister-in-law, let alone myself. I’d hoped for some R & R on days we weren’t filming. Lordknew that wasn’t in the cards now. My stomach threatened to empty, and I took a sip of the water, telling it to back the fuck down (in my mind).
“This is a good thing. Billy. Beautiful like Laurel.”
“Maybe…”
“Where is Frank?” She looked around the room for my shadow, who knew the truth because he’d gone to the appointment with us.
“He’s blowing off steam. I sent him out for a run before he got on a plane and dragged Cal out here just to sucker punch him.” I’d spent the last twenty-four hours questioning if everything would be all right, and Frank’s foul mood didn’t help.
“I’m only waiting one more day to speak with Ford on your behalf…because you can’t keep this schedule. So, I’ll tell you what—I’m going to take Laurel for the cookie, and you make that call. Do it while Frank isn’t around.”
She didn’t wait for an answer, and I knew why she was so good at her job, convincing people to donate money. She didn’t take no for an answer. Ever.
Pacing my room, I looked at my phone. After nine at night in Cabo, which meant it was after eleven back east. I pictured Cal watching a movie in bed, tired after a long day, or maybe he was at the hospital delivering a baby. We hadn’t talked since the night I retreated to my room without so much as a goodbye, after I told Cal he didn’t belong in my world. In the note he left the following day, he’d insisted he didn’t care and that he belonged with me. And of course, all I’d done was grit my perfectly enameled teeth and say to myself, “It’s not going to work,” under my breath.
I’d cringed when Cal, typically a gentle and kind teddy bear—except in bed—gave me a hard stare and asked, “Why do you say that?” when I’d referenced failing us. He didn’t get how much I’d failed us yet…
The only other communication, aside from the letter he’d written, was a text where he said good luck on filming.
Before I could chicken out, I swiped my finger across the phone and hit send call.
It rang once, twice, and three times before I heard a soft, “Hello?”
“Cal… I’m sorry…did I wake you?”
I was back to leaning on the hard edge of the sofa. There was no sense in trying to be comfortable.
“Willa, are you okay?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” I lied. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
