“She won’t talk to you either.” We were starting to sound like third graders. I could hear it as it came out of my mouth, but I couldn’t stop it.
He looked at Ronnie and shrugged with a nod. “That’s true.”
“Well, good luck with that.” She raised her brows at me, turning back to Luke. “And I hear congratulations are in order. Where are the pics? I want to see this kid.”
Luke broke out his phone, and Ronnie made the line of customers wait while she and Luke cooed at photos of Colton. Even in my miserable state, I got it. He was a cute kid.
“What are you going to do next?” Luke asked after Ronnie had walked away to deal with the growingly impatient crowd.
“I have no idea, man. I can’t believe you’re not jumping down my throat for hurting her like you said I would,” I told him.
“I know you didn’t mean to. Lydia’s guard is up after last time. I think she blames herself for getting into that situation or for staying after she started to see the red flags. She doesn’t want to make the same mistake, and she’s overcorrecting with you,” Luke said.
“Well, wasn’t that fucking insightful.” My lips tipped up ina quick smirk.
“Besides, I can’t kick a man while he’s down,” he added, clapping me on the back as he took a swig of his drink.
I buried my head in my hands. I thought I had almost lost everything before. My business, my house, my pride… now I knew how stupid that was. Because it wasn’t until I lost Lydia that I realized how trivial all the rest was. They were just things. I could find another job, another roof over my head. I couldn’t find another Lydia Wilder. Not in a million years.
34
Lydia
Seven Months Ago
The steak was almost done, but Blake still wasn’t home. The potatoes were being warmed in the oven, and the roasted cauliflower would need to be thrown in again when he got in, but at least everything was made and ready to serve. I glanced at the clock on the stove and sighed. He would hate a reheated meal, and I really wanted him to be in a good mood today. I wanted him to be in a good mood every day, but on a day when I was going to tell him something he wasn’t going to like… it was fine. He would just need to deal with it.
I heard his footsteps coming up the stairs before the door opened. I plastered a smile on my face, just like he liked, and greeted him affectionately.
“Hi, honey. I’m just finishing up dinner. How was your day?”
He dropped his computer bag by the door and walked into the kitchen.
“Smells good. Let’s hope you didn’t overcook it again. I don’t want rubbery steak like last time,” he laughed.
“Let’s hope not,” I said with my smile still in place.
We sat down at the table a few minutes later, and I listened to Blake tell me all about his day. I was beginning to look forward to these daily rundowns. After I lost my job in June, I couldn’t find another one. Not one that would allow me to be home early enough to make dinner and didn’t run into the evening hours, at least not one in the art world. Blake had convinced me it was for the best. He made enough money to support us. And really, what was so wrong with being a homemaker? Absolutely nothing. It was even kind of nice for a while, to not have to work. But that got old pretty fast, and since I hadn’t talked to any of my old friends for months, I didn’t have anyone I could hit up during the day to hang out with.
Just me, in this little apartment all day. It was making me stir-crazy. Blake’s stories of his work colleagues and projects, his boss, or what he had for lunch were about as much glimmer of the outside world as I got most days
Which brought me back to what I wanted to talk to Blake about.
I waited until he had finished his story before I started. “Since we did Christmas here, just the two of us, my family invited me down to a Calla Bay for a big New Year’s Eve party.”
“Why would we go to some small town in Massachusetts for New Year’s Eve when we’re in the biggest and best city in the world? If you want to go out for the night, we can do that here, and it will be one hundred times better.”
“Yeah, but my brothers are really pushing for it. And Ihaven’t seen them in a while.”
“It’s too dangerous to drive on New Year’s, what with everyone drinking. We wouldn’t even get back home until after 5:00 a.m.”
“I was thinking we could stay there overnight. The party is also a housewarming party for Reid and his girlfriend, Claire.” I barely even knew Claire, but I knew that Reid was serious about her. Hell, I barely even knew Wyatt’s daughters, and they were my nieces.
“Family things like that aren’t really my thing. Tell them we’ll catch up with them another time. Maybe next summer or something,” Blake said dismissively.
Next summer?
I didn’t go home very often, that habit starting well before Blake. But after missing two Christmases back-to-back, I hadn’t seen my family since last Thanksgiving, over a year ago. Reid had been pushing me to come to this party. It clearly meant a lot to him. So much so that he even had Luke pester me about it.
