Chapter Nineteen
Answer the phone. Answer the phone.
“Hi, you’ve reached Leah. Please leave a message after the beep!”
I didn’t wait for the beep to come before I texted her.
Text me.
I didn’t tell her any more details than that. I knew I owed her more of an explanation, but I had to do it over the phone. I couldn’t just text her. I mean, she was probably mad at me because I had neglected my phone for the last twenty-four hours, not answering the phone calls from her, Axel, or my parents. I couldn’t talk to them right after the wreck, because I still hadn’t processed any of it myself.
Of course, though, when I tried my mother next, she picked up on the first ring.
“We’ve been worried sick about you!” No greeting, just scolding.
“I’ve been busy.”
“Too busy to call your parents? We’ve been worried sick with seeing Lawson crash in that race.”
“You watched?” I stood in the kitchen, trying to make myself some breakfast. I had tried scrambled eggs, but when they started to turn black I threw them out and went with cereal. I was grateful that Law was still asleep. After the proposal in the middle of the night, he finally agreed to go to bed after my standing there in his arms crying for almost half an hour. He didn’t want the moment to be over, but his body needed to recover.
“Of course we did.” My mother’s voice softened, like she was hurt that I would think she didn’t care about Law’s work.
“I just didn’t think you would watch.”
She tsked at me. “He is a part of your life and clearly one that will be there for a while, so your father and I have been watching each race. That man you’ve got is pretty good.”
I laughed at her and took a bite of my cereal.
“Are you eating while on the phone with me, young lady?” There she was, my mother.
“I’m hungry, sorry.” I swallowed my bite.
“How are you doing?” My father’s worried voice came over the phone next.
“I’m holding up. That’s why I wanted to talk to you both.” I took a deep breath and went for it. That was the only way this was going to work. “Something happened.”
I waited a second to see if either of my parents would say anything, or if they would actually wait for me to get out what I needed to. After a few seconds I started back up again.
“Law proposed last night,” I spat out.
No sound came from the other end of the phone. I pulled it away from my ear and looked down to see the call was still connected. When I brought it back up to my ear, there was a click like one of the lines had disconnected.
“Hello?” I tried to see if someone was still there.
“I’m here, hon.” My mother’s voice filled my ears and I hadn’t expected her to be the one still on the phone. Right then, I watched as Law walked into the room and I almost yelled at him for how he got down the stairs, but he made it over to me too quickly and placed his lips on mine. “Your father had to go do something.”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to cover for him.” I looked up at Law and mouthedmotherto him so he knew who I was talking to.
He grabbed his phone from his gym shorts pocket. Shorts I hadn’t realized until now that he had changed into. I squinted my eyes at him, but he just gave me a half smile, like he knew he got away with taking care of himself and dialed on his phone. He started talking to someone and by the tone he had I knew he was also talking to his mom. Most likely recounting the events that had happened last night. He sat down at the kitchen table, slowly sinking down into the chair. I didn’t miss the wince of pain on his face when he was finally fully seated. I stayed where I was so that our conversations wouldn’t collide.
“Have you two talked about any plans?” my mother asked, bringing me back to the conversation I had called her for. I had no idea what to do for a wedding.
“Not really, so I’m not sure when we will have it, but I needed to let you know.”
“Thank you for calling us, Anya.” The sincerity in my mother’s voice made me smile. It almost made me forget that my father had already hung up the phone. He didn’t want to hear any of this. “You’re his little girl, you know.”
“Yeah, okay.” I didn’t know how to answer her response to my father leaving the phone line. We had never had the best relationship, almost nonexistent, but it wasn’t as strained as with my mother. He let me do what I wanted, unless it was something my mother said no to. I had never understood why other little girls got to go to father daughter dances, but I had to stay home because my father was working late, again.
