“Did he say what was going on?” I asked, wondering why he hadn’t called me.
She shook her head. “I didn’t ask either. But I’m gonna go...” She paused in the doorway before turning around and leaving.
“Kari!” I called out.
She paused but didn’t turn around.
“I don’t know what to do about everything that’s happened. I know the things you’ve told me don’t matter to me—it doesn’t make a lick of difference. But I need to know that you love me the same way I love you.”
I saw her shoulders crumble before she started walking again. “I love you, too.”
And I watched her walk out. I allowed the love of my life to walk out of my house because I wasn’t sure if I was the love of hers.
I listened to her car start and heard her leave.
I threw my Corona against the wall and it shattered everywhere, pieces of glass scattering around the room.
Fuck that.
My jaw working overtime, I grabbed my keys out of the dish and jumped in my truck. I didn’t know where I needed to go, just that I needed to get outta there. I was angrier than I’d been in a helluva long time—angry with Kari for leaving without some sort of reassurance. Angry at myself for not knowing what to do. Pissed as hell at Blaine for breaking her heart but mad, too, that he came back in her life.
Do I let her go? Do I chase her the hell down and make her talk to me?
I was sitting at a light, trying to figure something the fuck out, when Cane called.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Hey, man. Listen, I’m sure you know this, but I gotta head to Payson tonight. I’m meeting with my attorneys in the morning.”
“Kari told me. What’s going on?”
I heard a door open and close. “I got a letter in the mail today.”
“And?” I prompted.
“From my mother.”
“Well,” I said, licking my lips. “That even makes me speechless. What the hell does she want after all this time?”
I heard him sigh. “I don’t know. She wants me to call her or send her a letter or something, but I have no interest in that shit. She fucking left me when I was a little boy and now I’m about to have a little boy or girl of my own—there’s no way I’m letting her into my life.”
“So she’s had a change of heart thirty years later?”
“Apparent-fucking-ly. That or she’s out of money, which is my actual guess. Either way, I’m making sure everything I own is locked down tight. If I’d end up in a ditch like my dad, she’s not getting her fingers on any of it.”
“I feel ya there. Do what you need to do. Family first.”
“Family first,” he muttered back. “Hey, speaking of which—this isn’t really the way to ask this, but it’s me and you so it is what it is. I’m going to have a will drawn up for Jada and me and for the baby while I’m up there. It won’t be official until the baby is born, but it’ll be ready to go. We want you and Kari to be the godparents.”
“I’d be honored.”
“You’re the only family I got, besides Jada. I’d rest easy knowing my kid was growing up with you.”
“Ah, thanks, man. I appreciate that. I’m flattered. Really.” In the midst of my own despair, I couldn’t help smile.
“Good,” he laughed. “Alright, I see Kari’s headlights coming up the driveway, so I’m gonna go get my shit ready. Talk to ya tomorrow sometime.”
“Later,” I said, ending the call as I pulled into Casaar’s Bar.
