Shiloh found herself feeling jealous of them. Not that she wanted another baby...
She was jealous of howrightthey seemed together. They were doing it right. They loved each other. (A fly on the wall would have said the same thing about Ryan and Shiloh...)
And she was jealous of what they were offering Otis. The attention of two parents. The same house seven nights a week.
Shiloh didn’t like feeling this way. She was sort of glad that Mikey was too busy now to invite her to parties.
Thirty-One
Shiloh answered the phone before she was awake. She thought it must be Ryan. “Hello?”
“Shiloh?” It wasn’t Ryan.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Cary.”
“Cary?Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m sorry I woke you. I, um— My mom—”
“Is she okay?”
“No. Actually. She fell, and she’s been waiting for someone to come home. I think it must be bad for her to reach out to me, but she won’t let me call 911—and now she won’t pick up the phone.”
“I’ll go over there,” Shiloh said. “I’ll go now.”
“Okay.” He sounded relieved. “Thank you. There’s a key in the mailbox. Not the actual mailbox. The old one, inside the porch.”
“Got it.”
“I really appreciate this, Shiloh.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call you when I get there.”
“I know you don’t like dogs—”
“I’ll be okay.”
“If it doesn’t feel safe, just call 911. Call 911 if you have to, anyway.”
“I’ll call you when I’m there,” Shiloh said again.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Bye.” Shiloh hung up and looked at the time—3a.m.
The kids were at Ryan’s. She threw on clothes and went down to tell her mom where she was going. “I’ll come with you,” her mom said.
Shiloh almost told her to go back to sleep, then reconsidered. “That might be a good idea, thanks.”
Shiloh grabbed some cheese sticks from the fridge. Her mom walked into the kitchen, wearing a pajama shirt and sweatpants.
“Dogs can have cheese, right?” Shiloh asked.
When they got to Cary’s house, there were no cars in the driveway. The dogs went nuts when they heard people on the porch.
“You talk to the dogs,” Shiloh said, handing her mom the cheese sticks and fishing out the key.
