The fracture trenched deeper as she moved through the fog in her head to the bathroom. His razor was gone.
He’d actually left.
He’d left her.
The blood in her veins dipped like when an airplane was landing and there was that millisecond where the body was in free fall. Except the feeling didn’t vanish. The landing gear wasn’t going to save her, and Brek wasn’t there to catch her.
A manila envelope propped on her pillow caught her eye.
No.
She crawled onto the bed she had made that morning. The one they had shared the night before.
The seal on the envelope slipped open, and she dumped the pages to the bedspread. A sob caught in her soul. She curled into a protective ball, but it wasn’t enough. The pieces of her heart scattered to the wind.
He’d left the drawing of the lily he made for her…and his compass.
Chapter Twenty-Five
One Week After Claire & Dean’s Wedding
Velma crawled onto the bed, her phone against her ear, and waited for the tone to beep on Brek’s voice mail. A week had passed, and he still refused to talk to her. She reached for the drawing of his compass and pressed it against her chest.
“Brek, hey, it’s me.” She tucked her bare feet under her thighs, running a hand into the hair at her temple.
“Jase asked me to say hi…you know, since you’re not picking up his calls, either. Actually, he used a lot of cussing that I’m sure you’d appreciate, but I told him I wouldn’t be repeating those words.” She paused and pushed a pillow behind her head. It still smelled a little like Brek, so she couldn’t bring herself to wash the pillowcase.
All week, she’d called him every night at seven and left a message. He had yet to respond.
“Your mom and Aspen are worried, too. I get that you’re angry at me, but could you call them?” She squeezed her eyes shut against the reality of her new world.
“Aspen got your text, but she would really like to talk to you.” He had only checked in once since his big disappearing act to assure his family he was alive. Everyone was still worried, though. Velma had explained to them why he’d left, expecting them to hate her.
They didn’t, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do with that, so she decided to embrace it. Aspen stopped by regularly with the baby, and Pam called all the time to check in. Claire made it a point to call from her honeymoon. Claire and Dean had been great about the whole thing, even going so far as trying to make Velma’s spreadsheets a joke they could laugh about at future Thanksgiving dinners.
While Velma appreciated their support, what Dean thought didn’t matter anymore. The only man who mattered had left.
“I went shopping with Aspen for a baby swing after work,” she continued. “She’s hoping it might help Bronson calm down a little easier. I offered to stop by tomorrow and watch him for a little while so she and Jacob can have a break. Work’s going well. You know how it is.”
These one-way conversations were mentally exhausting, but she wouldn’t give up on him. On them.
“Oh, and Jase finally agreed to buy disability insurance.” She laughed, but her heart wasn’t in it. “He’ll thank me someday, if he gets hurt and can’t run the shop. I think I’ve also convinced him to do some commercial real estate investing while the market’s still down.” She paused, the weight of the oxygen in the room too heavy. “You probably stopped listening about two minutes ago…but, Brek, I miss you. Okay. I guess I’ll call you tomorrow? Same time. Night.”
Velma tossed her phone on the bedside table with his drawing and did what she had done every evening for the past week. She held tight to the black tee he’d forgotten in the hamper and inhaled her drug of choice—Brek’s scent.
The tears started. She let them fall until they wouldn’t come anymore.
Her eyes grew heavy, and she burrowed into the bedding, drifting until sleep took hold.
Her phone buzzed, jostling her from the honey-coated haze of fatigue. She fumbled through the darkness and slid her thumb across the screen to turn it on before she opened her eyes. “Hello?”
It sounded more like “’Lo.” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Hello?”
Silence met her on the line. She peeled her eyes open and glanced at the screen.
“Brek?” She sat up abruptly, a spike of adrenaline hitting her core.
“Yeah,” the word came out as a half grunt, half exhale. He sounded exhausted.
