I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but something cracked. Very well could have been my hand. I’m gonna grab some ice.”
A minute later, I walked back to his living room and he was still sitting in the same position. “I couldn’t help it,” I defended. “First, I saw him holding her hand—that was bad enough. Then, when he introduced himself as Lucy and Piper’s dad, I lost it. I don’t even know how many times I hit him. He went over the railing.”
Andy’s head sprang up. “You punched him over a railing?”
I nodded and groaned, gently putting the baggie of ice on the top of my hand.
“Fuck.” He stood up and started pacing the living room. “You know if he presses charges, you’re screwed. It’s a contract year, Brody. How could you do this?” He walked back and forth with his hands on his hips.
“I told you. I snapped.” I crossed my ankles on his coffee table.
“Yeah. Tell that to Collins.”
Fuck.
It was days like this when I wished I had a normal nine-to-five desk job. My boss wouldn’t give a shit what I did outside of working hours, and I could just fucking call in sick tomorrow.
“I’ll talk to Collins. Don’t worry.”
He spun around and raised his eyebrows at me. “You’ll do no such fucking thing.”
“I won’t?”
“No. You won’t. You’ll wait and see what happens. There’s a chance this dickwad might not call the police.”
“Why the fuck wouldn’t he?”
“Think about it, Brody. We don’t know the story of why he’s back and what’s going on with him. For all you know, he’s got a boner for Kacie and wants her back. Getting her boyfriend arrested certainly isn’t going to make her run back into his arms.”
“First of all, did you just say boner?” I stared up at him in disgust. “What are you, thirteen? Second of all, don’t ever talk about Zach’s dick and Kacie in the same sentence again.”
He stopped pacing and sat on the chair across from me. “You gonna call her?”
“I don’t know. Eventually, yes. I just don’t know when.” I exhaled.
“Is this a deal breaker for you?” he asked carefully.
I stared off into space for a few seconds, thinking about his question. I would take a thousand broken hands if the knot in my stomach whenever he said her name would disappear for five minutes. “I can’t control where that asshole wanders around the planet, so if he showed back up in her life, that’s not her fault. But why didn’t she tell me?” I searched Andy’s face for answers. “Is she in love with him again?”
“Whoa.” He shook his head vigorously. “I seriously doubt that. Don’t go jumping to crazy conclusions.”
“I don’t even know what to think anymore, about anything…”
“What about your parents? What happened there?”
The ache in my chest flared up again. The only silver lining to the Zach bullshit was that for a couple hours, it took my mind off what was going on with my mom and dad.
“I have no idea what went wrong. They basically just said they grew apart and these things happen.”
“I’m really sorry about that. I can’t even imagine how weird it must be to be going through this now.” He interlocked his fingers and tucked them behind his head. “You think they’ll work it out?”
“Who knows? Supposedly they’re using the same lawyer and have everything all sorted out already.”
“Jesus, that’s one hell of an amicable split. Blaire and I can’t even agree on what date we officially separated.” He huffed. “Does Shae know?”
“Nope, they’re telling her this weekend.”
As sad as I was for myself, my heart was completely broken for Shae. She had no idea what was coming her way. Shae was without a doubt the most romantic human being on the planet. She was constantly watching sappy movies, setting her friends up on blind dates, and writing poetry about love. She was so in love with love that she became a wedding planner—a damn good one too. This was going to completely crush her.
At least we’d have that part in common.
“Hey.” My bedroom door cracked open just enough for my mom to stick her head in.
I sat up and yawned. “Morning. Are the girls already up?”
“Yeah. I fed them and their backpacks are ready to go. Want me to put them on the bus?”
“No.” I sighed. “I’ll do it. I called in; I’m not going to work today.”
The corner of her mouth turned down. “No call from Brody, huh?”
I couldn’t speak past the lump in my throat, so I just shook my head. Fresh tears started to build in my eyes, though I had no idea how since I’d cried enough to fill the lake out back.
“Okay, honey. We’ll see you in a little bit.” She closed my door and I turned to my right, staring at my cell phone on the nightstand. I was scared to look at it. So many scenarios ran through my head.
Brody could have texted to say we were done.
He could have texted to say he was coming over and we would work through this.
He might not have texted at all.
I took a deep breath grabbed it.
Nothing.