"That, my friend, is called kidnapping." I smile at her. "And I think you get arrested and put into jail."
"Ugh, fine," I say, trying not to ruin the last couple of hours I have with her, but the minutes fly by and in the blink of an eye I’m kissing her beside her car. "Are you going to call me when you get home?"
"I sure will." She lays her head on my shoulder. "And then you are going to check and see when you can leave."
"I will," I agree and the wind blows her hair into her face. My hand pushes it back and I kiss her lips one more time before she gets into the car. "Drive safe," I say, closing the car door behind her.
"Bye, Travis." She smiles and I can see that she is blinking away tears and I wish she could stay. She puts her hand to her lips and kisses her fingers and blows me a kiss before driving off. I stand here watching until I don’t see her taillights anymore.
I walk up the steps and sit on the top step, the pain in my chest getting stronger and stronger. I sit out here looking at nothing really, and then my phone rings in my back pocket. "Hello," I answer, not even checking to see who it is.
"Hey," Shelby says. "Don’t forget dinner at Mom’s in ten minutes." I look at the phone seeing that it’s almost five. I spent the last three hours staring at nothing.
"Yeah, I’ll be there." I walk back in the house and slip on socks and shoes, grabbing my keys and wallet. I don’t look at the bed, not willing to just yet.
When I pull up to the house, I see that all three of them are sitting outside on the front steps.
I get out of the car and close the door behind me, turning to walk up the walkway. "Jesus," Clarabella says. "You look like shit."
I shake my head, only my sister doesn’t sugarcoat things. "Oh my God, did an animal die?" Shelby asks and I sit down on the step next to them.
"Nope," I respond and the front door opens and my mother comes out and she smiles until she sees my face.
"What happened?" Her smile fades. "Who died?" She looks at the girls, who try not to laugh at her.
"No one died," I assure them and lean my elbows on my knees. "Why can’t I just look like shit?"
"You don’t just look like shit," Presley replies. "You look like someone kicked your dog and then kicked you in the balls."
"Do you need to be so graphic?" my mother huffs at her and she just smiles at her.
"Harlow was down," I share and everyone just stops even blinking their eyes. Even the animals in the trees sound like they stopped doing everything.
"Wait a second." Shelby holds up her hand and then looks at me. "She came down to see you?"
"I went to see her two weeks ago," I admit to them and my mother walks over to the rocking chair. She grabs the chair by the arm and pulls it closer to us and sits down.
"You went to see her the week after your wedding?" She looks at me. "You said you went to a conference."
"I lied," I confess. "I didn’t want to say anything in case she told me to fuck off."
"You slept with her on your wedding night and she didn’t tell you to fuck off then," Presley reminds me and Shelby puts her hand to her mouth when my mother gasps.
"What?" she shrieks out and I glare at Presley. "You slept with her on your wedding night?" She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Probably," I admit to her. "Probably. Because now I love her even more than I did before and it’s so fucked up." My sisters look at me with their mouths hanging down. "I broke up with her four years ago for this exact reason."
"You broke up with her four years ago because you’re an asshole," Clarabella tells me and it’s my turn for my mouth to hang open. "Oh, come on, you don’t think that what you did made any sense whatsoever."
"How could I have asked her to choose?" I ask, getting defensive.
"I know how." Shelby puts her hand up like she is in a classroom. "Harlow, I love you and I don’t want you to move back home."
"It’s not that easy," I declare, shaking my head, the pit of my stomach burning.
"But it is that easy. It’s like pick me, choose me, love me," Clarabella says, and my sisters all nod and sigh.
"Four years ago, I let her go because I didn’t want her to choose between going back home and being in this fucking spot."
"And what spot is that?" my mother asks.
"It’s the spot where I miss her so freaking much I’m unbearable at work. It’s the spot where I don’t even sleep properly because all I want to do is dream of her, and when I don’t, I wake up pissed. It’s the spot where everything around me seems dull, almost like it’s in black and white and she is the color in the world." The pain in my chest comes on full force now. "It’s the spot that I didn’t want to fucking be in and I’m here. I want out."
"One," Shelby states, putting up her finger. "If you weren’t my annoying brother, I would barf at all the things you just said. And two, why don’t you just ask her to move here?"
"She has a practice." I throw up my hands. "How much of a dick would I be if I said close down your practice and move here?”
"Well, if you are going to be as chipper and light-hearted as you are right here," Presley says. "Chances are that you are going to make everyone around you want to move away from you."
"You love her," my mother says.
"I do," I admit. "More than I did before, more than I will any other woman in this lifetime."
"I waited to see the light come back into your eyes," my mother says softly, and she uses her thumb to brush away the tear from the corner of her eye. "And when you brought Jennifer home, I was over the moon. I thought my boy is back." My sisters groan out at the same time. "Shut up, you three." She glares at them. "I kept looking at you, hoping to see the same light in your eye that you had with Harlow. I kept waiting for you to laugh like you did with her. I kept waiting for you to be like this." She points at me. "The whole time you were with her, you never had that light. You were dull."
"Jeez, thanks," I say, laughing at her. "Nothing like your mother telling you you're dull to brighten your day."
She gets up. "The answers are right in front of you." She puts her hands on her hips. "You know what the answer is." I just look at her, not sure when she says what my head has been screaming at me to do. "If you want her, go to her."
Chapter 24
Harlow
"I’m so sorry, Harlow," Delores says from the phone and I close my eyes.
"It’s not your fault you fell and broke your leg." I shake my head and look up at the ceiling of my office. "You just focus on getting yourself better," I say. "Don’t worry about anything." I put the phone down.
"Why?" I want to bang my head on the desk. Donna comes into my office, and I look at her. "Is this a sign that we should just go our separate ways?" Delores was transferring over from the vet across town to join me and yesterday while on call she fell and broke her leg in three places.
"No." She shakes her head. "It’s almost as if the universe wants to see how much you will fight for each other." She shrugs.
"Well, I’d like to sit down with the universe and tell it to fuck off." I put my head back and I can feel the headache coming on.
"In other news, I’m out," she says, turning around. "I will see you in the morning."