That was another great idea. Her lips quivered as she nodded, pulling out of his arms to call Heidi. She answered right away. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Hey! Are you by Angie? Can I talk to her?”
“Oh, no. She’s at home with Rick. She got in trouble this morning for mouthing off or something, I don’t know. So she didn’t get to come with us.”
Lucy began to shake. That liar. “What did she mouth off about?” she asked as calmly as she could.
“I really don’t know. I was in the shower.”
Covering her mouth, she closed her eyes, shaking her head. “She had a hockey game this morning.”
“Oh? Rick said it was canceled.”
I hate him. I hate him so fucking much. Clearing her throat so she didn’t sob into the phone, she said, “Can you have her call me when you get home?”
“Sure, but just call Rick. He’s home with her.”
“I’ve been calling all morning. He won’t answer my calls,” she bit out, seeing red as everything inside her burned. She wouldn’t bring Heidi into this. As much as she wanted to cuss the woman out and tell her to fix her stupid husband, she knew she wouldn’t. Heidi was a doormat. She was worthless and did whatever Rick said. She wouldn’t side with Lucy. Lucy was pretty sure Heidi wished Lucy and Angie would just disappear. But she saved face, tried to be nice, even though Lucy knew she didn’t give two shits about her. Hell, she heard the shit that woman had talked about her and Angie, saying they were a problem since the very beginning.
When, really, Heidi had been the one who was the problem.
“That’s odd. Did you guys get into it again?”
“You can say that.”
“You guys need to stop all this fighting.”
“Yeah, well, he needs to work on that.”
“Or you do,” she said and Lucy paused.
Taking a cleansing breath, she snarled out, “Can you please have her call me?”
“I’ll try.”
Exactly. Clenching the phone in her hand, she opened her eyes to meet Benji’s gaze. “Thanks,” she snapped and then hung up, shaking her head. Opening Rick’s text conversation, she typed out a message quickly.
Lucy: You are a liar and you best hope my daughter is okay.
Rick: Be real, she’s fine. Wait, are you threatening me?
Before she could type back what she really wanted to say, Benji’s hand came over the screen and she gawked up at him. “Let it be. He is baiting you.”
“Fucking shit!” she yelled, moving her phone out and typing him back.
Lucy: Can I please talk to her?
Rick: She’s busy.
“Let it go. Hopefully, your dad can pull through,” Benji said, his voice stern as Lucy felt like she was completely losing it. “Come on, let’s go get some brunch and then we’ll go have dessert with Autumn and River.”
“I want to go home,” she said, looking up at him. He was blurry because of her tears.
“Which is why we’ll go out.”
“Benji, you don’t understand!” she yelled, shaking her phone at him. “I don’t know what is going on with my daughter because her dad is a jackass.” Sucking in a breath, she shook her head as she met his gaze. “I’m worried.”
“So am I,” he admitted. “But you’ve done everything you can. You dad will pull through, but I won’t let you sit at home and stew in your worry. You’ll drive yourself crazy.”
“So I’m supposed to act like it’s no big deal?”
“No. Not at all. I didn’t imply that either. I’m just saying that sitting at home stewing and thinking of everything that could go wrong is going to make it worse.” He paused as he looked at her with a serious expression. “Do you think he’d hurt her? If so, Lucy, I’ll drive you over there, bust in that house, get her, and go to jail. I don’t care.”
Her stomach hurt, but she was pretty sure Rick would never physically hurt her. He had never laid a hand on her before, only Lucy, but it scared her to the core that he could do it. He had never done that before, though. He always let her talk to Angie or let Angie call her. What if she was calling for Lucy? What if she needed her? Her heart hurt. Should she drive over there?
When her phone rang, she fumbled with it, not checking who it was before answering, “Hello?”
“Honey, it’s me,” her dad said, and her body went rigid.
“Yeah, what did you find out?”