When I’d reached a bench on the path, my phone vibrated and I jumped, like it’d shocked me. I checked the screen and my heart immediately stated racing when I saw his name.
Suddenly, I felt like it would have been dumb of me to answer. Why put myself through this? Why bother, when it would only lead to nowhere? He was over ten hours away—miles apart with nothing to really pull us together again. Surely, nothing would come of this.
Despite the back and forth matters in my head, I lifted the phone and answered. I took a seat on the bench, worried my knees would buckle from the sound of his voice. My pulse thundered in my ears, my heart jumping to my throat.
“Hello?” I answered.
A sigh. “Kandy.” He breathed out, and even from miles away, I could sense the relief washing through him. “How’ve you been?”
I looked down. “Good, I guess. And you?”
“Could be better.”
I smiled a little. Vague, but I could understand where he was coming from.
“How was the move in? College life treating you well so far?”
“I’ve made two friends already, so I think so. They’re on the softball team. We agree on a lot of things. One of them is my roommate.”
“Oh, well that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, she’s a pretty cool person.”
We were quiet a moment, and as I sat there with a bouncing knee, I let all of my worries sink in.
“I’m happy you called,” he’d finally said, and my worries hit the back burner.
“I’m happy you called back. I didn’t think you would.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. After what happened, I—I assumed you would stay away. Never look back…”
He let out a tattered breath. “You know damn well I can’t stay away from you. I made a promise to you. Do you remember?”
“What promise?”
“That I wouldn’t avoid or ignore you. You said that things would change, but to not let it be for the worse. You remember that?”
Oh, yeah. That’s right. I asked him to promise me at the lake house. I was surprised he’d remembered. “I remember,” I said softly.
“I’m trying to fulfill at least one of my promises.”
“I’m glad,” I murmured, and I really was, though I knew he was hurting. He’d promised my dad a great deal of things. He’d betrayed him, and I knew that alone was eating him alive.
“Sir, here is the paperwork you were asking for,” I heard someone say in the background. I knew that voice. It was Cora. He was at work.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
“You’re working late,” I noted.
“Yeah. A lot to catch up on.”
We were quiet a beat. I could hear paper rustling and a scratching noise, like he was signing off on them. “You know, I met Cora that night…when my dad confronted you?” I told him.
“You know about that, huh?” he asked with an uneasy laugh. He was trying to keep the conversation light but that was going to be damn near impossible. This conversation felt thick and heavy and not at all like us. He went on. “How did you meet her?”
“I drove to your house to check on you. She’s the one who told me you were in the hospital.”
“Really?” He seemed surprised. So surprised that I no longer heard the paper rustling or the scratching of a pen. “Hmm. She hasn’t said anything to me about it.”
“She also told me that your girlfriend, Kelly, wanted to ride alone with you on the way there.”
Cane gave a bitter laugh. “Kelly is a bitch. Fuck her. ”
“I sent you a text that night too,” I went on, before he could rant. “She responded and told me to leave you alone.”
“She did what?” he snapped.
I closed my eyes and swallowed the bile building up in my throat. “She told me not to make things worse than they already were.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I swear, I am so fucking sick of her!”
“How?” I asked, opening my eyes. “I’d really like to know how? What does she have on you that is so big that you can’t just kick her out of your life already? I know about your mom and how she was in rehab, but you can’t control your mom’s actions, Cane. People will understand!”
“It’s not that simple,” he ground out, teeth probably clenched as he spoke. “I…fuck, Kandy. I’ve got shit on me. Shit that she knows about. And there is so much happening here and all of it is coming at me at once, and then that bitch wants to throw this shit in my face.”
“Throw what in your face?” I demanded.
Silence poured through the line. “I want to tell you, Kandy, but I can’t talk about it on the phone.” He breathed hard. “Listen…I have to go. I have a teleconference in ten minutes. I saw your call and wanted to return it while I had a little free time.”