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Rush: How’s everything going?
Oak: Everything’s smooth here, boss.
Rush: How’s Gia? Does she look okay? Is anyone bothering her?
After I typed it, I pictured a big gloating smile on Oak’s face. I didn’t give a fuck. I needed to know.
Oak: Your woman looks good. Came in on time, and I’m paying extra attention to her.
Rush: Is she sitting enough?
A few seconds later, I got a response. Only it wasn’t from Oak.
Gia: Are you texting with Oak right now?
Shit.
Rush: Yeah. Just checking in.
Gia: That’s funny. Because he just looked up at me, then texted into his phone.
I smiled. It felt good to hear her words. I’d missed her calling me on my bullshit.
Rush: I might’ve asked how you were doing…he wasn’t supposed to let you know.
Gia: The man is six-foot-six, inconspicuous is out.
I laughed.
Rush: I’ll try to remember that.
She went quiet after that. I couldn’t let things end that way.
Rush: So now that I’m caught anyway. How are you feeling?
A new message from Oak popped up.
Oak: She’s sitting right now, looking down and smiling. She’s good, boss.
I hadn’t even noticed how tense my shoulders were, until they relaxed hearing that.
Gia: I’m feeling good. No more spotting or anything at all. But I think I grew two inches around my waist overnight. I had to sneak into your office an hour ago and loop a rubber band through the buttonhole of my pants and onto the button. They were so tight.
A vision of Gia with a big round belly popped into my head. I closed my eyes to block everything else out and nab a better look. God, I loved her pregnant. It made me want to go back home just to see her belly again. And then…it fucking hit me.
Elliott’s baby is in that belly.
It was like my brain wanted to torture me. I’d feel like everything was fine, somehow forgetting the shit storm of late, and then it would thrust back into my memory with a vengeance. Those thirty seconds where I forgot felt so good, but it only made it worse when the truth slapped me in the face once again—like cutting open a raw wound over and over.
Rush: Glad you’re feeling well. Have a good night, Gia.All hell had broken lose.
I’d shown up to pick up Beth and Owen at eleven the next day, just like we’d agreed upon. But when I got there, the two of them definitely weren’t ready to go sightseeing. In fact, it looked like they’d both lost their sanity a little. I was tempted to stay in the doorway for a while to watch the comedy show going on, but that would’ve just led to further damage. Water was spraying full blast from the kitchen faucet, and the two of them were standing in ankle-deep water. Owen had a cracked bucket and was scooping up water from the floor and dumping it into an outdoor garbage can. Only the crack in his bucket leaked out half the contents before he lifted it from the floor to the top of the garbage can. Beth had two hands wrapped around the faucet handle attempting to stop the water, yet it continued to spray all over the place—including directly into her face. She looked like she’d been standing there for a while. Not to mention, a kitchen cabinet hung broken from its hinges, and was that…Cheerios floating in the water?
“What the heck is going on here?”
Beth answered frantically, screaming over the loud sound of the water spray. “Thank God you’re here! How do you shut off the water?”
“Turn the handle under the sink?”
She opened her clenched fist to reveal a rusted valve knob. “It broke off!”
“Where’s your main?”
“My what?”
“Forget it.” I turned around and jogged back outside. Circling the perimeter of her property, I found the main and twisted off all the water coming into her house. When I returned to chaos central, the water had stopped, and the two of them were catching their breath.
“What happened?”
“At night, we put the kitchen garbage can in the sink to keep it away from Mark.”
“Mark?”
Owen responded with a shrug. “Our cat. She’s a girl.”
“Mark likes to knock over the garbage to eat it,” Beth said. “So we put it out of her reach. She must’ve jumped up on the kitchen counter and knocked the garbage over and somehow turned on the water in the process. When I got up this morning, the kitchen was already flooded. I tried to turn it off, but the stupid knob broke off in my hand.”
I took off my shoes and started to roll up my pants. “Why didn’t you call me?”
She pointed to the corner next to the refrigerator where something was floating. “I tried. I dropped my phone. I don’t have your number memorized.”
Wading into the kitchen, I took the bucket from Owen’s hands. “Got a shop vac, buddy?”
