Page 37 of The Road Back to Us

The flooring was concrete, but it was relatively clean aside from dirt and leaves that had blown in under the door. Nothing she could hurt herself on, though.

“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” Ben replied, his eyes wide as he looked around, taking it all in.

“Yeah, your dad wanted to use this space to fix up old cars.”

“He did?”

I nodded, the memories flooding my mind as I thought back to all of the conversations we had about it. I very clearly remembered the way his eyes lit up when he talked about what he wanted to do and which cars he would try to get his hands on first.

“What happened? Why didn’t he do it?”

I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him.

“He fell in love and got married. Then they started a family, and his attention became focused more on his kids, and less on cars.”

Ben smiled back at me, but it was sad and didn’t reach his eyes the way it usually did.

Thirty-Three

Lyric

Five weeks flew by, and I was more exhausted than I had ever been in my life.

I quit my job at Laroque after several serious conversations with Cole and the kids. While I had been nervous to walk away from a steady paycheck and start over on my own, it was comforting to know that we would be okay after Clay’s life insurance was paid out. It far exceeded the cost of what I needed to provide for the kids, while allowing me to put a large chunk of it away in savings for them.

I had been reluctant to quit my job because it didn’t feel right to use money meant for them when I was able to work and support myself. After a very heated discussion with Cole, it came down to either using some of the life insurance money for myself or allowing Cole to support me. Both options sucked, but I wasn’t going to allow him to take care of me financially, even if he was still my husband.

Things had been busy around the house as the kids neared the end of the school year. They still had a few weeks left, but the weather was hotter than usual, giving all of us summer fever. We had talked about trying to take a family vacation, but that wasn’t as doable as I thought, given how expensive things were across the board. So, we settled on getting an above-ground pool for the kids and had already put it up.

The girls and I spent most of our weekends outside, floating in the pool while the guys fixed up the barn. When Ben told me he wanted to convert it into office space for me, I cried so hard I scared Chloe. But in all fairness, it had been a lot for me to process all of the love and support they had given me in the time I’d been there. Most of the time, I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t worthy of it because I hadn’t been there when they needed me.

When I wasn’t working on the fashion stuff, I was knee deep in taking care of Chloe, Rufus, Magnolia, and Squirtle—the one-eyed beta fish Chloe had convinced Cole to buy for her at the pet store. They had gone in for stuff for the goats and came out with something new I had to try to keep alive.

I closed my sketchbook and put it away, feeling a wave of nausea wash over me. I’d been feeling sick all morning and hadn’t been able to eat breakfast or lunch. I knew I would need to eat something soon to avoid a migraine, but nothing sounded good. Cole was planning to grill for dinner, but even hot dogs and hamburgers made me want to barf.

Just thinking about it had me rushing to the bathroom, not having time to close the door behind me as I knelt in front of the toilet and threw up.

“Aunt Lyric?” Kara called as she walked into the bathroom.

I couldn’t answer her as I threw up again, surprising myself that there was anything left to throw up, given I hadn’t eaten much.

“In here,” I answered, wiping my mouth with a tissue as I flushed the toilet and stood up.

Kara walked in, her eyebrows immediately narrowing in concern.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I replied, leaning over the sink as I splashed cold water on my face. “I think I caught some sort of stomach bug.”

“Oh no. Do you want me to get Uncle Cole?”

“No, but thank you. I’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll pass soon.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding her head as she listened. “He wanted me to tell you that dinner is ready.”

“Thanks. I’ll be out in a few. You guys can get started without me. I’m not sure I’ll be able to eat anything and hold it down.”

Kara offered me a soft smile before leaving.