Page 83 of Something Like That

“Nate said he had a heart attack. Right there in the front yard. Said it was quick. Probably painless.” His voice had gone flat. No inflection, no emotion, no life.

Tears stung her eyes. She blinked a couple of times. Crying wouldn’t help. And neither would standing here, staring at him like an idiot. “What can I do?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.” He shoved the phone in his pocket. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m good.”

Yeah, he wasn’t good. She could see it in the tense lines of his body. In the way his fingers rubbed against the base of his throat. In the way his eyes couldn’t quite meet hers.

“Nick?” She couldn’t help the way her voice cracked.

He shook his head and shoved the envelope he was carrying at her. “Can you give this to Em for me, please?”

She took it, her numb fingers closing around the paper automatically. He headed toward the front door.

“Where are you going?” She said the words so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard them.

He paused, but didn’t turn around. His shoulders hitched, just the tiniest bit. “Nebraska.”

And then he hurried through the living room and disappeared around the corner. A handful of seconds later, the front door clicked shut.

She stood there, staring at the now empty space in front of her. And then she realized what the hell she was doing—or in this case, not doing—and hurried after him.

But she was too late.

He was gone.

She pulled open the door and raced down the walk, the icy wind cutting right through her sweater. Goosebumps exploded across her skin. She got to the sidewalk, but there was no sign of him.

The weight of a thousand worlds settled directly on top of her heart. It was heavy and painful. Made it hard to breathe. And it was so much more painful than anything she’d ever experienced.

More painful than when her parents kicked her out to fend for herself as a teenager. More painful than when things with Kevin imploded. More painful than the current upheaval in her business and having to start over from scratch.

Oh, shit. What had she done?

She walked back into the house, her thoughts whipping around at a dizzying pace. She didn’t know what to think, what to do. Everything was so complicated. And she was afraid she’d just made it infinitely worse.

“Everything okay, Mom?”

Alex looked up at her daughter, who was sitting cuddly close to Hannah on the couch. Girlfriend close. “Yeah, everything’s fine.” It didn’t even sound convincing to her own ears.

Em got up and came over, Alex’s tablet in her hand. “You don’t look so good.”

“Nick got some bad news.”

“Is that why he had to leave?”

“No. Well, yes. Kind of.”

“What happened?”

“His dad died.”

“Oh.” Em flinched and looked down to where she was rubbing her pink fuzzy-sock-covered toes on the carpet. She looked up suddenly, her eyes wide. “I should have told him I was sorry or something.”

Alex reached over and tucked a lock of hair that had escaped Em’s ponytail behind her ear. “Maybe you can call him later this weekend? Let him know that you’re thinking about him.”

Everything about this whole situation made her ache. Even though she couldn’t hug him, she could hug her daughter. She wrapped Em up in a tight embrace, gave her a squeeze.

Em squeezed back, for just a second, and then disentangled herself with a quick glance over her shoulder. Hannah was watching them, but the other girls were engrossed in the game.