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Blake laughed too, and it was exactly what they both needed. “You’re right, Dad,” Tommy said through the chuckles. “No hospitals this year.”
Blake sobered, the love he had for his son overflowing again. “You’re almost fourteen,” he said. “Your brain has fallen out and is rattling around under your bed. I love you anyway. Okay? So you messed up with a girl this summer. Big deal. You lied to me about where you were going. Okay, we fixed that. Now, we’ve got this move, and it’s going to be A Thing.” Blake had no idea how big of a thing, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy for Tommy to start at the middle school here, one month into the school year. “But we’ll get through it, because you have me, and I have you.”
He smiled again, and Tommy nodded. “Thanks, Dad.” He flipped over his new phone. “Thanks for this too. Who knew it took so long to set up new phones?”
They’d stood in the cell phone store for upwards of two hours, and Blake was still waiting for his to download the new software and charge before he could get all of his contacts out of the cloud storage. Tommy was too, and they’d decided to go to dinner while all of that happened.
He could only pray that Lauren would understand when he finally got a chance to talk to her. Sandra had given him her number, and Blake had called three times now from various phones. Lauren hadn’t answered once. He’d left three messages, but seeing as how he didn’t have a permanent phone with him at all times, he wasn’t sure how she’d call him back.
It’ll be okay, he told himself. Maybe if he said it enough, it would be true.
* * *
“You don’t want to come?”he asked Tommy. The boy had his eyes glued to his phone, his thumbs moving like lightning over the screen.
“No,” he said. “You need to talk to her, not me.”
He didn’t want to admit that Lauren wouldn’t be as angry if Tommy were there, and he faced her house. She had to know he was here, as his headlights had cut through the darkness a full thirty seconds ago. She hadn’t come outside, so he headed for the front door.
Her porch light flicked on as he neared, and he stood on her porch and rang the doorbell. In the stillness of this neighborhood, he could hear it outside, and he tucked his hands into his shorts pockets.
He couldn’t believe the past couple of days had happened, and he honestly needed a week to recover from all the changes. To absorb them and sort through them.
“Lauren?” he called as he opened her screen door and knocked on the wooden one behind it. “It’s Blake.”
She didn’t answer, and he tilted sideways to look through the window. It was dark inside, and he could only assume that she wasn’t home. He removed his phone from his back pocket and called her.
Again.
The line rang and rang, and she didn’t answer.
Again.
“Hey, honey,” he said, his voice as sugary as he could make it while so much frustration coiled through him. “It’s Blake, and this is my new number. You might be wondering why I have a new number, and I can explain it all the next time I see you.”
He went down her steps. “I really want to see you Lauren. I’m so sorry about last night.” He’d given a version of this apology in each message he’d left, and this was the fourth. “Call me back, okay? Tommy and I are headed home, and you can stop by there too.”
He ended the call and pulled open the door to the SUV. Tommy glanced over to him. “She’s not home?”
“No, I guess not.” Blake looked back to the house, something sad moving through him. He wasn’t sure if she was home or not. “She’s not answering my calls either.”
“I can text her.” Tommy raised his eyebrows. “Should I?”
“Sure,” Blake said. “Maybe she’ll answer you.”
“She can’t be mad,” Tommy said. “You didn’t know Cason was going to go crazy.”
“Yeah.” Blake backed out of Lauren’s driveway. “She likes to disappear.” His voice came out in a murmur, and a lightbulb went off over his head. Lauren was trying to pull away from him. He wasn’t supposed to let her do that, but he didn’t know how to keep her close.
Exhaustion filled him, and for once, he wanted someone there to strengthen him. Not someone to take from him. Not someone he had to work so hard to be with. He could really use Lauren’s love and support right now, and instead, she wanted him to keep giving, giving, giving to her.
It didn’t feel fair, and Blake wasn’t sure how much more he had to give anyway.
“Let’s go home,” he said. “I’m tired, and I need to shower.”
26
Lauren pushed her cart down the aisle at the hardware store, looking for a new outlet cover. The power had surged yesterday morning, and hers had been fried. She didn’t usually make home repairs, but she’d been able to get the ruined one off, and it looked like she could just put a new one on.
