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“We can call her and find out.”
He didn’t respond.
Sighing, Delilah raised the phone to her ear and waited a beat. “Hey, Raina, it’s Lilah calling from Dr. S’s phone. He’s having a panic attack. Please call him back. Love you, bye.”
She ended the call.
He gestured to the phone. “See?”
Delilah rolled her eyes, set his phone on his desk, and retrieved hers. Then she placed a call, her eyes narrowed in his direction. They’d one-hundred percent gotten too close if he dared to look pitiful in front of her. He barely looked pitiful in front of his mirror.
“Hey, Raina. It’s Lilah again. I’m just calling you from my phone because Dr. S is still having a panic attack and thinks you didn’t pick up because it was his number.” She ended the call and tossed her phone with her stuff. “See? She’s busy. It’s not unusual for us to go an entire day without hearing from her.”
“How do you know she’s not dead in a ditch somewhere?” he asked.
“You sound like my mother.”
He sounded like his own mother:
“Annecigim, people do not disappear. What if he is dead in a ditch somewhere? Lucas, your father would not leave like this. What if he is dead?”
“Dr. S, you haven’t told me to get out once. I’m worried. Should I call an ambulance?”
Why was this even a thing?
He’d dealt with the absence of his parents. As he grew older, he’d learned that his father hadn’t tried to fix his health due to complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
On the other hand, while his mother had worked hard for the family, emotionally, she was often absent, but she’d lost a husband overnight. Then, while she’d always wanted to live in the U.S., it had still been a new and unfamiliar country. It wasn’t unusual that, as the oldest, she’d treated him more coldly than his younger siblings.
At the end of her life, they’d fixed their relationship. She apologized for not being more nurturing and had reassured him that, regardless of how she had appeared, she’d loved him with every breath she took. Peace followed her into the afterlife, and he let go of his contempt. For him, understanding and resolution had brought its own sense of peace.
People leaving him wasn’t a fear. If Raina never wanted to come back, that was her right, but it was also his right to track her down like a bloodhound.
Delilah’s mouth twisted into a sorrowful smile that only made him feel worse. “Dr. S, is there a reason you think Raina wouldn’t come back?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“False.”
“Fine, then. Me. Maybe I didn’t do enough. Things can seem perfectly fine, and then someone leaves. Things are good between your sister and I, but that doesn’t mean she’s happy.”
Plus, dick wasn’t enough of an incentive.
It was good dick, especially if her moans, squirming, and near-instant post-orgasmic slumbers were any indication, but this was Raina. Raina did what-the-hell-ever she wanted, and the most frustrating aspect of her personality was one of the things he adored most about her.
Still, what else could he have done?
There was zero tension in the house, the air lighter than helium. It was possible that he didn’t hold her enough, but whenever they tried to “cuddle,” they ended up naked, panting, and sticky. Then, there were the times he’d tried to give her a massage, and she ended up bent over the back of the sofa. She’d tried to return the favor, give him one, but he’d somehow wound up coming down her throat.
He returned to the desk and dropped into the chair. Worrying about something like this was trivial and embarrassing. All that he’d accomplished, and he was acting like a ten-year-old.
“I remember you telling me that your dad left,” Delilah pointed out.
He groaned. “And I regret it every day.”
“You’re saying it’s not relevant?”
“It’s not.”
