AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How?” she sniffled.
“I can’t go back on the road until my hand heals. What if you and I go down to D.C.? You can visit Wyatt when you’re okay, and when you aren’t, we’ll be away from everyone, and you can just do what you need to do.”
“You don’t have to come.”
“I absolutely do. I’m pushing you to rock bottom, but you bet your ass I’m making sure you claw your way out. And if you never want to see me again once you’re back to being yourself, I’ll stay the fuck away. Until then, you’ve got me.”
“Are you sure that’s not rock bottom, Serge?”
“We’ll see, won’t we?”
“One more thing?” she asked, her sniffles lessening.
“What’s that?”
“I need to move. Can you help me move?”
“Move? Like out of your house?”
She nodded. “Yes. For now, we can just store everything, but when we come back here, I can’t live here without him.” Her voice shook.
“If when it’s time to come back to living here, you don’t want to be in the house, I will personally make sure you have somewhere else to live. I promise.”
Forty-Eight
Friday morning, I watched as my band left to resume the tour without me. It was a bizarre sight to see, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that this was where I belonged.
Well, not here, as in location. Here, as in with Cee. Our location wasn’t permanent.
That morning, Mason, Wyatt, and the nanny hopped aboard Air Force Two with the Vice President, while Cee and I drove to D.C. like normal people.
In all fairness to the Davises, they offered to allow us to tag along, but Cee whispered, “That would not help my mental stability at all,” so there we were, packing her car. Except, unlike normal people, we did our driving overnight to cut down on the time stuck in traffic, so by the time we hit the road, it was already late, but we cruised right along.
She was quiet for most of the ride, which I found somewhat alarming after the last few weeks. I kept looking over at her in the passenger seat to make sure she was still there and breathing.
“The only thing better than Wyatt calling Mason ‘the Senator,’ was when he called his grandfather ‘Mister White President’ repeatedly with the press around.” I tried to engage her in some conversation when we were only about thirty miles from our destination.
“May that child never outgrow this phase,” she said, offering me a weak smile. “I thought Mason was going to crack.”
“I’m just sad we didn’t get to meet the nanny.”
“I’m sure we’ll meet her soon. Wy is excited to play with her. I’m both relieved and insanely jealous.” A few miles went by in silence. Then, she murmured, “Thanks, Gee.”
I side-eyed her. “For what?”
“Helping me be closer to my son. Physically. The last few weeks without him… it’s just been hard.” She turned her head away, but I heard her sniffle and knew she was crying.
“I know,” I replied. I wanted to reach out and hold her hand. Hell, I wanted to pull the car over and hold her my arms. You would think after weeks of being there while she cried, I would have built up some kind of tolerance, but every day it only hurt me more.
She’s not yours. My hand moved to her thigh on its own. I gave a gentle squeeze.
“I’m just trying to survive, Serge,” she said between sniffles.
“You’re doing it, Cee. And now that you’ll see Wyatt with his sticky fingers and chubby cheeks, you’re going to get so much stronger.”
Those were the wrong words because her sniffles turned into all too familiar sobs.
Unable to let her cry alone in the seat next to me, I took the next exit off the highway and pulled into the first parking lot. I got out of the car, walking around it to her door to pull it open. “Kate.” I tugged her from her seat and into my arms.
