“You do what you need to do,” Badger said. “There isn’t any true or not true or right or wrong way to do this. But don’t just think of today and hurt feelings,” he said. “Think of the long term and tomorrow.”
“It’s hard,” he admitted. “I’m just trying to get through the day.”
“Well, if you screwed up as badly as you feel they have screwed up,” he said, “maybe find it in your heart to give them a little bit of distance. And if not, don’t even show up,” he said. “You have to decide what’s important to you.” And, with that, Badger hung up.
Continuing his sentry walk around the house and the property, Caleb thought about Badger’s words, realizing just how very honest and true they were. And, if Caleb needed to learn something here, with his cheating brother and his ex-wife, it was to let go. However that would look like in this case, Caleb just needed to walk away from his brother and deal with whatever Caleb had to do right now. It would be whatever it would be. When he finally did another pass, and he saw nothing out of the ordinary, and Graynor appeared to be quite calm about the whole thing, Caleb looked down at the old boy and asked, “What do you think? Time to go inside?”
With that, Graynor turned and headed toward the house. Caleb loved the fact that the dog was as instinctively in tune with everything going on around him as Caleb was. He reached out a hand and gently stroked him and said, “I sure hope you can hold on a little bit longer, buddy. It’s obviously been a tough go-around for her. She’s not quite ready to lose you.”
Graynor just looked up at him and shuffled forward.
Caleb understood that the old dog would come up to his final day, and nobody could do anything about it. Such was life for us all. At the house, he opened the door, and they stepped inside. He did a pass through the entire house, and, when he found it calm and quiet, he headed to his bed. Graynor came and laid down between the two of them and, without a care, fell asleep. Following his example, Caleb did the same.
Chapter 10
Laysha woke up early and raced up the stairs, took a look at the floor, smiled, and walked carefully across to the master bath. She quickly showered and donned a robe. When she came back downstairs, Caleb’s door remained open, and he was sitting up in bed, looking groggy. “Go get a shower,” she said. “We have to get dressed for the wedding.”
He looked at her and winced.
“I know,” she said, “but, once it’s done, we’re outta there.”
On that note, as he got up, she headed to the kitchen and put on coffee. There was something so very special about having him here. Just knowing that he could disappear after his brother’s wedding was enough to break her heart, but they hadn’t made time for any discussion about their relationship on a full-time basis or just how their future would look, if they even wanted a future. But how they would make that work, she didn’t know; it could take time. Nothing in life was ever fast or simple. She put on the coffee and then brought out bacon and eggs, figuring they’d both do better with a full stomach before they headed into this. As she cracked eggs and scrambled them, her phone rang. She looked down to see Jackson ID’d on her phone. She answered it.
“Is he coming?”
“Yes. Did you call him?”
“Yes,” he said sadly. “But there’s still more to discuss. He hung up last time.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s my wedding day,” he said. “And it would be nice if we could avoid confrontation.”
“Okay, yeah, I get it,” she said calmly. “Since when were you ever so weak though?”
“Wow, you don’t hold your punches, do you?”
“Why should I?” she said. “I had no idea you were screwing around with his wife at the end there, with him stationed overseas.”
“Yes, but …” Then Jackson stopped and said, “You’re right. There’s no getting away from what we did,” he said heavily. “All I can say is, I really love her.”
“Well, you could start with that. He said he now feels like he’s been a complete dupe to you, to Sarah, over everything that you’ve done to him. Not to mention that she was passing off your child as his, and you let her.”
“Yeah, that part really got me angry too,” he said.
“Did you know?”
“No,” he said. “I went on a long trip abroad. That was partly why we fought. I didn’t find out until I got back.”
“Well, that’s interesting because I’m pretty sure he thinks that you knew all about it the whole time.”
“God, no,” he said, “I was pretty angry with Sarah.”
“And yet here you are with her again,” she said in amazement.
“Yeah, but it’s different.”
“It’s always different,” she said calmly. “We are coming, but we won’t be staying.”
“And yet I can’t do anything about this on my wedding day,” he said. “I’m already an emotional wreck.”
Just something in his voice had her asking in a sharp tone, “But you’re showing up, right?”
“Yes,” he said, and a more settled confidence was in his tone. “I am.”
“Damn good thing,” she said. “I don’t want to be a party to you not bothering to show up on your wedding day.”
“No,” he said, “believe me. I’ve had a lot of second thoughts, but I’m showing up.”
“Good, so you either call him before we get there or you talk to him when we’re there.”
“Well, I can’t do that,” he said. “You know what that’ll be like, when I’m surrounded by people.”
“So you might want to get it over with first.”
“Shit,” he said, and he hung
