Page 89 of His to Cherish
I scoffed and finished my drink before getting a refill along with a plate of nachos that Paige had picked up at Fireside on her way over.
We may not have been eating there, but I had no problems taking the food she’d brought with her. It was exceptional.
Later, after we’d finished margaritas and everyone had left and Camden and I had finished cleaning up, I realized two things:
Suzanne hadn’t had a single drink.
And she’d never shared her good news.
As I dragged myself up the stairs to bed, my stomach sank with the reality of how much she loved me, because I wasn’t stupid. She and Jackson had been married for six years and Suzanne had never not drunk on a girls’ night—or any other day ending with Y.
She was pregnant. She had to be. And probably worried about me and what my reaction to that would be, so she hadn’t felt like she could share it with her best friends.
I fell asleep feeling like a complete heel for making my friends worry, for not being the kind of person they’d been for me—someone who was happy for the others regardless of what was going on in her own life.
In my hazy, tipsy brain, I made a mental note to clear the air with Suzanne, figure out how to get my own shit together in my head, and grow the hell up.
—
“I’m so glad to hear he’s doing well, Beth,” I said into my phone.
“Yes, well, he’s getting there. And hopefully he’ll be home soon.”
I tapped my pen against my desk, trying to find something to say to encourage her. Shane had been in treatment for several weeks now and I knew she was anxious to have her son home, but worried about how he’d handle everything once he was.
As it stood, Shane wouldn’t return to school for the end of the year, but instead would be getting private tutors over the summer to help him catch up. He was coming home in the next couple of weeks, right around the time school was let out for the year.
But that was only schoolwork.
I was still worried about Shane, too.
“He will,” I assured her. And then I asked the question I’d been trying not to ask. “Has he seen Aidan lately?”
My stomach twisted into knots saying his name. I was still so angry with him.
She sighed into the phone. “He has, but not a lot. When I talked to Aidan a few days ago he seemed really upset. Have any idea what that’s about?”
“Mandy showed up last week.” My stomach twisted further. Saying Mandy’s name was worse than saying Aidan’s. Even thinking about Mandy made me feel unsettled.
She gasped. “That would explain it. How’d he handle it?”
“Not really sure.” My grip tightened around my pen as I flashed back to that night. I was saved from having to answer when the after-lunch bell rang. “Listen, that’s the bell, I really have to go.”
“Sounds good. Talk to you later?” She sounded hopeful, and I smiled.
Derrick’s death had brought so many more people into my life. Beth was slowly becoming a friend. Even if our main link was Shane, we still shared something that few people did and I was thankful for her. She might not ever join my group of besties, but it was good to know her.
“You bet.”
I hung up the phone and immediately dropped my head into my hands.
Pressing my fingers into my temples, I rubbed small, firm circles. My hangover from girls’ night had yet to disappear despite the amount of water, orange juice, and pain pills I’d taken.
It wasn’t just the lingering effects of too many margaritas that I was still feeling halfway through my workday.
It was Suzanne’s pregnancy that she hadn’t shared.
It was the fact that I missed Aidan. Still pissed and still hurting from what he said, I wanted to pick up the phone and shout a slew of obscenities until his head hurt as badly as mine.
