Page 69 of The Interns

“I can relate to that. The weeks I don’t have the girls are pretty rough.”

Reed’s beat up heart took another punch. He hated hearing that his brother was hurting when he’d been too self-involved to notice or check-in over the past few weeks. He tore his eyes away from the television and looked at Emmett. “You can always call me.”

“And you can always call me,” he said in that antagonistic way only a big brother could.

Reed threw his hands up. “Fair enough.”

He leaned back in his chair and caught Willa bringing her book to her face, probably to cover a smile or laugh at his expense. He was loved and certainly not alone, and he appreciated that more than he was letting on right now. If he didn’t care so deeply for his friends and family, he’d be searching for jobs up north and making moves to be closer to Maya after graduation. But he made a commitment to stay and help make this town a better place with and for all of them. He couldn’t give that up for his own selfish reasons.

“How did you know Cammie was the one? Back when you decided to get married?”

Emmet seemed caught off guard by the question. His brows raised, then furrowed in one seamless motion. “That’s a hard question to answer…looking back, I don’t think I did. I loved her, and I still do very much, but I’m not sure I was ever truly in love with her.”

Willa looked up from her book with alarm. Her quick movement left the pages flapping as the cover closed. She set the book aside and moved to refill her glass with ginger ale, trying to look like she hadn’t been shamelessly eavesdropping on their conversation.

“And I know she’d say the same,” Emmett said with a small laugh. “We were just going through the motions and doing what everyone else our age was doing. Pairing off, getting married, buying houses, having babies…I always thought you kind of sensed that things were off between us. And maybe that had something to do with your decision to go to law school and call things off with Joanna.”

If he had noticed, it was completely subconscious. Reed remembered spending lots of time at their house in the few months after his break-up and before school started. Eating dinner with them, babysitting the girls while they went out on what he assumed were dates, and meeting up with them at the park on Sunday afternoons. Not once did he sense something was amiss. For him, their home was always a happy place.

“No, I never did.”

“Even when I was the only one who didn’t give you a hard time about that breakup?” Emmett asked.

“For the record,” Willa started from behind the bar where she was now fully involved in this conversation, “we didn’t not support you. We were just shocked. You and Jo were together for so long and I thought it was a forever thing.”

“But I think that goes to show that outward appearances never tell the full story of what’s goin’ on behind closed doors. And in your head and heart,” Emmett said, again, in that wise way only a big brother could. “Is this about Maya?”

Reed nodded.

“I only got to meet her briefly, but I could tell you liked her. She seemed really nice.”

“She’s awesome,” Willa added, looking directly at Reed. “We love Maya.”

He perked up hearing someone else say her name and recognizing just how special she was. That was his Maya. “Yeah, she’s everything, honestly. Every single thing about her is perfect to me, and I can’t come to terms with the thought that we can’t be together somehow.”

“I don’t think you should ignore that feeling,” Emmet said.

“The problem is, she’s not coming back home. And I can’t just leave all of this behind to follow her. Especially not you and the girls, not now.”

“The girls and I will be fine. I assume you’d come back and visit unlike their Uncle Nate, right?”

“Of course I’d come home to see them. And Baby Reddy, too,” Reed said with a nod to Willa. She smiled and rubbed her hand over the barely there bump under her apron.

Emmett placed his hand on Reed’s shoulder. “Take it from this old man, now is the time in your life to be selfish and figure out exactly what and who makes you happy. You’ve already started that journey and now’s not the time to stop.”

Reed mouthed thank you to his older brother. The sound of sniffling pulled his attention to Willa, one hand still on her belly and the other wiping away a tear that was falling down her cheek.

“Why are you cryin’?” Reed asked.

“Because I love you Stanton boys and I want you both to be happy…and hormones. So many hormones, y’all.”

Reed got up from his seat and went around the bar to give Willa a hug and a clean napkin to dry the rest of her tears. He was the luckiest man in the world to have friends and family like these two.

* * *

“Reed?”

The breath he’d been holding while waiting for her to pick up came out as a white puff. He pressed the phone closer to his ear as he balled his other fist and shoved it into his jacket pocket to keep his fingers from freezing as he walked home from the bar.

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