Page 50 of Letters to Lily

We both piled back into the truck and stayed parked at the house, which led me to believe that they would not be back soon. “No, they actually won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“Damn it!” I huffed out. “Okay, well, I’ve known Sasha since the fourth grade…” I started my story and he let fly an audible string of curse words that would make any sailor proud, but then shut his mouth and listened as I told him pretty much everything that brought us to this moment.

“How absolutely fucked is that scenario? Do you know what she’s been thinking this whole time? That you just took off, without a word. Some dude you used to room with told her you left her because you wanted to get away from her crazy ass so bad that you moved across country.”

“I’m going to kill that fucker the next time I see him, believe me.”

“Dude, I don’t even know what to say about this. I didn’t put it together before, because she never says your name. It’s like her and Kristin formed a pact to never say it. Kristin refers to you as ‘the baby daddy’ and Sasha just says her ‘ex’ or ‘the baby’s dad’ when she talks about you.” I’m not ashamed to say I flinched when he referred to me as Sasha’s ex-boyfriend. “To make matters worse, Brad always calls her Prego, so you never heard her name either, huh?”

“Believe me, if he’d ever once said it, I would have been all over that.”

“I do.” He looked me directly in the eye then. “I do believe you. I have no clue how Brad’s going to react to all this though. That guy’s been falling hard for her ever since he met her. It’s probably going to devastate him that you’re the ex-boyfriend that she’s been talking about.” Again, I felt a little sick at his admission. Not that I hadn’t thought about that very scenario last night when I was trying to decide if Brad was ignoring my calls and texts because he wanted to keep Sasha for himself.

“Do you know where she is tonight?” I had to ask, because I honestly don’t know if my heart will take another wait now that I know she’s so damn close.

“Listen,” he sighed out while looking at me with regret in his eyes. “I was told specifically not to give her location.” I don’t know if he sees the frustration building or what, but the next thing I know he’s adding on, “Look, Sasha had a really bad day today. I mean the horrible kind of shit-show day that ends in a person not even being able to come back to their own house. She’s taking it easy right now, and I know you’re going crazy inside wanting to talk to her after all this time, but I’m going to ask you to think about her and wait one more day. I honestly don’t think it would be good for her health, or the baby’s, if you were to show up where she is.”

“Can you just tell me if she is all right? I caught some of your side of the conversation and you seemed worried.”

“She told me everything was ok, but she’s resting right now. Like I said, she had a bad day, and obviously the rest of her week has been a bit stressful too, considering. That’s all I can give you, man. You do at least know where she lives now. So, you know you’ll see her soon.”

“I can’t believe she got away so easily from the diner the other day. I was in complete shock. An old high school friend told me recently that she was pregnant, but I had also heard from a few people that she was seeing someone else. I thought her new boyfriend got her pregnant, but then I saw how big she was in the diner, and I froze. I was literally doing math in my head, and processing what I was seeing with the timeline of when we were together. Then she slipped through my hands before I could pull my head out of my ass long enough to chase after her. Every minute since, has been pure fucking torture, Mal.”

Oct. 31

“Hey man, my phone dropped while I was sleeping on the bus, and I couldn’t find it until after the game. I saw you called and texted a bunch though. What the hell is going on?”

“Are you back?” I asked Brad. “I’d rather talk in person.”

“Nah, should be back in a little less than an hour, but a friend of mine is in the hospital so I’ll be heading straight there when I get in.”

A lump of fear and anxiety formed in my throat at his admission. “Are they okay?”

“Yeah, some staples to the head, bruised tailbone and hip, but I think the doc was just being cautious because she took a nasty fall on the stairs at school.” I physically relaxed then. There was no way he was talking about Sasha. She wouldn’t still be in school while she was that far along in her pregnancy.

“So, did you still want to wait? I’m not sure how long I’ll be held up at the hospital. I’m sure Prego’s gonna want some food runs done or something until they release her. Pretty sure hospitals don’t cater to pregnancy cravings.”

I swallowed my damn tongue as his words sent a cold knot of dread to settle in my stomach. “Brad?” I needed his full attention for the next part of what I was about to say.

“Yeah?” I have no doubt the fear was evident in my voice.

“Is Prego… is she Sasha?”

“Yeah, how did…” There was dead silence for a minute. “No!” He all but yelled into the phone. “Tell me that it’s not you!”

“It’s not what you think, at least…” I sighed. “I need to know she’s okay.”

“Funny how that hasn’t been your concern before now, brother,” he spat out at me.

“I didn’t know. There was a huge clusterfuck of miscommunication. I have an ex-roommate who was behind most of it, and he’s going to pay dearly when I find him again. Trust me. I wanted to tell you in person, because it’s all too fucking unreal and a long ass story from both sides, apparently.”

“Jesus, Kade…” he breathed out.

“Can you give me her number?”

“I’m pretty sure her phone just died; I was talking to her before I called you. And no, I won’t. Sorry. That has to come from her, man. If she wants you to have it, she’ll give it to you.”

“I understand.” I hung up and snagged my keys. It was time to go get my girl from the hospital.

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