Page 51 of His Bittersweet Regret

“Do you mind if I stay here tonight? I can’t bring myself to go back to the twins’ place.”

“What about the house?” Mom asked.

“Can’t go there either. It’s hers. She made it pretty clear that she’ll never accept it if I’m attached to it in any way, so I won’t spend a single night in it. Not unless she invites me to.”

“Oh, Marsh, what are you going to do if she never accepts it?”

“I don’t know, Mom.”

“Keep trying then. That’s all you can do.”

“Yeah.”

21

Opal

“Opal, I have some bad news.”

I stared at my best friend as she worked the kinks out of her neck. She ended up bringing an air mattress over to sleep on, which looked way more comfortable than my couch, but apparently wasn’t.

“I’m afraid to ask,” I admitted.

“There’s no getting out of my emergency room commitment this weekend. There’s some stomach bug going around and half the damn staff is out with it already.”

“It’s okay. I’ve made it through this week. I’m sure nothing will happen this weekend.”

“Girl, you better knock on some damn wood, throw salt over your shoulder, or whatever those superstitious people do. You can’t be saying things like that; you’ll jinx yourself.”

“Sorry, I just meant to tell you that it would be okay and for you not to worry.”

“Now, I’m doubly worried. Maybe we should put Joe on alert, just in case.”

I rolled my eyes at her.

“On second thought, just call an ambulance, that way you’ll come straight to the ER, anyway.”

“I will not call an ambulance to take me to the hospital to give birth. Do you know how much that would cost?”

Bethany picked her makeshift bed up and tucked it into the corner between my couch and the wall, so that it was standing up against the wall and held there by the unmovable couch.

“I worry about you. Can you at least call Ryker to come stay with you or something?”

“I don’t want to put him in a bad spot with his brother.”

“Then call Marsh.” She held her hand up before I could adamantly oppose that idea. “Hear me out. He is the father, and should be there when his son comes into this world. If you take away your anger for how he treated you, then you know damn well you wouldn’t forgive yourself for making him miss that. Besides, he should have to take at least some responsibility for that little guy you’re growing. So, start letting him.”

“You want me to invite him into my home for the weekend. That’s something entirely different than just relenting on the whole delivery room thing.”

“Sweetie, please, I can’t stand the thought of you being here alone, especially since you’ve had two episodes of getting dizzy while I’ve been here.”

“Fine. I’ll text him.”

She stared at me, arms crossed over her chest, waiting for me to do just that, as if she didn’t believe I’d actually follow through. Dammit.

Opal: Beth has to work the ER this weekend. Could you come stay in case I go into labor or faint and fall or something?

“There. Happy?” I asked.

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