Page 41 of The Significance of Moving On

I don’t offer but Kelsey walks over to a chair and pulls it closer to the bed. She sits down leaning forward on her knees.

“How’d you find me?” I ask.

“You took off like a bat outta hell. Tal told us you fought. Jesus, Casey. You never came home. We were scared out of our minds. D called your friends while I called various hospitals around the county. Finally I hit and here we are.”

“How’s Tal?”

“How do you think she is?”

Not very well. Tally has a big heart, even for an asshole like me.

“She here?”

Kelsey scoffs. “Without us knowing if you were dead or alive? Hell no. She’s at the apartment with Daniel.”

If she’d have hired a heavyweight champion to punch me in the gut it wouldn’t have winded me as much as that blow. “Tally, withDaniel?”

“Well what did you want us to do with her? She needed someone with her and I needed to be with D.”

My brother never comes back into the room. Kelsey leaves when he calls her phone. She stands and bends in to kiss my cheek. Then she leaves. I rub my hands vigorously over my nose and mouth avoiding the cut on my forehead. It never occurred to me that D would be so hurt. God, I’m selfish. And what must this have done to Tally? Because of me she’s on Daniel’s radar now. The bastard can’t be trusted and I don’t want him anywhere her. Shit. I went there again. I’m tired of fighting the pull she has over me.

•••

Weeks have gone by since the accident and Tally packed her things to go stay with D. Once she found out I was alive, fear turned to anger and Tally doesn’t merely get pissed, she rages. My brother came to pick me up from the hospital after he saw Kelsey off at the airport. He wasn’t happy and had no trouble telling me.

Although I’ve called several times, she never picks up. With the concussion I had to take a week off from work before the doctors cleared me to go back because of the physical nature of my jobs. So much for the bonus I received for doing the Traverse City job. Hospital copays and prescriptions. At least I had paid time off to make up for some of it.

So the fact is, she’s been avoiding me and I deserve it. I’ve been too hot and cold with that woman for her to do any differently.

My birthday is tomorrow. My hope is to spend a low-key evening alone watching movies. I’m not supposed to drink with the medication I’m on.

The other day, I sat out on the front porch and watched the kids across the street, the ones who moved into Tom’s house, as they played tag in the front yard. I used to watch her plant flowers along the porch. She planted the wrong ones for the soil type and never used additives. They always ended up dying. It wasn’t until I approached Tom after she’d gone back to school, that I told him why they kept dying. He and I went to the home store to pick up the same flowers she’d planted, though with the soil additives to keep them thriving.

Daniel has been over a few times waving a white flag. A couple times with Demetrius and once by himself. I’m really trying with him. It isn’t easy because I still want to blame him. It’s easier to blame him.

Though, and this surprised the hell out of me, I actually invited him to eat dinner with me and he did. I heard through D that he’s no longer dealing and gets along well with Tal. He wants me to believe he’s changed.

The weather has been transitioning since Halloween. Now it seems winter’s approach is inevitable. I’ve been busy prepping client’s yards for the forthcoming deep freeze. Work isn’t the same without Jesse. His girl took him back on the spot, not that I thought she wouldn’t. He emails and texts. They’re planning the wedding for next summer. Jess sounds happy, but unfortunately that leaves me stuck working with Chis and Nick all the time now.

Today they have me—the head injury patient—up on the ladder scooping dead leaves out of the eve trough of a house big enough to fit mine three times over when it happens, the snow flurries flutter down and my cell vibrates in my pocket. When I pull it out to look at the screen, I’m stunned. It’s Tally.

“Hey. Everything okay?” I answer.

“Uh… I was expecting your voicemail.”

“Well I can hang up and you can call back if you want.”

“That’s okay. I’ve got you now and I just… well, I know your birthday is tomorrow. But I have a study group like all night so I won’t be around.”

“Um...” She hasn’t been around in weeks and I didn’t even know she knew when my birthday was.

“I just wanted to say happy birthday, you know, while I had the time.”

Cold and snow never bothered me before the accident, but now I need to get off this ladder and start climbing down. “That’s nice of you to think of me,” I say.

“I have a gift for you,” she says. What? At her words, I startle and my foot slips. “Whoa,” Nick yelled, but thankfully does it bracing me.

“Thanks man,” I tell him. He lets go and steps back allowing me to reach the last couple of rungs.

---