Page 27 of Beside the Rolling Waves
“Yeah. I show up when I say I will.” He used the same, charming tone. But his words were obviously not kind or charming.
Why would he do that? Becky was being nice to him. And he didn’t want to fight in front of Rita. He didn’t want to fight at all. Yet with his words, he just said he did.
What was wrong with him?
“Becky told me her truck wouldn’t start. She traded it in on a car.” Rita’s words were slightly slurred.
“They gave her something to calm her,” Becky said softly.
“Why did you tell him that?” Rita said, and she didn’t sound like the happy, cheerful woman he’d met for supper last night.
Whatever it was had altered her personality. He didn’t like that, but he went around to the other side and pulled the chair closer.
Was it true? Had Becky really not been able to get there?
He almost told her that she could have texted him and let him know, but then he remembered that he changed his number. She had no way of getting a hold of him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” he said, sincere.
But he could tell from her expression that his apology wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Or maybe it just didn’t matter. Still, her words were kind. “Of course. No problem.”
“Maybe we should exchange phone numbers now, because…if I would have had your number, I would have tried to contact you.”
He could tell from her expression that she wanted to deny him. To tell him that there was no need for him to have her number at all, but she did not. Instead, it was like she stretched her lips and made them settle into a smile.
“Of course. Whenever you’re ready.”
This was not the Becky he knew. This person was fake and only being kind because she had to. Was this the way they were going to parent together?
He supposed that he wouldn’t mind. Just being around her was…so nice. It was so nice to be with her again. He just wanted to breathe in her presence. But he made a mess out of everything, and he owed her a huge explanation. Not just about the fact that he ghosted her, blocked her, and ignored her for five years, but also about the fact that there might be a child that he fathered with someone else.
Who was he kidding? Becky would never take him now. Not after the five-year freezeout, along with the baby. Obviously, he hadn’t exorcised women from his life, just Becky.
She wasn’t going to understand. He might as well not even try.
He had gotten his phone out and nodded his head. She rattled off her number, and he typed it into his phone, putting Becky with a heart into his contacts.
It was silly and juvenile of him, but… Even after all this time, even after everything, he still loved her. He could understand if she didn’t love him. He deserved that, but he still loved her. He loved her fierceness, and her tenacity, and even the way she was acting right now, where she would do anything for her sister, even be kind to the man she hated.
Her phone buzzed as he sent her a text. It was just a “hi.” He almost sent a heart, but she just would have been mad about it, and she wouldn’t have understood that it was a heart that came from his heart.
At least, he knew her really well. As well as someone could know someone five years ago.
“All right, Rita. They’re ready for you. Go ahead and hug your loved ones goodbye. As we mentioned, we have an observation window where they can watch. They’ll be able to see the babies born. The doctors will hold them up, but then we’re going to close the window, because the cancer surgery will begin.”
“Okay, I got that. When will we be able to see Rita again?” Becky gripped Rita’s hand in hers and stared at the nurse like she was a warrior in an enemy army.
“I’m sorry. I’m not sure. And the doctors themselves don’t know. We haven’t been able to do the tests we need to do because of the babies. But I can tell you that you should be able to hold the babies within an hour of their arrival. The doctors will look them over, the nurses will clean them up, and if they need to be warmed, they’ll be under some lights. But we’ll make sure that you two are as involved as possible. Okay?” The nurse was cheerful and perky and way too happy for that hour of the morning and for Rodney’s mood in general, but he didn’t need to let the blackness in his heart ruin her day, so he smiled and nodded.
Becky must have figured the same thing, because she smiled and said thank you as well. Then, she got up and hugged her sister. She whispered something in her sister’s ear that made her sister laugh, but Rodney noted that when Becky stood, there were tears in her eyes.
He leaned over and hugged Rita as well. He wished he had something fun or funny or cute to say, but he didn’t have anything other than, “I’m praying for you. I’m going to see youlater.” He made it sound like he meant every word. But there was an expression on the nurse’s face that made him think that maybe he was dead wrong.
“All right, you two. You can follow me, and I’ll point down the hall to where you can go. Someone will get you as soon as she’s prepped and ready.”
“All right,” Becky said, and she sounded as uncertain as she had all day. He wanted to put an arm around her. Wanted to give her his strength and draw from her. Two people were far stronger than one. It wasn’t a matter of one plus one. It was a multiplication that went on when two people were together. Ford had talked a little bit about that. Mostly in terms of business, but a couple of times when Ford’s wife had been in the room, he could see it in Ford’s relationship. Ford was more than the sum of the two of them. Ford was a multiplication of the two of them somehow.
That was not going to be Becky and him. In order to multiply, two people had to like each other and work together, and right now, he and Becky repelled each other.
