Page 76 of Pierced Pages
Then I can check on y’all tomorrow.
We can work out a rain check when Lila is feeling better.
There. That seemed like just enough of an offer without bugging them. Hopefully, she could help out with something before work the next day.
Before she could think of what she might offer next, her phone rang in her hand. She exchanged a quick, concerned glance with Jen, then answered the call.
“Hey, Danielle. Everything okay over there? Is Lila sick or something?”
“She’ll be fine. Hurt her toe last night and needed X-rays. But it’ll be okay.”
She definitely wasn’t imagining the shortness in Danielle’s tone.
“That’s a relief,” Morgan said. “How are you? That must have been a scare.”
“I’ll be okay.” There was a long pause.” I just… I can’t do this, Morgan.”
“No, no. Of course. We can try again next weekend. No problem.”
“I meant…” There was a slight wobble to the words as Danielle composed herself on the other end. “I mean, I don’t think I can dothis. At all.”
Morgan’s stomach dropped, and she looked desperately at Jen for help. But there was nothing her best friend could do. Nothing she could do to make this make sense.
“I don’t understand,” Morgan said. “I thought you said she’s okay. I thought after last night… well, I thought we were on the same page.”
“We were,” Danielle quickly added. “And she is okay. But what if she wasn’t?”
“Lila?”
“Yes. What if she wasn’t okay, and I didn’t know about it because I was off having a good time? They didn’t call me because they didn’t want to interrupt. I can’t be where they don’t want to interrupt. I need to be available.”
Jen mouthed,what’s going on?Morgan had no answer for that. None of what Danielle was saying made sense. Sheunderstood that she’d gotten a bit of a scare, but this didn’t seem like the logical conclusion to that fear.
“But, Danielle,” she said. “You can’t be with her all the time, right?”
There was a brief but pointed pause before the answer came.
“Please don’t tell me how to parent my child.”
“I’m not, I’m not.” But she kind of was. Unintentionally. But Danielle’s logic didn’t make any sense. “Listen, why don’t I text you next weekend and see how you feel then?”
“Please don’t.”
And with those two words, Morgan’s stomach turned itself into a tight knot that she didn’t think she’d ever be able to loosen.
“So you don’t want to talk to me again.” She caught sight of Jen’s eyes widening from across the couch. The knot in her stomach sent shards of pain and shock to the rest of her body while her brain struggled to make sense of this all. “So it’s my fault somehow that Lila got hurt.”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Danielle said, her voice tight with frustration. “I’m saying that I can’t do this, and I was wrong to think I could. I’m sorry I wasted your time.”
“My time wasn’t wasted. I just don’t?—”
But she never got to finish, because the call ended.
Morgan dropped onto the couch, struggling to grasp what had just happened.
“Want to talk about it?” Jen moved Reginald off her lap as he voiced his annoyance. But she ignored his protest and scooted closer to Morgan. “That sounded awful.”
Morgan could only nod.
