Page 53 of That Right Moment

I didn’t know how to make this better. I didn’t know what to say to cheer him up or take his worry away. All I knew to do was hold him and make sure he knew he wasn’t alone. I rested my head on his back and gently brushed my fingers over his shirt, feeling him move underneath them. I listened to his soft sobs as his entire body moved up and down with every breath. He was brokenhearted, he was spiraling, and I didn’t know how to stop the spiral.

Back when I was just “best friend” Madeline, I would have known exactly what to say, but now being “almost girlfriend” Madeline, I was frozen. I was scared.

“Milo,” I whispered, making him raise his head gently.

“She can’t, can she?” Milo dropped his hands down and looked at me over his shoulder, my head lifting off his back.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s something you are going to have to ask your custody mediator.” I spoke softly, trying not to show my fear. The night before, I decided that I was going to tell Milo I wanted everything he had to offer, even Holly, and that I wanted to make our relationship official. Now, I had no idea what was going on through his head. I didn’t want to add this to him, stress him out even more than he already was.

He sniffed and sat up, my hand still on his back. I pulled myself to him, resting the tip of my chin on his shoulder.

“I think the lawyer I had retired,” he mumbled. “I could probably still call the firm and ask. I have our custody agreement somewhere, and there may have been some kind of clause about moving…”

He looked at me. He was so close to me. I wanted to kiss the tip of his nose, but I forced myself to stay away, to allow him this time. I wasn’t important here. Holly was.

“We can call in the morning,” I suggested.

“It’s Saturday. It will have to wait until Monday, and I, of course”—he scoffed and flew his entire weight back to the couch, my arm and face slipping from his shoulders as he flopped down on the cushion—“I have to work. By the time I get off work, it will be too late to call them set up an appointment.”

“Could I call for you? I have this Monday off,” I said softly, knowing the answer was a big fat no. I had no connection to Holly or Milo. I couldn’t call to make an appointment for him or even ask legal advice. In this entire scenario, I was useless.

Milo shook his head and blinked a few times. “No, no, I’ll have to take a break or see if I can switch for a night shift, but that means we can’t have dinner…” His voice lowered, almost to a whisper as his eyes met mine. He had to make a call to see if he could find a custody lawyer, and he was worried about seeing me?

I took a deep breath. “We can skip a dinner night, you know—or we can have breakfast—and if you can make the call from here, I can make sure you have the time and a sitter for Holly once it’s made,” I suggested, grasping his hand with mine. Our fingers laced, and the spark that was there dashed up my arm and into my cheeks.

He bit his bottom lip and looked at the coffee table. He gave me a slight nod and let out a sigh. After a few moments of silence, his thumb lightly rubbed my knuckle, and his eyes met mine.

“How did this get so messed up?” Milo asked, a tear falling from his eye onto his cheeks.

I reached my thumb up and wiped away the wetness. His eyes were red from crying, and his voice cracked. His cheeks were flushed, and he had heartbreak in his expression. My hand moved to cup his face, and he leaned into my palm, softly kissing the heel. His lips were wet with tears, and even though my hand offered him some form of comfort, he was reassuring me at the same time.

“It’s not,” I whispered. “Hannah thought she was doing you a favor by keeping the news from you, and that clearly backfired. But it’s not a mess. It’s a situation that can get handled. We just have to make sure it’s handled quickly.”

“While spending as much time with Holly as I can, while working…while…”

“Hey.” I turned my body toward him and grabbed his hand. “Don’t keep thinking that way. You have time you can take off from work, right? You have vacation hours that you’ve never used. Maybe you could take Holly to the lake or to visit your dad in Depoe Bay. I want you to look at the positives here—not the negatives.”

He looked at our hands and then back at me. “Would you go with us?” he asked.

I smiled at him. “I will go anywhere with you.”

He lifted my hands and kissed my fingers. “I’ll call the firm Monday morning. I need to call some co-workers tonight and see if I can switch my shift. I need to call my boss and see about vacation time.” He sat up. “I need to—”

“Hey.” I pulled him back. “It’s late. Let’s try to relax tonight. We can start all these phone calls tomorrow.”

“Except the switching the shift…”

“Right, well that one you can make. But after that, we can watch another Marvel movie and try to have a decent night.”

Milo sniffed again and met my gaze. “Can I sleep here tonight?”

I nodded. “Of course.” I hugged his bicep and rested my head on his shoulder.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to try to find someone to switch his shift on Monday, getting a few no’s before he finally found someone willing. He now had until two p.m. to make phone calls and figure some things out, but that would mean he would work well into the early hours, only have to return again the next morning. It would kill him, but he would do it.

We ordered Chinese and curled on the couch together, watchingIron Man 3.He seemed to calm down a little. Though I could tell his mind was still racing, his body seemed a little more at ease. I couldn’t help but think that maybe I was just in the way with everything. It worried me that he was hesitant to cancel our dinner to make sure he had an appointment with a lawyer. There would always be time for dinners, but this was Holly. This was important.

His priority needed to be Holly. Not me.

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