Chapter 6
Dinner was strained and though Elna tried to get Scott into the conversation, it was clear that he was mad at them. He was made at her in particular, as well as his sister Gemma for their female prodding. He wouldn’t say anything to them that would tell them so, but he didn’t have to. Scott had an expressive face and it was clear to all that he was not happy with what was going on. Lisa had called Gemma about what happened and though Scott hadn’t said a word about it, the whole family knew what was going on. It was the way of them and there was nothing that happened in the Callahan tribe that everyone didn’t quickly find out about.
Scott didn’t say much to anyone, excusing himself early. He went to bed like he had done for a week, alone and missing Lisa. Again, he tried to call her, but again he couldn’t go through with it. It felt too much like begging and it had been him that had ended it. He wanted her back, knowing that she still wanted to get married. What if that was the only way to get her back?
He lay awake for hours thinking about it and at first light he got up and went to the other side of town where her house was. Scott waited outside for several minutes in his truck before he went up to the door. It was several minutes before he heard anything in the house and then a sleepy-eyed Lisa came to the door.
“Scott? What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you.”
“You should have called.”
“I never did before.”
“Yeah well things are different. You made it clear that you didn’t want to be with me anymore, so why are you here?”
Scott looked down at the boots he could barely see in the darkness. It wasn’t even light out yet and it was clear that he had woken her up. “I was just wanting to see you, Lisa. It has been over a week and I am lost without you.”
He heard a male voice from the other room, asking Lisa to come to bed. Scott’s dark brown eyes looked back at Lisa and the guilt on her face. “Sorry to bother you, Lisa. I didn’t realize that you would be able to move on so fast after all these years.”
“Biological clock, tick, tick. You didn’t leave me much time.” She was trying hard not to feel like she had cheated on him. He had gotten rid of her, she kept reminding herself. It wasn’t like she had dumped him and moved on. If he didn’t want her, why did it matter if someone else did?
There was anger in his eyes and Lisa remembered his temper. Scott looked like he was going to lose it and push pass her into the house. He kept eying the dark space behind her. She wasn’t sure if he was looking for the guy to see who it was or if he wanted to come in and see for himself. He was capable of either one and she moved to bar the door from him.
“I think you should go, Scott.”
“Yeah, I think I should. This is a small town, Lisa, and I will find out who it is.” His tone was threatening and she knew that he meant it. He would never do anything to her, but to a man, Scott was a scary prospect. What she didn’t get was why he was even there? Why was he acting like he cared when he had just as quickly broken up with her? For a man that she thought she knew so well, there was still so much that she didn’t understand about him. But the rage and anger in his eyes, she understood that.
As she watched him walk away, her heart broke a little more and the man in question came up behind her. “Hey baby, are you coming back to bed?”
She sighed and returned the kiss of David. He was a nice man and not too bad in bed, but there was something missing. There was something that couldn’t be duplicated because he just wasn’t Scott. If she had thought she had lost him before, she knew now that he would never come back. He was gone forever and Lisa wasn’t ready for that.
***
“Did you know Gemma?”
Gemma recognized her brother’s voice and sat up in bed. “Know what?”
“Did you know that Lisa was with someone else?”
Gemma sighed to herself and wished that he hadn’t found out so soon. She wasn’t stupid enough to ask him how he found out. It didn’t matter, he knew and she had known for almost a week. “You dumped her, Scott, after five years. What did you expect to happen?”
She wasn’t answering his question, but her lack of an answer made it clear to him that she had known. “I wish you would have told me, Gemma.”
“Why? What does it matter? You did a good thing letting her go, Scott.”
He made a frustrated noise on the other side of the phone. “Because I just went over there like an idiot to find some guy there with her.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Wouldn’t have minded a heads-up, Gemma.”
“Scott, she has a right to move on. You left her. Don’t want to marry her, why wouldn’t you just let her go? Don’t you want her to be happy?”
He did want her to be happy, but he hadn’t thought that it would be without him. Scott just wasn’t ready to move on, but it appeared that Lisa was. “I do, Gemma, but…”
“Why did you go over there at this time in the day?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about her.” It was just as simple as that and Scott then realized that he had made a huge mistake and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Well, I am sorry, Scott. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings if you found out. I figured you would find out eventually, though I didn’t know you would be going down to her house.”
“Who is it?”
There was a pause. Gemma knew better than to tell her brother anything. He had a temper on him that was worse than all of the other brothers combined and she didn’t want him to make any more rash decisions.
“Tell me Gemma.”
“I don’t want to, Scott. I know how you are and you can’t go around town beating guys up because they are dating your ex. That isn’t right and you know it. You have to let her go.”
Scott didn’t want to hear it and after he asked a couple more times, she still refused and he hung up in anger.
“Is everything okay love?”
She nodded that it was. “Yeah it was just Scott freaking out. Go back to sleep baby.”
Gemma felt him laying down next to her and pulling her in towards his warm body. She had a moment of need, but it was gone and he was back to sleep next to her. She stayed up for another hour until the sun was fully lighting the sky. There was nothing else that she could do, but her heart went out to her brother. Gemma really hoped her mom was right about everything working out and she couldn’t help but feel guilty about it all. Were they doing the right thing?