“Hey, stranger.”
I jump, hitting my head on the frame of my car. “Ow… Shit,” I say as I rub my head.
“Damn it.” Liam reaches for me, turning me around. His face is covered with concern. “Let me see.” He moves his hand to my head, inspecting where my hand is rubbing. “I don’t see any blood. I’m sorry, Whitney,” He rubs his thumb over the lump, and I pull back.
“Lord, that hurts.”
“Shit–sorry.”
My face scrunches as I pull from his hold, continuing to rub my head. “It’s all right. Damn, it hurts, though.”
“How have you been? Well, besides the obvious,” he says as he points to my head.
“Good. I’m here grabbing some more clothes and grabbing my laptop. Do you wanna come in?”
“Yeah. Sure.” He follows me in.
Opening my fridge, I pull out a beer for him and a cider for myself. Once I pop the top off both, I hand Liam his and take a drink of my own. “What’s been up with you?” I ask as I lean my hip on the kitchen counter. Liam’s at the bar, sitting on one of my stools.
“Nothing much. I’ve been focusing on the kids. Priscilla was served with divorce papers a couple of days ago.”
“What? Why didn’t you call and tell me?”
He shrugs, taking a sip of his beer before putting it down on the counter. “I didn’t want to interfere.”
“Liam, if you and I are going to have a go at this friendship thing, you need to learn to share. I would have loved to have seen that.”
“Yeah, well then I’m sure you’re going to enjoy me telling you about the phone call I received after she got the papers.”
“You need to spill, now.”
And he does. He tells me about the drama that has been his life over the past few days. You’d think Priscilla had been served weeks ago with the shit storm she’s trying to bring into Liam’s life. She even went as far as complaining to his commanding officer. That’s just something you don’t do. I’m a civilian, and I know that. I catch him up on everything that’s going on with Heath. He asks about my feelings on my marriage, Charlie heading back overseas, and what my future might hold.
I sit, pulling my feet under me. “Heath and I are in a good place right now. We’ve been getting along, talking about life and things other than the mundane stuff. The kids seem happy. I think Charlie is a bit more confident because things at the house are going so well.”
“Are you going to continue to stay there?”
I nod, “I’m moving home.”
He gives me a genuine smile, making his eyes sparkle. “That’s great, Whitney. I’m not going to say I’m not bummed. I liked having you around but ever since Heath had his heart attack, I’ve seen you be the wife you’re meant to be. You’ve put those kid and your husband first while keeping true to yourself. No questions asked. Looking from the outside in, you’d never know that you two were separated.”
“Thanks, Liam. I’m sure we’ll still have our ups and downs, and I know there are going to be setbacks, but I feel it in my gut that this is the right thing to do. It’s the right time to take back my marriage.”
School’s been dismissed for two hours now, and I’m still buried in a pile of papers that’s taken over my desk. This is why I can’t stand to take time off. The subs come in here without any consideration since it’s not really their class. These papers should have been graded and filed in each student’s file, but instead, they’ve been piling up. I can’t believe I haven’t had a parent reach out to me, asking about their student’s grades because that hasn’t been updated in weeks. I physically growl out in frustration.
“Whoa there, tiger.”
My head snaps up, and I see the last person I expected to see–Heath. I push from my chair, striding over to him. I wrap my arms around him and rest my head on his chest. I take a moment to listen to the thump of his heart.
“What’s wrong?” I turn my head, resting my chin on his chest so I can look up to him. “Why are you here?”
He chuckles as he gives my body a squeeze. “A man has one heart attack and the first thing people ask when they see him is if something’s wrong.” He shakes his head, “Everything with me is fine, Whit. I’m here about you.”
I take a step back, crossing my hands over my chest. “What do you mean, this is about me?”
“I spent the afternoon with Steve.”
“Yes, I know. I was there this morning when you made the plans, remember? You and Steve were supposed to have lunch.” I bring my hand up and fiddle with my necklace. I’m unsure of where this is going.
“Yes. He took me to the office too. I wanted to show my face. Get some things from the office that I need at home.”
“All right… Still not sure what this has to do with me.”
“He informed me that you let the New York publishing deal go.”
I can feel the color drop from my face because I now know I have to tell him the truth. I was going to sugar coat it when the time came. I don’t want him to feel guilty for my decision because, ultimately, it was mine. Harold was more than willing to extend my option, again. He told me during one conversation that he’d fly my editor out to work with me for a few days, but I couldn’t do it.
I clear my throat before I make an effort to speak. “Yes, that’s right.” I choose this time to take a seat, needing more space between Heath and me. I try to distract myself with the papers that I’m mindlessly straightening.
“Why?”
This entire thing is coming out of left field for me. In the past, Heath never approached me on things when it came to my writing. He always acted like it didn’t exist. I know this is him being more in tune with the things that matter to me, but I’m a bit shocked that he’s showing this much concern about a decision I made when we weren’t technically together.
I bite the inside of my cheek as I continue to fiddle with the papers. “It wasn’t the right time for me,” I finally say.
“Why?” he asks again.
I swallow down the emotion so that I can talk to him about this without any reaction on my part. I don’t need him pissed off at himself. “Listen, they needed too much from me in too little of time. I’m a teacher first before I’m an author, and they hit me with everything in the middle of the school year. Then–”
“Then I had a heart attack.” His eyes stay fixed on me while he waits for my response.
I push from my chair, coming around to him. “It wasn’t just about your heart attack, Heath.”
“Don’t, Whitney. Don’t do that, don’t make excuses. You stepped up like you always do, and you put me before you. I see you continuing to do that with the kids, but you shouldn’t have done that when it came to me. I could have hired someone to help if you had other priorities.”
“You’re a priority.”
“The priority that you feel towards me is the reason why you left in the first place. You told me you weren’t happy. That we weren’t happy and I know it’s because most of the time I didn’t see the things that you needed from me. I needed to put you first, and I never did. You need to learn to you put yourself first and I thought you did. You moved out. Started a life and you learned to do you. But the very first time I’m in crisis, you stopped living your life, and you began to live my life. Again.”
“It’s because I love you!” I holler. “And I’d do it again.” Intense feelings of emotion overcome me, and the tears fall from my eyes. “I’d put my life on hold again,” I sniff, “if it means having you here with me, with the kids,” I cry.
He stands, wrapping his arms around me. “Shh, baby,” he whispers “It’s all right.” My body shakes as the tears flow. “Whit, baby, you need to call that publisher guy and see if you can still make it happen.”
“I don’t want to,” I whine.
I can feel Heath’s chest rumble with laughter. “Yeah, babe, I’m sure you don’t, but you need to. We both know you’ve got what it takes. We both know you deserve this shot and I’m not going to allow you to miss it.”