Chapter Forty Nine
How To Move In Place
“You’re really leaving?”
I asked as Ardley threw a random object into one of his moving boxes.
“I’m certainly not doing this for fun,”
he replied sarcastically.
I sighed, “you sure that’s a good idea? At least here, you have a few people around that can clean up after you and take care of you.”
He glared at me. “You think I should consider staying here because I’ve got…babysitters?”
My brows furrowed. “No, but you’ve got a baby.”
He sighed and looked away. “Juliette’s an amazing mother, and you—”
“Me what?”
I cut him off, “please don’t tell me you were gonna say I’m an amazing uncle.”
“You are.”
He chuckled.
“So? Clay needs his father,”
I continued, “don’t you remember how it was with Dad? We had to impress him to get his attention, or even hurt ourselves, and even then he still didn’t care or pay any attention.” I stood and walked up to Ardley. “He paid strangers to take care of us, Ard,” my brows furrowed as I tilted my head to the side, “do you really want to do the same thing?”
Ardley grimaced and took a step back. “We had Mom, Cal, she cared in her own way and we didn’t have to impress her, and you’re not a fucking stranger. What you’re asking me is too much.”
He paused and took a deep breath. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up in this house, or to go anywhere in this town, or drive by the fucking hospital? Sometimes I fucking forget she’s dead when I wake up here. I look for her in the bathroom calling her name out like a fucking idiot until my memory finally comes back to me.”
He turned around and pushed his hair back. I pulled my lips into a thin line as my jaw hardened.
I knew how much my brother loved Celeste and how close they were, but I couldn’t pretend to know even a fraction of the pain he was going through. I do know if I was Clay’s father, and Juliette was my wife, and she died, I’d completely lose it.
“You know Mom got me a maid, right? To keep this place up. I forgot about that, so the other day when I woke up someone was in the kitchen making breakfast, I was woken up by the smell and I thought it was Celeste. I was calling her name out until I reached the kitchen and both the maid and I were mortified.”
He sucked in a breath. “I gently fired her of course because I didn’t want to go through that every morning, but guess what, Callum?” He turned to face me again, “I’m already going through that. Every. Fucking. Day.” He leaned down and started packing again. “So I’m getting the fuck out of this town.”
I sighed as my shoulders finally relaxed. Clay was a baby, I thought, I could always get Ardley to come back, or to visit regularly, right now this is what he needed, some time to heal and mourn.
“When do you leave?”
I asked quietly.
“Day after Thanksgiving.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”