Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
Brian
Lin
I know you know I get out Thursday but I wanted to double check the time. 3 pm Please bring Maddy. I miss her. Miss you too Bri. But I can’t wait to see my Mads again
Brian
We’ll be there. Thought you weren’t allowed to use your phone?
Lin
I can with the therapist. Be happy to sleep in my own bed
Brian
I’m sure. See you soon
Lin
Love you Bri. Can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for us.
I sat in the car down the street from Rain’s house Tuesday morning, probably long enough for a neighbor to call the cops on me. Lin’s text had come through right as I’d been parking. But I’d been dreading this conversation for the past week.
Neither of us had spoken about what happened when Lin got out of rehab. I’d purposely avoided the subject. But now it was happening. And I couldn’t put it off any longer.
I’d planned to stay and finish out the season. It’s what I’d told Rowdy. It’s what I’d let Rain think. But now that the time was here, I knew I couldn’t just take Lin and Maddy back to their apartment in Allentown, drop them off, and leave again. I couldn’t do that to them. Not until I knew they’d be okay.
And that meant going to back to Allentown And, since I’d given up my apartment, it meant sleeping on Lin’s couch for a while. I could handle that. What was tearing me up inside was the conversation I had to have now. With Rain.
Fuck.
I shoved open the car door and slammed it shut behind me. Anger and regret and disappointment and a whole raft of other shit rolled around in my stomach, making me want to scream.
Because I’d been such a fucking idiot.
And now I was going to pay for it.
I walked to her door, knocked and waited with a lump in my throat. When the door opened, the smile on her face nearly cut me off at the knees.
“Hey, come in.” She turned, heading back toward the kitchen. “I’ve got to turn off the stove before I boil all the water away. I swear…”
“Rain, we need to talk.”