Chapter 8 #2
Keisha nodded. He was right. That would be nice.
But she’d been alone with Kelly for a long time, and Keisha looked after Kelly, but Keisha couldn’t imagine Kelly looking after her if their situations had been reversed.
Keisha didn’t say anything for a long moment and finally nodded again. “Not something I really recognize.”
The waitress returned with menus, and, as they sat here, considering their food options, she looked over at him and asked, “Is there anything that you want here?”
“I’ll have the usual,” he replied. “I had a little breakfast with the team, but I can always eat more.”
She snorted at that. “It seems as if there was never a time that you couldn’t eat more.”
“Nope, lots of calories get burned up, so putting more calories to good use never seems to be a bad idea,” he noted, with a smile.
They quickly placed their orders, and, as they waited for their meals to come, she looked over at him. “I’m sorry yesterday was so awkward.”
“The good news is, today isn’t as awkward,” he pointed out immediately.
She gave a half laugh and then nodded. “Isn’t that the truth?”
“It’s also not what I expected.”
“It’s not what I expected either.”
His phone rang just then, and he groaned as he stared down at the number.
“Problems?” she asked.
“I’ve been getting a lot of spam calls recently,” he shared, shaking his head. “I’m not sure who is doing it, but I’ve been targeted by somebody.”
She frowned at that. “And it always says, Private Number?”
“Yeah, did you see it?”
“No,” she replied, “but I’ve been in a similar situation.” He frowned at her, and she nodded. “I’m not really sure what it’s all about, but it’s been disquieting to have it happen.”
“Of course,” he agreed. “Any idea who it is?”
“No.”
“Did they ask for anything?”
“No, just this weird laughter.”
“Same here,” he said, staring at her. “It’s just a really weird laugh, computer-generated or whatever, that makes no sense.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ve been getting.”
“Why would they target both of us?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, nodding. “However, I didn’t know they were targeting you, so who’s to say that they’re targeting us? You’re assuming it’s the same person.”
“You’re right,” he stated, taking a deep breath. “Although it’s odd that the two of us would have different cyberstalkers.”
“This was happening before,” she shared. “I used to have social media accounts, and I shut them all down. For a while, it was really disturbing to go online and to find people posting really awful things on my accounts.”
He stared at her. “You never mentioned it.”
“It happened just after you were deployed,” she added, staring off in the distance and thinking about it.
“I never really clued in on what was going on until quite a while afterward. It seemed to stop for a while. Then it just picked up and came back, meaner than ever.” She shrugged.
“And who knows? … I don’t know what they’re after, or what their story is, but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they were upsetting me. ”
“Did you ever tell anybody?”
“No,” she replied. “I didn’t tell anybody, including Kelly. I didn’t want her to worry.”
“Why not?”
“She’s always told me not to hand out any information on the internet, and, of course, I must have somewhere along the line,” she concluded. “It’s weird because I didn’t think I had, but …”
“Right, and, even if you did, it doesn’t mean we should be targeted like that,” he pointed out.
“No, but it doesn’t stop some people.”
Their meals came just then, and they talked while they were eating, having completely different conversations. When he finally came up for air, she was smiling at him, sitting back with a second cup of coffee. “I forgot how you ate.”
He nodded. “I’m still healing, still building back muscle.”
Her smile fell away, and she frowned. “You never did tell me a whole lot about what was going on in that rehab center.”
“If you would have showed up, I could have shown you.”
She winced. “If I wasn’t still getting the clinic set up, I might have been able to,” she murmured.
“I understood that,” he noted, with a shrug. “I was really looking forward to coming back and helping you.”
“Helping me?” she repeated.
“Yeah, helping you.” He rolled his eyes as he saw her jerk in response.
“I don’t know in what capacity, but I was really proud of you and was looking forward to being part of this new life for you.
” She just stared at him as he spoke. “And then you showed up at the Haven to help with rescued llamas of all things.”
“Ah.” She nodded, with a sigh. “What else will you do when animals are in need?”
“That’s exactly how Timber feels,” Jaxon pointed out. “By the time he’s done, he’ll have room for hundreds of animals on that place.”
“I’ve been hearing about it from Tiffany. She’s overwhelmed with joy at what he’s creating out there.”
“She’s also been a huge help in defining how things should be set up,” he noted, with a smile. “It’s not necessarily the most economical or affordable input, but she’s trying to lay things out in a way that makes sense.”
She smiled. “That’s Tiffany for you. She’s always got an idea, always got something going, always busy.”
“Just like Timber,” he said, with a laugh. “The two of them are well matched.”
“She seems really happy,” Keisha noted. “I think they both are.”
He looked over at her with a wry smile. “See? Not everybody is unhappy being together.” She flushed at that. “You never did really tell me why you want a divorce.”
“I’m not sure I could tell you even now.” When he stared at her in surprise, she nodded. “I don’t even know what to say, except that it feels as if we’re two different people.”
“You’re right. We are two different people,” he confirmed, “but that doesn’t mean we’re two different people who can’t make a life together.” When she tilted her head, he smiled. “We didn’t even give ourselves a chance to get to know each other again.”
“Maybe,” she murmured, “it just seemed as if everything was moving so fast when you came home, and I just couldn’t adjust to you and my sister fighting. It just—”
He nodded. “And, for that, I owe you my apologies,” he acknowledged. “I didn’t handle her very well when I got back. She was so insulting that it was hard to not tell her to get her ass out of the house and to do something with her life.”
“She was insulting?” she asked, staring at him.
“Yeah, she was insulting, and you were okay with it.”
“No, I was never okay with it,” she declared, leaning forward, “but I don’t remember if I ever heard her … insulting you. To me, it seemed as if you had no patience with her, and, every time I turned around, she was in tears.”
“That could be,” he said. “She was in tears a lot.”
Keisha winced at that. “You’re right. She was in tears a lot, but I don’t think that’s necessarily anything I can judge her for.”
“You shouldn’t judge her anyway,” he stated, with a smile. “She’s living a life that is hard for anybody to understand.”
“And yet yours isn’t a whole lot better.”
“Oh, mine is way better,” he declared, staring at her. “However, just because I’m not in a wheelchair doesn’t mean I don’t know what she’s going on about. I do know lots of people in wheelchairs, but we’re not here to talk about her.”
“Essentially we are,” Keisha clarified, with a wry look on her face. “That’s what brought us in here.”
He frowned at that and then nodded. “I guess you’re right about that. Is she doing anything, like taking any classes or—”
“No, nothing. She’s had a rough couple months.”
“Yeah, a rough couple months seems to be the status quo for all of us right now.”
She looked at him and winced. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
He looked over at her, shrugged, and didn’t say any more.
In that moment, she realized just how much she’d hurt him. She didn’t know what to say, and, when her phone rang, it was the hospital saying she could come and get her sister. She looked over at him. “She’s ready to be picked up. Would you mind dropping me off at the hospital?”
“Nope, that’s fine,” he replied, getting up. As they got to the hospital, he added, “I won’t come in. It would likely just upset Kelly even more.”
Keisha frowned and then acknowledged that. “You’re right. It probably would. Listen. I really appreciate that you came when I called.” As she stepped out of his vehicle, she turned to him and added, “Maybe we should go for coffee again one day.”