Chapter 30
—Kasey—
Tears fell harder with every mile farther from Idaho the plane took me. Reed’s words had hung over me during the trip from the hospital to the airport. They’d circled nonstop in my head as I walked up the gangway and onto the plane, and now gnawed on me while I fidgeted in my seat.
“I love you, babe. I’ll be coming for you, soon.”
Despite my parents being by my side, I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease. It hung over me in a cloud of regret, like my internal being knew I’d made a terrible mistake.
I hadn’t argued when Mom insisted that I stay with them while I recovered, but we’d argued and cried and argued more when I broke the news that I wouldn’t be bringing Posie home with us. She belonged with Reed. I knew in my heart he would look after her better than I could.
If it wasn’t for the scar low on my belly and the milk that still leaked without warning from my tender boobs, I’d still be in denial over having a baby. The moment I’d recovered my phone and charged it, I’d searched it in the hope I’d get answers, but my browser history, emails, texts, and call log all suggested I’d known nothing about being pregnant. However, there was everything to confirm that Reed was, in fact, the love of my life: a gallery full of pictures and screenshots of texts and messages filled with all the things you’d expect from a couple madly in love.
What hit me in the feels the most was that Reed had continued to message me every night since the accident—and the sentiment was the same: I love you. I miss you.
It brought tears to my eyes reading the words he’d poured directly from his heart while I was in a coma. The ones in the days after I woke were just as wrenching, and he hadn’t missed texting me a day since.
They weren’t from “Reed” though. For some reason he was saved in my contacts as The Pisser, which raised questions, concerns, and my eyebrows.
Mom hadn’t stopped sobbing into an endless supply of tissues from her handbag since we’d departed Gatlin Falls. She’d literally howled while tenderly holding Posie to her chest one last time before we left, and our hearts still hung heavy when we reached my childhood home later that afternoon.
I had so much healing to do, and I didn’t even know where to start as I wordlessly followed Dad upstairs to my old bedroom.
He carefully set my bag inside the doorway, then turned to me as if having a sudden thought.
“Before you say anything, don’t worry about your mother. The past couple of weeks have been a lot for all of us.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around my waist, protecting myself until Dad opened his arms for a hug.
He gently squeezed me and kissed the top of my head. “Welcome home, sweetheart. Please let Reed know you arrived safely.”
With one last shoulder tap, he quietly left me standing in the middle of my room, hand itching to pull out my phone but head too scared to contact Reed because I’d broken his heart this morning.