35. Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Five
B rooke walked out of the ice cream shop with her friends, all laughing at a funny story Mindy Sue told about them at summer camp when they were twelve, when Brooke had fallen off the dock and into the lake and got pecked a dozen times by a mama duck protecting her ducklings.
She rolled her eyes and stared up at the night sky, wishing she was on the ranch and could see the stars better. Wishing she was spending her birthday with Cody.
Her phone chimed with an incoming text just as she slid her hand over her baby bump and promised her daughter next year they’d eat ice cream together.
The notification on her phone surprised her.
CODY: Please answer your phone.
It rang in her hand. “Give me a sec, guys.” She stepped away from the group and leaned against a large flowerpot next to the curb outside the ice cream parlor. “Hi.”
Cody let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you for answering.”
“Cody.” That’s all she could get out. She missed him so much.
“Happy birthday.” Caution and wariness filled his voice. It shouldn’t be like this.
“Thank you.”
“I hope it’s a good one.”
Not without you.
“I’m out with friends.”
“I hope you’re being safe and not drinking too much.”
Not at all, actually.
But she couldn’t tell him that because then he’d ask why. This wasn’t the time to tell him about their daughter, though she wanted to more than anything. So she lied to him again but gave him a partial truth, too. “We’re looking out for each other and making it an early night. I’m headed back to the dorm now, actually.”
“Oh, well, that’s good.” Silence for the next minute made things feel as strained as ever. Finally he said, “I’m so glad you liked your gift.”
First thing this morning, a messenger had arrived outside her building, texting her that he had a special delivery. The peridot stud earrings were the same color as her green eyes and bigger than a pencil eraser. She was wearing them right now. A little piece of him with her today. “I love them.” She’d texted him a thank-you before she went to class this morning.
“Brooke?”
“Yeah?”
“I miss you.”
Her heart swelled with joy and sorrow.
Cody went on like that simple statement didn’t gut her. “And I know now isn’t the time to talk about…everything. I just wanted you to know that.”
Choked up, she wanted to blame her hormones for the emotions clogging her throat, but the reality was that she loved him. She’d always love him. And this hurt like hell. “I miss you, too. And I’ll be home soon. Just a few weeks. We can talk face-to-face.” They’d figure out a way to go forward as co-parents. “And everything will be all right. Different, but all right.” They wouldn’t be the family she hoped they could be, but they could still be friends and love their daughter together.
“Promise?” It sounded like Cody choked out that word, as emotional as she was about him.
“I want to, but the truth is, we both have to figure out how to live with the choices we’ve made.” And she vowed to herself that she’d let him marry the woman he loved and not interfere.
“I want you to be happy, Brooke.”
He made her happy.
“I want the same for you.” And if Kristi did that for him, then Brooke had to accept it.
She appreciated that he didn’t dive into all that had torn them apart or mention Kristi, so she didn’t either.
Cody let out a weary sigh. “Waiting to see you again is killing me.”
I know how that feels.
“Cody.” She couldn’t keep her sadness and desperation to have him back out of her voice.
“I know. Not fair. I just…need you to know none of this is easy for me. I think about you all the time.”
“I can’t stop thinking about you either. But…” Everything standing between them hadn’t changed.
“Yeah. I know.” It felt like he silently ended that statement with, It wasn’t meant to be. “I’m glad I got a chance to talk to you. I needed to hear your voice and know that you’re okay.”
Am I?
Not really. Not since the morning after they slept together.
Never again. Because a piece of her would always be with him.
“See you later, Brooke.”
“See you later, Cody.” She ended the call and burst into tears.
Mindy Sue wrapped her in a hug. “It’s okay. You’ll see him soon. You can tell him everything, and you’ll work it out.”
Their other friends had gone ahead back to the dorms.
Brooke met Mindy Sue’s concerned gaze. “I know we’ll figure it out. It just won’t be what I hoped it would be.”
“Call him back, tell him about the baby, and it could be what you want.”
She huffed out her frustration. “I can’t do that to him.”
Mindy Sue raised a brow. “How about doing it for your daughter?”
She shook her head. “Pushing a marriage on him he doesn’t want will only make things worse. I don’t want him to resent me. I don’t want our daughter to see that I make her father unhappy.”
“You and Cody love each other. It won’t be that way.”
“He loves her more.”
Mindy Sue dropped it and hooked her arm through Brooke’s. They walked the busy sidewalk back toward the dorm in silence. What was there to say? They’d hashed this out a dozen different ways only to come to the same conclusion each time. Cody wanted to be with Kristi.
If he wanted Brooke back, he would have said so tonight.
That he didn’t made her stomach clench and her heart break all over again.
But thoughts of Cody disappeared the second they got to their dorm room door and Brooke spotted the gift tied to the knob. “He was here.”
Mindy Sue swore.
Of course he’d ruin her birthday.