Marek (Cold Fury Hockey #11)(4)
Josie nods her head knowingly, which makes me believe she knows all about how Marek hauled Lilly and me back to North Carolina with him. My cheeks heat slightly that this woman knows my darkest shame: keeping Lilly secret from her father.
Releasing my hand, Josie takes a step back and leans against the counter. She throws her thumb over her shoulder. “Reed needed to talk to Marek, so I thought I’d pop in and say hello. Welcome you to North Carolina. See if you needed anything.”
Her voice is a little hard when she mentions Reed needing to talk to Marek, but I don’t ask for details. It’s not any of my business. While this isn’t my house, my manners compel me to ask her, “Would you like some coffee?”
“That would be awesome,” she says with a bright smile, then immediately turns away from me and walks over to Lilly, who is still engrossed with Paw Patrol. Marshall has his firetruck ladder extended up a tree and is rescuing a cat.
Josie leans down and touches Lilly lightly on the shoulder. She jolts a little and turns to look at Josie, her expression guarded given the fact there’s a stranger right in her face.
“Hi, Lilly,” Josie says with a smile. “I’m Josie. I’m a new friend of your mommy’s.”
Interesting. She didn’t say a friend of Marek’s, although I know she must be. Reed and Marek are obviously close, which means Josie would definitely be a friend of Marek’s as well. I’m going to be slightly impressed and believe that Josie isn’t quite sure how much Lilly knows of what’s going on and is keeping things vague and light where Marek’s concerned.
Josie then launches into an admirable dialogue with my daughter about Paw Patrol. While they talk, I make two cups of coffee in the Keurig and get some cream from the fridge. By the time I’ve got everything set out, Josie’s reaching for a cup.
“Do you have kids?” I ask her, assuming that’s how she knows so much about the TV show.
She shakes her head with a laugh. “Not yet, but one day. I’m an ER doctor, and I’ve found that having a good base knowledge of what’s popular out there really helps to put my younger patients at ease.”
And just like that, I feel a hundred times more at ease with Josie knowing that we share medicine in common. I tap my chest and eagerly tell her, “I’m a nurse.”
“I know,” Josie says with a grin. “Reed told me. Neonatal, right?”
“That’s right.” I beam back at her before picking my cup up.
Josie stares at me a moment, and I feel like she’s calculating something. She looks toward the formal living room, perhaps expecting Reed and Marek to come walking in any moment, and then back to me.
Stepping in closer, she lowers her voice and says somewhat urgently, “Listen…I don’t know how long they’ll be talking. Given that Reed’s ripping Marek a new one right now, I expect it won’t be long. But I want you to know you’ve got a friend here. I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you, getting yanked away from your home and thrown into what I’m betting is a hostile environment.”
A flush of embarrassment courses through me and I murmur somewhat glumly, “Then you know the whole story. Marek stopping the wedding and—”
“Practically kidnapping you and Lilly, dragging you here, and then dumping you both while he goes off gallivanting to the beach? Yeah, I know it all.” Her voice is icy with clear disapproval over Marek’s methods. “That’s why Reed is out there helping him to remove his head from his ass.”
I give a slight shake of my head, the guilt overwhelming me. My eyes drop to the floor. “Marek has every reason to—”
“No,” Josie says adamantly, her voice still low and somewhat hurried. “Whatever the issues that are going on between the two of you for past hurts, that gives him no excuse to abandon you and Lilly. He’ll get that message by the time Reed is through with him.”
I’m not quite sure the emotion I’m feeling. Perhaps gratitude, perhaps vindication, but my eyes get watery as I swallow hard. “Thank you for saying that, Josie. We both have a lot of anger and hurt going on. But when Marek came home last night, he seemed to indicate he wants to have a relationship with Lilly, and we’re going to talk to her today.”
Josie cuts a quick look at Lilly then back to me. “What does she know?”
The sigh I let out is unintended and long-suffering, but totally indicative of how troubling all of this is. “Not much. Just that her mommy isn’t marrying Owen and that she got jerked away from everything she’s ever known to live in a strange house with a strange man she has no clue what he means to her. I told Marek last night that we were leaving, that I couldn’t let this continue on, as it was too confusing to her. That seemed to reach him. At least I think it did.”
Josie nods in sympathy. She takes a sip of coffee and then asks, “I bet it was awful, Marek showing up like that. Giving you no choice in what to do. Reed told me how it all went down and he wasn’t happy with it.”
I stare down at my cup, refusing to look at her as I shamefully admit, “It was a mess. Marek threatening to take Lilly away, giving me no time to consider consequences. You can never imagine the emotional wreckage I left behind, calling the wedding off with Owen. Not being able to really explain things to his parents and my parents. A whole churchful of people I had to confront…”