Not Broken: The Happily Ever After(28)

“Calida? Are you okay?”

I looked at my reflection in the mirror as I snatched a few paper towels from the holder on the wall. I blotted my face and continued to take in slow breaths.

“Yeah. I’ll be out in a sec.”





Chapter 15


Malcolm





When she opened the door, Ginger looked like she’d seen a ghost.

“Everything okay?”

She nodded but wouldn’t look at me. “If you’re done, can we go? I’d like to be back to put Shawn to bed.”

She started walking toward my truck without waiting for a response. I tossed my remaining ice cream into the trash before jogging over to join her.

“Hey, what happened?”

“Nothing,” she replied, pulling at the door handle. “Can you unlock it please?”

“Can you tell me why this change? One minute we’re chillin’ and the next you’re running off and can’t get away from me fast enough.”

“I didn’t run off,” she snapped, turning back to face me. “I had to go to the bathroom.”

“Got it, so you think I’m stupid and you didn’t have some major mood swing just then.”

I hit the unlock button, and she stepped to the side when I went to open her door. I closed it harder than I intended after she’d climbed in, and Ginger flinched in response. Shit! Running my hands down my face, I let out a long exhale before walking around to get in. Ginger kept her attention directed out the passenger side window.

“Are you going to talk to me or are we going to play this game?”

She chewed on her thumb nail, continuing to stare out the window.

“Fine,” I said, cranking up the engine.

The short drive back was filled with tense silence; my attempts to engage her in conversation got no response. When we arrived back at her parents’ house, I killed the engine and waited for her to get out. Since her accident, Ginger had been more distant than before. Something I didn’t even think was possible. Tonight, I thought there was a crack in the wall, but how quickly it had been reinforced.

“I wish you’d tell me what I did back there that made this happen, so I’d know to avoid a repeat performance.”

She ran her hands through her short hair before letting out a forced exhale. “It’s not you, Malcolm, not really.”

“Not really? What the hell does that mean?”

“It’s me. I’m working through some…issues.”

“What issues?”

“Nothing that concerns you,” she snapped.

My hands tightened on the steering wheel for a moment as I digested her statement. There were so many things I wanted to say in response to her, but the only thing I could do is shake my head and laugh quietly to myself. I knew if we continued down this path, it would lead to an argument I didn’t want to have.

“All right,” I said, turning my truck on.

Ginger unbuckled her seatbelt, her hand rested on the door handle. With another deep breath, she looked over at me. “I never thanked you.”

“For what?”

“For staying at the hospital with me.”

“It’s what you do when you’re concerned about a person.” I couldn’t keep the sarcastic bite out of my tone.

Color crept into her cheeks, and she hung her head at her words being thrown back at her.

“Malcolm, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“How exactly did you mean it then, Calida? Am I not to be concerned about you in general or not concerned when I see you’re obviously upset over something? Whatever I said or did upset you, and that is never my goal. But instead of you talking to me, you wanna cop an attitude and give me the silent treatment. How does that help either one of us?”

She opened her mouth to speak but said nothing. The light came on when she opened the door. She looked so fragile, so lost.

“Upsetting you isn’t mine either,” she replied quietly before exiting my truck.

I watched her walk up the drive and enter the house without giving a single look back. Fuck! That woman was going to drive me insane.

The drive home allowed me time to think, to try and uncover the mystery behind her change. Things were feeling more like a relationship at the tail-end of its life cycle instead of the beginning. Hell, she’d been avoiding me since she left the hospital. I still didn’t buy her excuse that she didn’t know why she blacked out, but she shut down any and all attempts to talk about it.

When Sandy had invited me to dinner, I’d thought about declining. If Ginger didn’t want to see me, I didn’t want to force her. But, at the same time, she couldn’t keep hiding. For the longest time, we all took on the stance of not pushing her. By doing that, we’d all enabled her to not move forward, allowing her to remain complacent in the shell of a life she was leading. All I wanted was for her to let me in, to talk to me so we could figure things out together. I didn’t think that was too much to ask, but my mole hill was seemingly a mountain to her.





Chapter 16


Calida





Dad loaded my bag into the back of my car and shut the door. “Are you sure you’re ready to be in that big ol’ empty house by yourself?”