Not Broken: The Happily Ever After(30)

“No! No, no, no. You can’t decide to move into my house without first asking me if that’s okay. You were going to stay with Mom and Dad. That was your plan, so stick to it.”

“No, no, no,” Shawn repeated, wiggling in my arms until I put him down. He toddled over to Dorian, wanting her to read the book since I hadn’t. She ignored his request, making him cry in the process.

I walked over to pick him up. “Ow! Crap!” Too much of his weight was put on my bad arm. Dorian put her hands out quickly, catching him before he fell from my arms.

I took a seat, rubbing my tender arm through the cumbersome brace. Dorian sat Shawn down on the couch beside me. He climbed into my lap, and wrapped his arms around my neck.

“Sorry, kiddo.”

“Maybe you should have stayed with our parents longer.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “I’m fine. Just a little distracted by your announcement. Do I ever factor in with you? You make this decision about staying at my house without even asking me first.”

“Stop acting like me staying here is the end of the world. It’d only be a couple of months at best.”

The callbox buzzed, and Macy’s voice came over the speaker asking for entry. Dorian mumbled something under her breath, but she had no right to say anything about guests coming to my house. Ignoring her, I adjusted Shawn in my arms, and walked into the kitchen to open the gate before heading to the front door. Macy parked her SUV next to Dorian’s car, and gave me a quizzical look as she got out.

“Dorian.”

“Shit? Really? What the hell does she want?”

“To move in.”

“You’re kidding?”

“I wish. Where’s London?”

“Having father-daughter time with Mitch. They were snoring on the couch when I left.”

She reached for Shawn, who happily transferred into her arms. Dorian came walking toward us as we headed to the living room.

“I’m going to go visit Mom and Dad. Do you have a remote or something for the gate?”

“I do, but I’d have to find it. You can buzz like every other guest.”

She rolled her eyes but said nothing else as she walked around us. It wasn’t missed on me that neither she nor Macy spoke to each other.

“She really is a bitch, and I hope you aren’t seriously considering letting her stay here.”

Shawn repeated “bitch” and giggled. I frowned at Macy, who apologized for her language.

“Put him in the highchair please. I need to get him a snack.”

Macy went about taking care of getting Shawn settled while I pulled cheese from the fridge and grabbed a banana from the basket. She walked over to me, picked up the banana, peeled it, and then proceeded to cut it up for me.

“How long do you have to wear the brace?”

“Um, another week or so maybe. Depends on how I’m feeling. But happy it wasn’t a fracture or break.”

“I bet. So…”

“So…what?” I questioned, carrying the cheese cubes over to Shawn.

She joined me at the table, depositing the banana pieces onto his tray. “What happened? Why did you pass out? I mean that’s some scary sh…stuff, Lee, especially if there wasn’t a reason.”

Shawn held out a piece of cheese for me, I leaned forward letting him put the cube in my mouth. “Yum, thank you baby.”

I looked over at Macy, who was patiently waiting on me to answer her question, as was everyone else that’d asked me the same thing. Why? What happened? There has to be a reason. That anxious feeling crept up on me. The slight increase in heartbeat. The gnawing in the pit of my stomach.

“It is, but I’m fine. I just got lightheaded or something.”

“There has to be more to it than that.”

Macy could be relentless when she wanted. She’d learned to not push as hard than in the past, but still she had her moments. I felt like this would be one of those moments. I got up to get a sippy cup for Shawn, and filled it with milk.

Shawn reached out for the cup when I returned. He went back to happily eating his snacks. , Brushing his hair from his face, I focused on him. “It happened, but I’m fine, so can we leave it at that?”

She sat back and crossed her arms. “Just tell me there’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing pressing on the brain or any of that stuff I need to worry about.”

I smiled at my friend. “No, Mace, I don’t have any sort of brain tumor or anything like that. I promise.”

The look on her face told me she wasn’t entirely happy with not having answers, but then again none of them were. For a brief moment, I thought about letting her know, but I couldn’t. Letting her know would have a domino effect, and I didn’t want that.





Chapter 17


Malcolm





I waved bye to Brenda and climbed back into my truck. I pulled out my phone to call Ginger when her number flashed across the screen. We’d only talked a handful of times since the ice cream incident a few days ago, but I’d not seen her at all.

“Hey, I was just about to call you.”

“Really? And here I was thinking I might be waking you or something.”

“No, I had the home inspection this morning.”

“Oh, how’d it go?”