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“I don’t know, Nae.”

“You won’t know until you try.” She leaned over and hugged me. “I love you, Sister, and you will get through this.”

We held on to each other for a minute or two, and it felt good to hug my sister. She was younger than me, but she knew how to make me feel better when I needed it.

“Thanks, Apple.” I smirked. “I love you too.”

I grabbed my phone to turn it back on to send Kyden a message, but he beat me to the punch by calling me first.

“Hello?”

“Elise.”

I closed my eyes as he released a huge sigh of relief, like a weight had been lifted.

“I’m so sorry, baby. I need to see you. I know Janae is there, so I’ll wait until tomorrow.”

I cut my eyes at my sister, and she smirked.

“Tomorrow is fine.”

“Okay. I miss you.”

Tears sprang to my eyes. It had only been a week, but I missed him as well, even through the pain I had been dealing with.

“I miss you too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow, baby.”

Janae stared at me with a smile on her face, and I rolled my eyes at her. We hung up the phone, and I put it back on the table.

“One day at a time,” Janae said then lay her head on the pillow.

We stayed in my bed for the rest of the day, relaxing and talking. By the time she left, I had begun to feel better and looked forward to seeing Kyden the next day. Maybe we were on the road to fixing things, and I would be able to get out of the darkness.

When Elise confirmedshe was up to seeing me, I arranged for someone to cover for me. I’d been calling her since the day she put me out of her hospital room, and I drove myself crazy with worry every time my calls went unanswered. I got even more worried when Janae told me she hadn’t heard from her either. I was relieved when she told me she would pop up on her because that was my next step. I wanted to give her space, but I needed to know if she was okay.

I hadn’t been okay since finding out we lost the baby, but I spent most of my time working or worrying about Elise. I needed to keep myself busy because every idle minute I had, I thought about the baby and would cry and question God on why He would take our baby so soon. I was angry and hurt, and I knewthere had to have been a reason why it happened, but that didn’t make the pain lessen.

I couldn’t talk to anyone about it because nobody besides Janae knew we were even expecting. And now, I didn’t think Elise would want to tell anyone about it. I wasn’t going to speak on it unless she agreed. The only thing I could do was pretend everything was okay when inside I was losing it.

I woke up early to head to Elise’s house. I had planned on cooking her breakfast and catering to her for the day. I didn’t want her to have to do anything but relax. If I was hurting from the loss, I knew she was feeling it ten times worse. I couldn’t take her pain away, but I would do what I could to make her feel better.

After stopping at the grocery store to get what I needed, I headed to her. I probably should have told her when I was on my way because I stood on her porch freezing my balls off while I waited for her to answer the door. The weather had drastically changed over the last couple of days.

My heart pumped harder against my chest when I heard the locks disengage. It had been days since I had laid eyes on her, and I was nervous. Just because she agreed to see me, that didn’t mean she wasn’t still angry, and if she wasn’t, I wasn’t sure she wouldn’t become angry at some point. This time, I wasn’t leaving until we talked.

“Kyden, what are you doing here so early?” She rubbed her eyes as she stood in the doorway with a purple robe on.

I hated the look of sadness in her eyes. I could tell she had been crying at some point within the last few hours. Her eyes were still red, and her face was puffy. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but it was too cold outside, and I didn’t need her neighbors to see her in her robe.

“Hi, Elise. Are you going to let me in? It’s cold as hell out here.” I chuckled.

“Oh, yes.” She stepped back to give me room to enter. “You just threw me off being here so early. I was still in bed.”

She locked the doors and walked toward the living room.

I put the bags down on the floor and took my coat off.