when the alternative made her so happy.
“I knew it,” she clapped and some color returned to her face.
The girls came back in one at a time, all giving updates to the stir Drake and Gen had caused in the hospital and Gam filled them in on my plans. All the ladies seemed excited that Wishing Well was getting a new resident. As I sat there, I just kept wondering how the dashing fireman that had rescued Gam would feel about the news.
Chapter 32
Beau
“Bad days are like a coach on The Voice, you never know when they’re gonna turn around.”
~ Barbara-Jean Nelson
“Hey, Dug.” I bent down and scratched Dug behind his ears.
No matter how shitty my day was, I could always rely on Dug to be happy to see me. After leaving the hospital, we’d had two other calls. One of them was a car accident that had ended in a fatality.
Dug must have sensed my bad mood because I felt his tongue run up my cheek. He wasn’t big on licking faces unless he felt like someone needed cheering up.
“Thanks, Bud.” I stood and patted him on his head.
His nails clicked behind me as he followed me to the back door. I let him out to take care of business and made his dinner for the night. I thought about warming up some leftovers, but I honestly didn’t have that much of an appetite.
My body ached and I decided that a soak in the bath was what the doctor ordered. I’d never been a big bath guy, but after my breakup, Harmony had insisted on me taking them. She’d said they were soothing for the soul. I’d never found that to be the case, but soaking in hot water definitely relaxed sore muscles.
I’d just finished filling the tub and had taken my shirt off when I heard a knock at the door. I checked my phone, wondering why someone wouldn’t have texted me before stopping by, but saw that it was dead.
“Coming!” I called out, figuring it was most likely my mom. She’d probably heard about Mrs. Nelson and wanted an update. I didn’t have one. I’d thought about driving out to Parish Creek and checking on Sasha and Mrs. Nelson, but Linc told me that her ex had shown up at the hospital. I wasn’t sure how he knew that, but the information was enough for me to come straight home.
Sasha was obviously getting back together with Drake. From the suitcase, to Mrs. Nelson asking her not to leave on the plane with him, to him going to the hospital. I knew it was ridiculous to be this broken hearted over someone I’d known a week, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t.
I tried to disguise how sad I was feeling when I opened the door. Moms in general had sixth senses about their kid’s happiness, but I maintained that Dolly Briggs had seventh and eighth senses. She had mom radar on steroids.
My lips were turning up in a smile when I opened the door, but it fell when I saw who was standing on the other side. Sasha was looking down at her feet, her hair covering her face and my stomach plummeted to the ground.
“What’s wrong? Is your grandma—”
“Oh, no! She’s fine!” she rushed to assure me as she lifted her head. “They’re keeping her for a few days to get some fluids into her, but she’s doing much better.”
“Oh good,” I breathed.
“Can I come in?” There was a hesitancy in her question.
“Oh yeah, sorry.” I stepped back and held the door open.
She walked inside and the sick feeling in my gut returned. I had a pretty good idea of what she was here to say. As much as I appreciated her showing up to tell me to my face that she was getting back together with Drake and going back to L.A. I had to admit, I’d much rather she sent a text.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about Drake showing up and Gam asking you to tell me not to—”
“You don’t owe me an explanation. It’s fine. We weren’t…” My words drifted off. I was planning on saying that we weren’t serious, but that wasn’t the case. I was very serious. Too serious.
“I do think I owe you an explanation. Can we sit?”
Sit, right. Couldn’t we just rip this Band-Aid off? I guess not.
“Um, sure.” I motioned to the couch. If my mama