A New Hope - Robyn Carr Page 0,44
baby in that house with the parties. I left when I was barely pregnant. I told Mick I was going to stay with my parents until he could wrap his head around the fact that we were having a family and the lifestyle wasn’t healthy. I couldn’t be around all that second-hand smoke and I needed to sleep! That’s when he told me it wouldn’t work for him. He was sorry I didn’t get it, but that whole family and baby thing just wasn’t for him.”
He was quiet for a second. “The stress,” he said. “I think all the stress is getting to you, Ginger. The wedding, the dress, the pregnant girlfriends...”
“No, no, that’s not it. He called me. Right after we hung up, Mick called.”
“What did he want?” Matt asked, sounding more alert now.
She laughed a little. “He thought it was so great that I came to hear him sing. He thought we should get together. To talk about our good history.”
“And you said...?”
“I called him an arrogant asshole and hung up on him, then he texted me and said I had some hostility.”
“Jesus,” he muttered. “You know, I’ve made some incredible blunders, but that defies imagination.”
“It does, doesn’t it? He used to bring his guitar to holiday dinners with my parents and brothers and serenade them. He didn’t notice that they rolled their eyes and wandered away.”
“Always a show, eh?” Matt asked.
“How did I not know how ridiculous he was?”
Matt laughed. “My ex used to tiptoe through the goat shit in her spike heels when she’d come to a family dinner with me. High heels, tight, short skirt, nails like red talons. Everyone in the family looked at her like she was a clown, dressed for the circus, but I didn’t even notice how inappropriate she was. Well, not for a year or so...”
“What do you suppose happens to us?”
“I don’t know what happened to you but I was pumping about a thousand pounds of fresh testosterone,” he said. “I figured it out, just not quick enough.”
“Is that why you divorced? Because you finally figured it out?”
He thought for a second. “No, Ginger. Because she wasn’t just fancy and self-absorbed on the outside. I’d have been happy to carry her through the muck and offal of the farm. But then I found out she was like that on the inside.”
“I never would have guessed how much we have in common.”
“You have no idea. Now put your little head down. See if you can get some sleep...”
“I’ll say good-night,” she said.
“You don’t have to say good-night. Leave the line open. I’ll be right here if you need me.”
“We can’t do that,” she said. “Our phones will run out of juice and then we won’t be able to call anyone.”
“You think you’ll be okay?”
“I’m fine. Kind of embarrassed. That was impulsive. I’m not usually that impetuous, calling a man I hardly know in the middle of the night.”
“Hardly know? I can’t think of a woman I know better,” he said. “We know each other very well. If we sign off will you promise if you need to talk, you’ll just call back? No matter what time it is?”
“Sure,” she said. “But I’ll try not to.”
“Sometimes talking helps,” he said. “God, never tell anyone in my family I said that, okay?”
“Okay,” she said with a laugh.
* * *
Matt held the phone against his chest. Look out, he told himself. Danger, danger. He wanted to be there with her. If he was there, she could roll over, and he’d comfort her. He wanted to get his arms around her, hold her, whisper to her that what she was feeling seemed reasonable. And that she was no longer alone. He’d take that job in a heartbeat.
Nine
The fatigue of ALS might’ve slowed Winnie down but it didn’t keep her from staging her own wedding festivities. She rested in the morning after breakfast and a bath, generously tended to by her new full-time nurse, Lin Su. Then she was good for a little company and lunch and with an afternoon rest, she had at least a few hours of socializing and dinner. Winnie’s schedule of meals and rests had to be carefully monitored and protected to ensure she wasn’t weak or fatigued because she had planned activities!
“As if I’m surprised,” Grace said.
Grace had every reason to expect the Headly family to be wonderful. After all, Troy was. What she wasn’t prepared for was to find them more wonderful than she could have imagined. Troy’s mother,