house, letting their stories and laughter warm me from the inside out.
I’d been right about them wanting to take him to the doctor, but they seemed to take it as a given that I’d come along to all his medical appointments. It was the same when it came to giving statements to the police about what had happened with Eddie. And after a few days, when talk turned to his parents needing to get back home, and his sisters going back to work, they just smiled with understanding when Ari said he’d been thinking about staying at Edgecliffe with me.
They did insist on the two of us flying out to visit in the new year, but that worked out well, since I had to go to L.A. to shoot the Infinity Falls reunion special anyway. Even though I wasn’t trying to keep Ari a secret anymore, I didn’t feel like I could back out of that now. I wasn’t looking forward to it, exactly, but Hadley had left a day after Ari’s family arrived, and I did want to see her.
As much as I loved his family though, I had to admit it was nice to have the house to ourselves again after they left. Even though I was more content than I’d ever been, the actual anniversary of Aggie’s death was still approaching, and I didn’t want to have to share the house with anyone other than Ari, in case I had trouble putting on a happy face.
What actually ended up happening, though, was something I never could have anticipated.
I woke up early that day, feeling antsy, and kissed Ari’s forehead before slipping out of bed to go for a run. I’d just gotten back to the house, my breath and body steaming in the cold as I stopped outside to stretch, when my phone rang.
The caller ID said it was coming from Barbara Stone.
Aggie’s mother.
My stomach dropped through my shoes. This couldn’t be good. We hadn’t spoken since before the accident. She’d called, twice, in the days that followed, but I hadn’t been brave enough to pick up.
I looked from my phone screen up to the house, to where Ari was probably still in bed, warm and dreaming, and thought about how brave he was. Thought about the way he’d brought me back to life again.
I took a deep breath and answered.
“Barbara?” I said, my voice hesitant, bracing for—well, for anything.
“Eric? Is that you, dear?”
I winced. “I, uh—yeah. It’s me. Hi, Barbara. How are you?”
“I’m doing fine, sweetheart. Thank you for asking.”
“That’s good. I, uh…” I trailed off, at a loss for what to say. Why wasn’t she berating me yet?
“Listen, Holden, I’ll just come right out and say it. I saw online that you’re doing this reunion thing, and I wanted to ask you a question about that.”
There it was. This was how it started. And I deserved it. I knew I did.
“I’m so sorry, Barbara,” I said, unable to hold back any longer. “I should have called you first to talk about it. Please know that I’m not doing this for publicity. I’m donating my fee. I just—I’m so sorry.” I was choked up, suddenly, and the words caught in my throat. “About everything. Aggie was—she didn’t deserve this. I miss her, and I’m so sorry for what I did.”
“What you did?”
“It’s my fault,” I whispered.
“Oh, sweetheart. Is that what you think? Aggie’s death—honey, it was a terrible thing, but it wasn’t your fault. Have you been blaming yourself this whole time?”
“But I broke up with her. I lied to her, and then when I finally told her the truth, I wasn’t even that sensitive. I went off and found this guy, and—oh God, I’m so sorry.”
“Honey, I want you to listen to me,” Barbara said, her voice firm. “Aggie had been using since before she ever met you. She’d been in and out of rehab multiple times before you came into her life. I loved her so much. I still do. And I wish she’d found a way through what she was dealing with. I wish she were still here. But you didn’t make my baby girl get in that car, and you certainly didn’t make her start using.”
“But I’m the reason she—”
“No, Eric. You’re really not. I want you to listen to me. When she died, I was a wreck. No parent wants to bury their child. You don’t think I blamed myself for a long time too? For not being there, for not