Page 70 of Love By The Falls

About thirty minutes later, the buzzing around the building quiets and there are only a few stragglers leaving the garage or the front doors.

Neither of us suggests leaving yet, and I appreciate Sage’s determination.

She leans back and crosses her arms an hour later. It’s the first sign of frustration on Sage’s part and itmakes me panic. She’s been my rock, my shoulder to lean on. If she loses faith, I don’t know what I’ll do.

An hour after that, I don’t care. My back aches, my neck cracks at the slightest stretch, and I’m starving. “Let’s get out of here,” I say.

“One more hour.”

“It’s a quarter to eight, Sage. No one has left the building in over an hour. Maybe that receptionist is right. Maybe Caleb’s not here. Maybe he doesn’t actually work in this building. I don’t know. I just know that I’m exhausted and I want to get back home to Charlie.”

“You can’t give up, Char. We’re so close. I can feel it.”

“You’re just an eternal optimist, Sage. You wanting this to be true doesn’t make it so. We’re both tired and we’ve got a long drive ahead of us. Let’s get out of here and get some dinner at a drive-thru.”

She stares longingly at the front doors. Even the security guards are no longer by the doors. I saw two leave earlier. Only one guard remains to work through the night. The pit bull of a receptionist left right at five o’clock. There’s no one here, especially not Caleb.

“We’ll think of something,” says Sage, and I nod.

“Yeah, we will. But not tonight.”

18

Charlotte

Two months later…

My hand trembles as I stare at Jason’s message. “Unbelievable.”

“What? What is it?” asks Jane as she places the last of the cupcakes in the travel container.

“It’s Jason. He’s not coming to the game with us. He knows it’s part of Charlie’s birthday gift and he was the one who mentioned going to a game.”

I seethe as I read the text again. Something came up. Won’t make it today. Have fun without me.

Unbelievable. As though it’s no big deal to break a promise to your son and then leave me to do the dirty work of telling him.

“Well, at least he showed up at the birthday party at home with his friends. You weren’t sure he was going to be there.”

I shake my head. “The expectations are so low that I have to content myself with him being an unreliable father to Charlie. That’s why I haven’t told Charlie the truth yet. It’s one thing to tell him that our ‘friend’ Jasoncan’t make it. It’s another to tell him that his father has something better to do.”

“Maybe it’s important.”

“I doubt it. He would have told me if it was.”

“Look on the bright side. Now you can sit back and enjoy the game with us and Charlie without having to worry about Jason.”

I shrug. “You have a point.”

“Of course, I do.”

I stare at the cupcakes. “Do you think they’ll allow us to bring those snacks into the ballpark? It’s been a while since I’ve seen a game, but I remember them checking bags years ago.”

“These are Casey’s tickets. They won’t harass his special guests. You know the Lions want to sign him, or at least that’s what he keeps telling Austin. They won’t give us a hard time.”

“It’s too bad Sage has that Yoga retreat this weekend.”

“I know. I can’t believe she’ll have to miss another opportunity to meet Casey.”

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