Page 55 of Just Is Not Enough

Chapter Thirty

Picking Up the Pieces of Him

Kaden

Ilookatmywatchand see its about 2 a.m. when Luke starts to stir. Neither myself nor Fred have left his side. He rolls onto his back rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I pass him the water I put on the nightstand earlier.

“Do you want to talk about it? You don’t have to, but I am here if you do.”

He passes the glass back to me, collapsing back on the bed. “I don’t know what to talk about. I fucked up Brenda’s day.”

“And?” I push a little, knowing there’s more.

“And what? There’s isn’t anything else. I didn’t lose anything today.” He contemplates in silence, “I take that back, I lost my anger. I unloaded what I’ve been carrying around most of my life.” He keeps his eyes closed while he lets it all out. “I was more shocked and overtaken by adrenaline afterwards. I meant every word I said and don’t regret any of it. I’m just hoping Brenda and G will forgive me for ruining their party.”

“Luke, they are not upset with you. They were hurtingforyou. I saw it in their faces. And you are not to take the blame for ruining the party. Your father and uncle have the sole responsibility of that for what they did there and in the past.”

Luke doesn’t respond. I wrap myself around him, offering comfort until he is ready. I assume he is falling back asleep when we lay in silence for a bit, until he startles me.

“I need to take a shower.” He taps my arms motioning for me to unravel myself from his body. Rolling over onto my back, I watch him hurriedly get up and walk into the bathroom.

I hear the shower turn on and debate whether I should let him be or join in case he needs me. I don’t argue with myself long. I know I wouldn’t want to be alone, so I won’t let him do this on his own.

When I open the shower door, Luke has his forearms crossed on the shower wall in front of him, forehead resting against them and piping hot water falling down over his body. I arch my body over his back, scooping my arms under his, placing my palms flat on his chest.

I can’t control my tears when Luke’s body starts jerking, the sounds of his sobbing bouncing off the walls. I tighten my grip around him, applying as much pressure as I possibly can in this position. I attempt to hold us upright when Luke’s knees start to bend, but I give up knowing it’s a losing battle. I slide us to the floor as gently as possible, turning Luke around to rest his head against my chest. Unleashing emotions, he kept bottled up inside for years. With his arms locked around my waist, I think about how proud I am of this man finally being able to express to his parents how he really feels.

We lie there on the shower floor until the water starts to run cold. Luke’s breathing has returned back to normal, but he still hasn’t spoken a single word.

“C’mon, Bug. I need to get you out of here before we freeze to death.” He complies without a word while I help him to his feet.

I dry us off quickly while Luke leans into the counter with his hands against the sink’s edge, head bowed between his arms. I steer him towards the bed and get us under the covers where Luke hangs an arm and leg over my body, his face nuzzled on my collarbone.

“I love you, Luke.” I whisper as I kiss his wet hair.

“Thank you,” his voice barely audible but I know those words mean much more than they appear to in this moment.

I reluctantly went to work today when Luke woke up forcing me to go, reiterating that he was fine and didn’t want me to mess up my patients’ schedules. I momentarily protested but realized he wasn’t going to budge on the matter. I compromised and had Kelsey reschedule some of my morning appointments to early evening tonight for anyone that could make it on short notice. Keeping my afternoon patients on the books for the day before them.

Kelsey can sense something is going on, but she doesn’t hammer me with questions, thankfully. By the time I finish with everyone on the books it’s about 5:30 p.m.. When I get back to my office, I check my phone again to make sure I didn’t miss any messages from Luke. Instead, I find almost a dozen texts from another unknown number. It’s obvious right away they are from Tyler, except the nature of them has escalated. The messages started coming in about an hour ago.

you think changing your number will make me go away? It’s a lot easier to find a phone number than you think Kaden

or did your little boyfriend make you do it?

maybe he should mind his own fucking business

you were fine before you met him

you don’t need him Kaden. just stay away from him

I will hurt him if I need to

is that what I need to do to get you to leave him?

you don’t belong to him

you’ll be sorry you ever met him I promise you that

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