Page 115 of Caged

For the second time in a week, I shared the heartbreak of getting the Dear John letter informing me my girlfriend was sleeping with my best friend.

“That’s why you didn’t go backpacking?” Ma asked.

“Yup.” I popped the p before finishing my beer.

“I’m sorry, Jay. I wish you would’ve let us help you,” she said.

“So do I.” I wasn’t the only person I’d hurt by keeping my distance. “I’m sorry, for everything.”I have a lot of making up to do.

“No need to apologize,” Ma said.

“Welcome home, Son,” Dad said, holding his beer over the coffee table for me to clink.

For the first time in a long time, I truly felt like I was home.

Chapter 44

Cate

My father was already up and drinking coffee when I came into the kitchen Wednesday morning. “Good morning.”

“Morning. Coffee?” he asked.

“I can get it.” Having my right arm in a sling didn’t mean I was helpless. And after a week of crazy, I wanted some normalcy.As normal as things can be. I poured a cup and added half and half. “How’d you sleep?” My couch wasn’t the most comfortable piece of furniture in the world. I looked over; he’d already folder the sheets and blanket and piled them neatly on the table.

“Well enough. I’d ask how you slept, but I heard you crying out.”

Which meant my nightmares kept him up, too. “Sorry if I woke you.”

“It’s okay. Want to talk about it?”

“No, they’ll lessen in time,” I said. The last thing I wanted was to rehash my time in the cage. “Thanks though.”

After we ate the breakfast he made, I asked, “Dad?”

He looked up from his laptop.He may have taken leave, but he felt compelled to check in. “Yeah?”

“What do you think about me returning to DC with you?”

“Why?”

What kind of question is that?

“I meant, why do you want to come to DC.”

“I need time to heal, and it’d give us more time together.” It wasn’t a total lie. I needed time away to think. And plan, in case things were too awkward with Jay and I had to leave SSI.

“This have anything to do with Jaden?”

His raised eyebrow told me he saw through my half-truth.

“No… Okay, a little, but only because I need time to think.”

“And you can’t think here?” he asked, getting up to refill his coffee. When he lifted the pot in question I nodded. Coffee tasted like a gift from heaven after a week without it.

“I can.” Did he not want me in DC? Was he playing the doting father but not serious about mending our relationship? “You don’t want me to come?”

“I didn’t say that. Listen, I’d buy your ticket right now if I thought you weren’t running away from your problems.”

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