Page 43 of Sunday

“We might as well give him my room as a nursery. I can move in with you.”

“Bet.”

“That was easy.”

“What’s that?”

“Making you happy.”

“I’ve been happy for a while, Sunday. You make me happy. I think I had to go through the bullshit with Taylor to get where I am. It was all a necessary part of His plan.”

“I’m glad it landed you here.”

“Me too,” I replied before brushing my lips against hers. “Me too.”

Sunday

“Thanks for meeting me here today, Sunday.”

I glanced nervously around and squirmed in my seat. I wasn’t sure what this meeting would lead to, but I knew that it was the least that I owed her.

“You’re welcome.” I toyed with the handle on my purse as I stared at her. “I was, . . . uhm, . . . surprised to hear from you.”

She smiled brightly back at me and nodded. “I know. I didn’t think you would reply, and when you did, I was pleasantly surprised.”

“So . . . how, uhm, how have you been doing?”

I cast a tentative gaze at the wheelchair she was sitting in. I felt like such an idiot for asking that question. How did I think she was doing?

“It’s okay, Sunday. It’s fine for you to ask me that question. Just because I’m stuck in this chair does not mean that I don’t have quality of life. If I weren’t in this chair, you would easily have asked me the same thing.”

“If you weren’t in that chair, I would already know how you were doing.”

“True.”

A softness touched her voice and eyes, but then she smiled brightly.

“Honestly, being in this chair has made me a better person and taught me to understand what really matters. Relationships. Quality of life.” She looked up at the ceiling as though she was searching for that final thought. “Forgiveness.”

A smile graced my old friend’s lips and warmed my heart.

“Layla, I’m sorry for what I did back then.”

She smiled gently at me and reached across the table for my hands.

“Honey, it’s okay. I have truly forgiven you from the bottom of my heart. We were foolish teenagers doing stupid things back then. I had no right sneaking out of the house and going to that party anyway.”

“And I should have . . . never been driving in that condition.”

“It wasn’t even that for me back then. I wasn’t upset with you about that. We all were doing things we shouldn’t have. I knew how Derek could be when you went against him, and I always worried about you. I worried that he was physically abusive to you and that you were hiding it away from the rest of us. He was very volatile, and the way he talked to you and snatched you around let me know that he was abusive.”

“He was. And there wasn’t an excuse for it, but it came out whenever he’d been drinking.”

“Which was almost always.”

I nodded.

“You know what hurt the most?” she asked.

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