Page 23 of Let It Breathe
“Clay. Um, hello. Hi. Good evening.”
“Just wanted to make sure Sheila’s okay to drive,” he said. “I’m heading past there on my way back to the hotel. Eric said you guys were drinking wine, and if she’s had too much, I’m happy to pick her up.”
“Oh,” Reese said, gathering her bearings. “I’m pretty sure she’s fine. One bottle split three ways over the course of two hours—” She held the phone away from her ear. “Sheila, you okay to drive?”
“Is that my dashing and considerate husband? He’s so getting lucky tonight.”
“Um, no. No, it’s Clay.”
Sheila looked up from her station on the sofa. “Clay?”
“Offering a ride.”
Larissa grinned. “I can think of a lot of women who’d take him up on that.”
Reese rolled her eyes and put the phone back to her ear. “We’re all fine, but thanks for the offer.” She hesitated, not ready to end the call, though she wasn’t sure why. “Everything okay there?”
Clay cleared his throat. “Yeah, sure. Just catching up on old times—college, girls, jail terms, stuff like that.”
Reese turned her back to the sofa so her cousin and friend wouldn’t see her face. “Good. That’s good. Reconnecting with old friends is always, um?—”
“Reese?”
“Yes?”
There was a long pause, and Reese pictured him running his fingers through his hair, his frown making little creases between his eyebrows. She waited, wondering why the hell her heart felt like someone was cinching a piece of twine around it.
“It was good to see you again today.”
“Right,” she said. “Good to see you, too.”
There was a long pause, and Reese could hear Clay’s breathing, low and shallow and almost warm in her ear.
“I missed you,” he said.
Reese bit her lip, not sure what to say to that. There were a lot of things she’d missed about him—the easy conversation, the wicked sense of humor, the smile that made her stomach flutter no matter how hard she tried to pretend it didn’t.
There were a lot of things she hadn’t missed—the constant worry, the calls from jail, the promises that this time, this time, he’d stay sober.
But had she missed him?
She took a breath, started to speak, then stopped. On the other end of the line, Clay cleared his throat.
“Look, about that night at Finnigan’s five years ago?—”
“You’ve already apologized, Clay.”
“I know. I know I apologized that you got hurt, but?—”
“You weren’t the one who threw the punch.”
“No, but if you hadn’t been trying to pull me out of a bar fight, you wouldn’t have gotten hit at all. Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry I didn’t come see you in the hospital.”
Reese bit her lip. “You were in jail. And I was only there a few hours. It was just a broken nose.” She hesitated, wondering why he’d brought it up at all. “You kinda disappeared after that. Just left without telling any of us where you were going.”
“I know. I’m sorry about that, too. And I’m sorry you guys couldn’t visit. I had to get my life together, and I needed to distance myself to do that.”
“I understand. I appreciated the call from rehab so at least I didn’t worry.”
