Page 69 of While You're There
“Okay,” she relented after a few more moments of consideration. She inhaled deeply. Jake was already pissed at Rhett. This whole situation, especially the reason she had to be the one to drive him here in the first place, was going to stir the pot in the worst kind of way. “Let me call him, though,” she suggested, easing back a few steps to pull her phone out of her back pocket.
“V…”
“I’m serious, Rhett. Let me handle Jake. You’re dealing with enough,” she insisted, already scrolling through her contacts to find his name. Now that a decision had been made, she needed to act. If she waited any longer to call, he wouldn’t be able to make it to Columbus and back before his shift, and she’d be stuck at the hospital until tomorrow evening.
“Okay, yeah.” He took a few steps away from her to give her space. He slumped against the frame of the entrance to the waiting area and watched her lift the phone to her ear.
It only rang twice before Jake picked up.
“Tori?” he answered in question. “What’s wrong, baby?”
His voice was thick and gravelly. He had obviously been sleeping.
“I’m okay. Rhett’s okay, too. But we need your help.” She glanced over at her husband where he stood. His face was pained, his arms crossed across his chest. There wasn’t an easy way to explain to Jake what was going on, and they both knew it. Part of her wondered if she should have sent Rhett away before making this call.
“I’m in Columbus right now, and I need a ride home. Rhett and I came down here because… because Chandler called him tonight and had an emergency.”
“What the fuck? What does that even mean?” She could hear him moving around, most likely getting dressed. Of course he wouldn’t hesitate.
“Chandler is pregnant,” she provided, trying to sound as matter-of-fact about the statement as possible. “Or she was. She’s bleeding a lot, and they think she’s miscarrying, so we’re at the hospital, and we’re waiting for them to confirm it.”
“He got her pregnant?” Jake growled into the phone. She closed her eyes, absorbing the statement and the vitriol in his voice while trying to steel her expression so Rhett wouldn’t know the context of what had just been said.
“Yes,” she finally replied. She lifted her eyes to meet her husband’s. No matter how much she tried to protect him, he knew Jake well enough to know how his best friend was going to respond. Rhett’s face was almost emotionless. Almost. She knew better than to fall for his apathetic mask.
“Can you come get me? I know you have to work tomorrow, but we drove one car down here, and we both decided that Rhett needs to stay.”
“I’ll be on the road in less than ten minutes, baby. Text me the address and where to park, okay?”
“Thank you, Jake.” She sighed as she felt some of the tension that had built up over the last several hours dissipate.
“Is Rhett there with you right now?”
“Yes,” she answered honestly.
“And yet you’re the one calling me… Hey, get up,” he muttered. Tori’s curiosity piqued at who he was talking to on his end. Did Jake have an overnight guest? She’d have plenty of time to get it out of him during their two-hour drive back to Hampton.
“Do you want to talk to…”
“I’ll talk to him when I get there,” Jake declared with finality. “I’ve gotta stop for some caffeine, then I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Okay, drive safe.”
She ended the call and sought out her husband one more time. She took a few steps forward and leaned into him, essentially boxing him in against the door jamb of the waiting room. Rhett had his gaze fixed down the hall, his posture still rigid, his arms still locked across his body. She reached out and pulled on each of his forearms to unwrap him, to force him to let her in.
“Jake will be here in a few hours,” she murmured into his neck as she wrapped her arms around his torso. Rhett didn’t reply, but she could feel him nod. “He wants to see you when he gets here.” He stiffened slightly, then nodded again.
Wordlessly, his hand found the small of her back. He started rubbing figure eights up and down the base of her spine. It was his go-to move whenever she had cramps or needed extra comfort. Trouble was, she wasn’t the one cramping or in need of his comfort right now. At least not physically.
She didn’t need anything from him now. She wouldn’t take what he didn’t have to give. Tori could feel herself building a wall, becoming a fortress. The foundation had started as soon as she read the text from Chandler. She didn’t want to come off as crass or cold, but she couldn’t let herself feel anything either. She had to protect her heart and be strong for Rhett. If she let herself think too much about what was happening… about what had been at stake a few months ago and what she had been willing to gamble to prove a point and dig her heels in the night of the Jake and Rhett Party… she would crumble.
She couldn’t crumble tonight. Not as her husband was breaking right in front of her eyes.
“I don’t know how we’re going to get through this,” Rhett confessed into her hair.
She didn’t know either. But she wasn’t willing to admit that to him. Not tonight. Not when he had so little to hope for, so little left to cling to.
“I don’t know how either, but I know we will. I promise we will.”
