Page 23 of More Trouble
“Great idea! I’ll sort it out straightaway.”
“Thanks, Tori. I really owe you for this.”
“Don’t be silly. It’s the least I can do. Make sure you look after yourself, Willa.”
After Tori hung up, I considered her words. Scarlett would no doubt be receiving a lot of cards and fruit baskets and flowers over the course of the next few days. I wished, with all my heart, it was get-well cards she would be getting, not the sympathy ones. Cali Cross was a small town and a lot of people knew Wes. Thinking about him in the past tense was hard. If I was finding it tough, I hated to think how difficult it was for Scarlett.
To distract myself from thoughts of Wes, I busied myself in checking out the contents of their food cupboards. If I was going to be here a little while, I could at least do something useful by making sure Scarlett had a bunch of nutritious, easy to cook meals to eat. I’m sure the last thing she felt like doing was heading to the grocery store. Not to mention it would take her twice as long as usual, because she’d be stopped by numerous sympathetic well-wishers. I tapped a list of ingredients and ideas into my phone. Bulk cooking was one of the things I was good at. My own freezer at home was stacked with sensible sized portions of lasagna, chilli and pot roasts for when I wasn’t picking at leftovers from the events I catered. With the somewhat erratic hours I could work, it was so easy to defrost something and cook it in the oven. It’s exactly what I could do to help Scarlett and give her one less thing to worry about.
At the last minute, I discovered there weren’t any mushrooms and I’d left them off the original list I’d sent to Andre.
Without thinking, I wrote him a message:If you’re still at the store, can you get mushrooms? xxx
I hit send automatically as soon as I stopped typing. When the confirmation beep came through, I stared at it in horror. Why had I put kisses on the end? What was I thinking? Ugh. Maybe old habits did die hard. I spotted the three dots jumping as he replied:I was in the queue, but I’ll go back. See you soon.No kisses. Thank God. He probably thinks I do that to everyone now. I breathed a sigh of relief, then jumped as the phone pinged again. This time there was a smiley faced emoji followed by three kisses.
What the hell?
I stared at the screen unable to tear my eyes away.
“You look tired,” said Lyla, coming back into the room. “What time did you leave the city?”
I checked the clock on the kitchen wall, which showed it was shortly before nine. “Some time around three thirty this morning?”
“And you drove all the way here?”
“I did take a break.” I remembered the kindness of the waitress in the diner I’d stopped at for a rest break. When I went back, I’d have to try and stop in again, to say thank you to her. Despite myself, I yawned. Four hours of driving and the build-up of tension was beginning to take its toll.
“You should get some rest.” Scarlett hovered in the kitchen doorway. “Or at least take a shower.”
“I’ll be fine.”
She wandered over to me, like it was difficult for her to put one foot in front of the other. “I appreciate you being here.”
“As if I would be anywhere else at a time like this!” I hugged her. I suspected there would be a lot of hugging over the next few days. “And I can make you a freezer full of meals before I go. Starting today.”
“I’m not hungry,” she whispered into my ear, before extracting herself from my embrace.
Lyla and I exchanged a glance. We both knew it wasn’t only about Scarlett anymore. I hated to push Scarlett, but someone had to. And who better than her best friend?
“This isn’t about you.” I reached out and gently touched her stomach, barely swollen by her pregnancy. “Think of the baby.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “I can’t think about anything else. How I’m all alone with him or her. Wes will never get to meet his own child. How could he leave me like this?” She shook as her body was consumed by sobs again.
I hated to see Scarlett in such a mess. I felt utterly helpless. All I could do was hold her while she cried and cried. Lyla joined in, making it a three-way hug and I welcomed her strength. I didn’t think I could do this on my own either.
