Page 16 of We Thought We Knew It All
“I was stopping by to see if you were free for dinner tonight. You know, to catch up.”
“I don’t think so, no.” He turned to his computer and started typing, expecting me to leave.
Instead, I walked further into the room and took a seat. “Come on. It’s been a long time.”
“Whose fault is that?”
I knew I was going to have to answer for that sooner or later. I opened my mouth to speak, but he started talking instead.
“It’s an insult to Dad’s memory for you to have come.”
I clenched my fist at my side, willing myself to let him continue.
“He knew you hated him. You cutting me off doesn’t matter, but disappearing from his life hurt him. I think you were the only thing that could ever hurt him.”
“How can you…” I stopped myself. “Jay, you know what that man was like to me.”
“Just go, Jamie. Leave. Again. Just like you are probably planning to do soon, anyway. No one wants you here especially when you’ll just cut us off again.”
“Jay -”
“You could have been dead!”
His words sent a chill through my bones. “They would have informed my family if I was dead.”
“That’s not the point and you damn well know it. Just go back to your life. Make it easier on all of us. I don’t need Callie worrying about you like she did for years or Colby asking if I’d heard from you every time I saw him. Dad wasn’t the only one you hurt. Having you in our lives only makes them worse.”
“Is that how you really feel?” I tried to meet his eyes, but he refused.
“Please leave.”
His words swam through my mind, trying to latch onto my swirling emotions and failing. Disbelief clouded my thoughts. Jay had always been the most level-headed guy I knew. I’d been the volatile one in our relationship, always pushing him away. Sometimes you push too hard.
Jay’s wife Amber stood outside the office, her face holding a sympathy I didn’t deserve.
“Jamie.” She offered me a small smile. “He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Your father’s death has hit him really hard and today’s been rough.”
“Nothing he said in there was wrong. Just because he wouldn’t say it otherwise, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t think it.”
She pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at me. “I don’t know you.” She cocked her head to the side. “But I know my husband. That man is not him. Contrary to what he’s said, he has missed you.”
I let out a sigh. “That’s nice to say, Amber. But even if I believed it, it doesn’t change anything.”
I walked outside, pulling out my phone as I did. There was one more person to see. My best friend.
Jamie:Hey man, you up for a drink tonight?
As I waited for a response, I went back to the hotel to start packing. I didn’t know where I’d go. Maybe Tampa. There were a lot of ex-military men down there working for one of the government contractors in the area. It was a start.
By the time I decided to hit the sack, Colby hadn’t responded. When I stopped even reading his emails or texts, it was because they usually contained some bit of information about his sister and how she was doing. I couldn’t handle that and focus on my job. I needed to be free of her, of that life. Colby was just collateral damage.
That night, my familiar dream about Jessica trapped me, only this time it wasn’t Jess’s face that stared back at me as the combatant gripped the back of her head. It was Callie’s.
8
Callie
“I come bearing coffee!” Colby called, shouldering through the front door.
