Page 31 of Follow Me
Chapter Nine
The next week…sucked. Between feeling like his life was now stuck in limbo, and the two of them having to attend a friend’s funeral on Tuesday…
Kel’s fear kept a vise-like grip on his soul.
But despite all of that, Kel did his best to throw his heart and soul into working if he wasn’t with Mal.
Which he wasn’t, for most of the time. They were both pretty shaken by the sudden loss, as were many of their friends, but Niall and Doug fit Mal into their schedule for daily sessions, joined by Doyle for one of them because he flew home for the funeral.
And still Kel…waited.
It wasn’t like there was anything else he could do, other than field an angry call from Chelbie when she learned Mal wasn’t inpatient any longer after seeing her at the funeral.
That was fine. He could deal with her anger, and the silent anger of other friends he’d sensed at the funeral when they also realized Mal was back home now. Even his own grief took a backseat to everything else when he focused on Mal.
All of that he could deal with.
Because he kept the group text thread on his phone so he could look at it whenever he had doubts, the fact that Mal had not only maintained her weight since coming home, but she had gained another pound.
Maybe it made him a horrible person and an even worse friend, but every ounce of energy he had needed to be focused on Mal. If anyone couldn’t understand that, well, that was on them.
As they closed in on the two-week mark of Mal being home, Kel was working downstairs in the office late that Friday afternoon when he heard a vehicle approach outside and park.
Wasn’t unusual, because it was an industrial park.
But then someone knocked on the office door.
Shit.
He really didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, so he ignored it and kept working.
His phone dinged a moment later with a text from Niall outside of their group thread.
Open up, you sod. I’m parked right next to your truck. I know you’re in there.
The laugh barked free. Kel got up and opened the door for him. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I know. I decided to do a welfare check on my way home from work.”
“What?”
“Haven’t seen ye in our offices as of late.”
Kel sat and Niall took one of the other chairs. “Been busy. Besides, I told you, you should be seeing Mal.”
“We are, but ye need face-time with us, too. Especially after this week,” he quietly added.
Kel opted to go for the deflection. “What’s on your mind, Niall?”
The man arched an eyebrow at him but let it go. “Sunday night, dinner at June an’ Scrye’s. May an’ her husband will be there, too. We want Mal to start having social dinners again, sooner rather than later. This is the first step. Close friends who know what she’s going through an’ understand. Me an’ mine will be there, an’ Doug. Probably not Doyle, because he’s…not doin’ well right now, understandably.”
“We all took it hard. I know they were close.”
Niall’s gaze narrowed. “They’d just had lunch together. He was standin’ right there and saw it happen.”
Shock filled him. “Oh, shit. But…but he came to the office and joined your session with Mal.”
Niall sighed. “We all grieve how we grieve. At least Mevi is keeping him distracted.”
