Falling Back Together Read online

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see my boss’s cell number flashing at me. “This is weird. I thought Eleanor knew I would be out of the office this week.”

  Cali shrugged and nodded. “Your mom called her when we got to the hospital to tell her that you’d had a ‘severe’ panic attack.” Her fingers made quotations around the word severe, and her lips pursed. “Everything seemed fine. Your boss really has been great through everything.”

  I nodded in agreement as I missed the call and waited for the voicemail to pop up. A stern voice echoed into my ear after hitting play. “Margret, this is Eleanor. Call me back at your earliest convenience.”

  Usually Eleanor was sweet and cheery. Having her as a boss had kept me employed during the last year. Cali was right; she had been great to me. Any other boss would have tossed me out flat on my ass after one of my woe-is-me episodes. I had been out of work more times than I could count, and she was always supportive and never made me feel guilty about needing to take the time to grieve.

  I stepped into the formal living room to have a little bit of privacy. The dark cherry floors were gorgeous underneath the cream-colored suede couches, matching the kitchen’s adjacent wall. There was a bright red throw hanging over one armrest “for just a touch of whimsy,” as Eva had put it one night to me while she’d fluffed the pillows before the start of a dinner party years back. The Katzes’ home had been immaculately decorated, all thanks to Eva, Mitch’s stepmom-turned-runaway-whore.

  I dialed Eleanor and her stern voice was quickly barking on the other end. She was obviously pissed to say the least. I guessed everyone lost their patience with employees taking advantage and I had been skating on thin, cracking ice for far too long.

  “Look, Mags. We all know how hard the last year has been for you, but your department is counting on you. Either be here in two hours or we have no other choice than to explore other options. Margie had to call out this morning because of terrible morning sickness, Rick has paperwork coming out of his ears, and we have to start getting ready for employee reviews.” Her words were choppy and quick.

  I really did not need to work for a while. The Army, Randy’s and my relentless savings habits, and the generous salary I’d made at the hospital had me sitting on a few years’ worth of savings in the bank, and frankly, I did not see the point in being bullied or letting down my team members. So I formed the words and spat them out before I could change my mind.

  “Well then the other option I will be exploring is resigning. You will have my letter at the end of the week. Take care.”

  “If that is really what you want, I will file the necessary paperwork.”

  “Yes, it is.” And with that, the call was ended and I felt liberated.

  I had fallen into a routine of tolerating my job as a paper pusher, but there was something more in life that I needed, and seizing the day and quitting my menial job was just the beginning of a whole new me I was ready to explore.

  Four

  I took a deep breath, making my way back into the kitchen. Mitch and Buck were still standing next to the table, talking about the meeting we were all going to the next evening at the Civic Center.

  I cleared my throat to announce my presence, taking my seat again and clutching my coffee mug in my hands. Even though it was lukewarm, the hazelnut still consumed my nostrils, calming my jitters from just having quit my job.

  “Where’s Cali?” I asked after slurping down most of my cup’s contents.

  Mitch pointed to the stairs. “Maverick called.”

  The distain coupled with jealousy was heard loud and clear by both Buck and me. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little when Buck called him out on it.

  “You jealous, son?”

  Mitch flexed his jaw. “No, Dad. I just care. We don’t know this guy and she’s running out of a bad relationship. This is not the time for Cali to be making goo-goo eyes at her phone when a tattooed, coke-head rock star calls.” He looked over at me with wide, insistent eyes. “Come on, Mags. You have to back me up here!”

  I shrugged, setting my empty coffee mug down. “Cali is a big girl. It’s not like she can rush into anything right now anyway. Maverick is out on tour for a while. It’s just harmless flirting through a phone line. Let her have a little bit of fun.”

  Cali’s footsteps padded down the carpeted stairs and back into the kitchen. She giggled a, “Bye, sweetheart,” into the phone before beaming up at me. “Hey, how’d it go with work?” Cali plopped next to me and refilled both of our mugs.

  I stared down as the rising dark liquid, letting a faint smile start at my eyes and work its way down to my lips. “I, uh…” I took in a deep breath and finally spat it out. “I quit.”

  Cali clasped her hand over her mouth while Mitch blurted, “What the hell?”

  “Well, Eleanor told me that I could come into the office within two hours or I would have to explore other options. So I picked the latter and told her that I would have my resignation letter to her by the end of the week.”

  I was proud of myself, and I could tell that everyone else was too. For a while after Randy died, everyone told me to take some time for just me. My financial situation was fine, so why the hell not? I was only twenty-five for crying out loud. Most girls my age were still trying to figure out who they were. Even though I had already started a career, been married, and widowed, I let myself fall right into the category of “not having to have all the answers and know where her life is going yet,” and the freedom that came with my newfound place in the that world was quite amazing.

  Buck cooked a huge breakfast for all of us before he had to run to the office. Ever since Mitch had caught Eva cheating with Buck’s business partner, things for their real estate firm had turned upside down. Mostly because Buck was making the jerk cut his losses and walk away from the business. Buck basically gave Clark Bogacz the option of staying and his wife finding out about the affair or retiring early.

  While shoving his last piece of crispy bacon into his mouth, Buck scoffed about Clark and his naïve wife traveling all over Europe for the next six months. “Yup, I said good riddance to the both of them with a smile and a middle finger. I like being the only boss anyway.”

  Buck rubbed his full belly as he finished telling us the story. “At least Eva did one thing right in all of this. Got me a pretty sweet gold mine to sit on for a little while.” With that, we all cleared our plates and wished Buck a great day at work.

  After Mitch figured out where we needed to go to file all of the necessary paperwork and called his family lawyer to accompany us to the police station, we all got ready to head downtown. Nerves and jitters were flooding in, my hands were clammy and shaking, but I sucked it up and put on a brave face for Cali.

  “Mags, what if this whole thing just blows up in my face? Kyle is pissed and dangerous.” Her eyes were wide and teary as she laid her head on my shoulder to hug me before exiting the front door.

  I rubbed small circles on her back to try to comfort her while I looked up the stairs as Mitch jogged down to us. “Everything is going to be okay. Mitch and I are here for you always. No matter what, we’ll find a way to protect you.”

  The ride down to the station felt like a lifetime even though it was only a few blocks, but my nerves were soon calm, and before I had enough time to process what was going on, it was pretty much taken care of. Everything had gone more smoothly than I had expected. Our statements were about to be signed, the judge had issued our orders of protection, and the cops told us to let them know if Kyle tried to contact us for any reason while he was out on bail.

  The most difficult part of it all was that we were dealing with Kyle’s colleagues. He worked for the county in which he was arrested, and it made everything that much more personal and awkward. I could tell by the hushed tones and lingering stares that we were not all too welcome in the station.

  While signing my name on my statement, the officer in the room with me sat up straighter in his seat to give the pape
rs one more check to make sure everything was in order. His grey-green eyes were dull and frustrated and his lips were pressed tightly together, which turned them a pale pink, as he flipped through the pages.

  “All right, ma’am. Thank you for your honesty. Everything is here and accounted for.” His voice had a soft side to it as he looked at me from the other side of the metal table.

  I nodded and shoved away to leave the room. He met me at the door. Surprisingly, he was shorter than I’d thought he was going to be, looking at me almost at eye level. As he opened the huge metal door, he turned to me, his features softening.

  “This whole thing is pretty embarrassing for the department. I am sorry if Kyle hurt you or Mrs. Powell. I would have never taken him for the wife-beater type.”

  The officer bowed his head to stare at the floor while I walked past. I had no words. Nothing would form from my shaky throat. Having to just recall the entire evening and then having this man open up to me about it was, to say the least, unsettling. All I could do was pat the kind officer on his arm and whisper, “Thank you.”

  Cali and Mitch were waiting for me just out the double doors accompanied by Mitch’s family’s short and stocky, middle-aged attorney.

  She quickly turned to me with her bright pink cheeks and a thick Bostonian accent. “You must be Mags. I am Paulina Moores. So sorry I didn’t get here in time to go in with you, but the court house was buzzing this morning. Everyone kept stopping me in the hall. Those damn district attorneys sure love to chat your ear off at the worst freaking times.”

  Paulina grinned up at me while extending her tiny, pudgy hand. “It is nice to meet you. Thanks for trying. I think I did okay.”

  I winked at Cali, who was cradled in the crook of Mitch’s arm. It was sweet to see how comforting he had become for her. We all made our way into the parking lot to continue our conversation before Paulina’s lunch meeting with another one of her clients, an older woman who had lost her son in a horrific murder not too long before. The case had been all over the papers and news stations for months, and they were finally going to trial in the next few weeks.

  “I swear, this guy is as guilty as sin and a complete dirtbag who thinks there’s no way the murder weapon could possibly be pinned on him. Well I have another thing coming for him and there is no way he will see the light of day until he is ninety-seven!” She huffed for a few more minutes, and without missing a beat, Paulina spun to Cali and started talking to her about “frying the bastard that hurt such a sweet thing like you.”

  Even though Paulina was hysterical when it was just the group of us chatting, her entire demeanor shifted when it was time to get down to business. Her language and tone went from a bubbly cheerleader’s high-pitched squeak into a straight-edged, to-the-point tenor, letting the hard-ass side of her leap out.

  Outside in the warm fall air, our conversation shifted from the serious chatter about a court appearance for the charges we were pressing to joking about the headlines that were flying off the presses. The local newspaper had already caught wind of the incident and was running like wildfire to drag Kyle’s name through the mud.

  Cali handed me the paper she had been looking at with bold letters on the top reading: Cop assaults wife and friends when caught cheating.

  “At least they got it right and put the blame on Kyle.” Cali shrugged as she turned to talk to Paulina about setting up an appointment to file her divorce papers early the following week. It was so relieving to know that the news papers were backing us up and were not going to twist the story to save a crooked cop. Cali had enough to worry about without that added stress.

  Mitch dropped Cali and me off at his house and reminded us to lay low since Kyle was already out on bail.

  “I mean it, guys!” Mitch’s voice was stern as he climbed back into the driver’s seat of his truck and rolled down the window. “Promise me that you’ll keep yourselves safe for the next twenty-four hours while I’m on shift.” He was practically begging at this point, a little pissed because Cali and I had been trying to make plans to go get our nails done at our usual salon during the car ride home. We knew that he was just looking out for us, but feeling like prisoners was not something all too appealing.

  I sighed and trudged over to the side of his Ford, leaning into the window to hug Mitch. “I promise we will stay out of trouble and lay low.”

  Mitch smiled at us and waved as he backed out of the driveway. “Watch some movies and drink wine. At least you two are good at that!” he called as he pulled away finally, already an hour late for his shift.

  Cali and I went back into the empty house and tried to stay busy and keep our minds off everything that had been going on. After we took naps, showered, and watched a few episodes of awfully boring daytime television, Cali and I were going stir-crazy. It was only six in the evening, and with Buck working overtime to try to do two people’s jobs and Mitch stuck in a firehouse, we were running out of entertainment quickly.

  I huffed off the couch right as an audience started chanting, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” and turned off the TV. “Maybe they have some cards or Scrabble. We could get drunk and play games.”

  “Ugh. With everything going on, I don’t want to drink. I’m too paranoid to get drunk and pass out. Maybe one or two beers would be okay, but not wine. You know what that does to me!” Cali flipped through an old issue of Time that was on the coffee table with the saddest look on her face.

  “I hate that your bubbliness is gone, Cal! This is just not fair. I don’t want you to stew about it anymore. Kyle fucked up, not you.” Taking my seat next to Cali again, I turned on the TV to see a skinny transgender woman throw a chair at a chunky man in a wedding dress. “I guess the whole world has problems.” I tried to giggle, but Cali just rolled her eyes at me and sighed.

  “Mags, let’s go do something!” Cali stretched and got up from the couch. “I cannot take this anymore! He is not going to hold me prisoner in a house he doesn’t know I’m in. I’m sick of Kyle ruling my life.”

  “I agree.” I thought about it for a second and tried to think about somewhere Kyle would never look for us. “Let’s go to Charlie’s. You never took him there right?”

  Cali shook her head. “No, that’s our place. Let’s get ready.”

  We wiped off our makeup and dressed in jeans and Mitch’s t-shirts. It wasn’t much of a disguise for me, but for Cali it was a huge difference. She looked like she was preparing to go slumming for the afternoon compared to how she usually dressed.

  The frosted glass doors slammed shut behind us as we made our way to my car. “I am so glad that we’re getting out for a little evening fun!”

  Cali nodded in agreement as we watched the gorgeous sunset from the driveway for a minute. “Yeah, me too. Mitch worries too much!”

  And with that, I shifted into drive and we made our way to Charlie’s.

  Five

  Hearing the chime overhead as the familiar smell of our favorite joint wafted into my nostrils was the sweetest victory music I had ever heard. Even though Todd was not slinging drinks behind the bar, his flamboyant chirp still greeted us.

  “Well, well. Our little local celebrities are here. I knew it wouldn’t take too long before you two would waltz in here and dish out a little bit of gossip for me.”

  He was in one of his usual painted-on V-necks with faded black skinny jeans and converse high tops. Cali ran over to Todd, wrapping him in a huge hug that I happily joined. Todd kissed our hair and slurred over to a cute blond bartender to bring us a round of our favorite beers on him. Pulling away, Todd gave us a once-over, his eyes trailing from our thong sandals all the way up to Cali’s bright purple shiner.

  Gasping, he through his hand over his face. “Baby doll, I thought the rumors and newspapers blew this one out of proportion.”

  Cali locked her stare on the bar, sliding onto her stool. All she did was shake her head and gently touch her black, swollen eye. Todd and I took our seats on either side of her. Our beers wer
e delivered by the kind-eyed bartender, who introduced herself as Megan.

  I took a big gulp of the sweet nectar. “Todd, you have no idea what Cali has been through.”

  Her face contorted into a grimace and then a hard-lined scowl. She quickly shot around to look at Todd, spinning her seat with a hefty shove from the bar top. “That rat bastard was cheating and I kicked his ass to the curb. I’m not the one who has been through anything. He’s the cop who had to be bailed out and is now under strict watch and a restraining order. I wish I could be there when he’s served with the divorce papers so I could spit on him one last time!”

  Todd scooped her torso into his arms, kissing her on the cheek. “And this is why I love you two. Y’all are badass bitches in my book.”

  Cali’s gruff expression slowly melted into a grin as she hugged Todd’s bony side. The two of us giggled and agreed that Cali had said her piece and that was that. We were not going to bring it up anymore.

  We shot the shit with Todd and Megan for a little while until Todd decided to ask, “So, Mags, where in the hell is your tall drink of sexy sweet tea? Shouldn’t tough-guy Army man be your bodyguard while this fit is shitting the han?”

  Thankfully, his drunken slurring made me giggle. It was only a disguise to every hair on my body standing on end, my palms sweating profusely, and my heart thumping in my chest.

  Cali saw my hands shaking and diverted the conversation. “Well, I think someone has hit their limit!”

  Todd quickly waved it off. “Pish, posh! I have boy-toy pickings meh ups. So where is Walker? I want to drool over him!”

  Cali shot me a worried smile as she put her hand on my shoulder. “He’s reporting on orders right now. He should be back in a few weeks. Right, Mags?”

  I looked up at her, trying to smile, breathing in deeply and as levelly as possible. “Yeah, I think so. It’s hard to get ahold of him while he’s on base, so I’m kind of in the dark about what is going on with it.”