The Journey Home(26)
Author: Kelly Elliott

“He won’t even look at her,” Monica said, her voice cracking.

“Why? I don’t understand?”

“It’s simple—he blames himself for Zoey’s death.”

I shook my head. “Why?”

Monica gripped the steering wheel and sighed. “Jack found out from Zoey’s cousin that Zoey knew all along about you and Cale.”

“How in the world would Zoey know?”

“I told you! You know, that day when we were talking about Cale and your feelings for him? I always thought that Zoey was listening in on our conversation. You didn’t believe me. Well, she was, and the moment Cale told her his name, she realized who he was and set out to win him over. That’s why she just went full force on him. It was Zoey who was always bragging about how much Cale loved to fuck. It was her. She wanted it that way. Cale barely touched her since he saw you again. Then, when he found out she’d tricked him into the pregnancy, things really changed. He told Jack he wanted to have feelings for Zoey, but couldn’t, because of his feelings for you.”

I looked away and tried to let everything sink in. I shook my head. “If he didn’t have feelings for her, why would he marry her?”

“Pressure from both their parents. He was trying to do the honorable thing, Maddie.”

I held back my tears. “You’re on Cale’s side now?”

Her eyes widened as she gave me a look at a stoplight. “I didn’t realize we had sides, Maddie.”

I stared out the window in silence.

“You and Andre had sex while in Italy, right? I mean, you’ve been sleeping with him for a while now.”

“Excuse me?”

Monica raised an eyebrow at me. “You heard me.”

“What the hell does that have to do with any of this?”

Monica pulled into my driveway, parked, and looked at me. “It has a lot to do with it, Maddie. You sit here and act pissed off because Zoey and Cale had sex. He was having a baby with her. They dated. They were together. He had no idea that Zoey even knew about you guys. He had no idea she was playing him. He tried to do the right thing. Did they sleep together? Yes. Did Zoey exaggerate their sex life? Very much so. But don’t sit there and judge Cale when you’re fucking Andre while your heart belongs to someone else.”

She got out of the car, slamming the door behind her and heading for my front door.

I sat there in a stupor. Zoey had played all of us. Somehow, I think I knew it when she told me she was pregnant. It was in her smile. I dropped my head back against the seat.

“This just sucks,” I whispered, pushing the door open. I didn’t want to admit that Monica was right. So I did what I always do.

I pushed my feelings aside.

I SAT ON the deck and looked out over the dark water. I hadn’t heard any voices in about an hour. I still hadn’t seen my daughter yet. I let my mother name her when the hospital said they needed a name for her birth certificate. I didn’t deserve to name her. I didn’t deserve to be her father.

I took another swig of beer.

I could feel it the moment she stepped onto the deck. The energy in the air changed and goose bumps moved across my skin. I closed my eyes. The last time I’d seen her was the night I’d had my fingers buried inside her warm body—then insulted her in a drunken rage. I wasn’t drunk this time. Yet.

“Cale?”

“I thought you were in Italy?” I heard her suck in a breath.

“You knew I was in Italy?” she asked.

I laughed. “Well, when my best friend is dating your best friend, I find things like that out. But we don’t have anything to talk about, Maddie. You made yourself clear the last time we talked. You remember that night, don’t you, Maddie?”

She approached me. “Fuck you, Cale. Stop acting like a prick and get in there and bond with your daughter.”

I let out a gruff laugh. “She doesn’t need me.”

Maddie pulled a second chair over, scraping it against the deck. She sat down directly across from me and gave me a once-over.

“You look like hell.”

My eyes locked with hers. Those beautiful green eyes—I always found myself getting lost in them.

I tipped my beer back and drank the last of it. I sat it down on the table and said, “Well, I guess I would, since the mother of my child died and left me alone to raise our baby. Plus, you know, I’m the one who probably caused her death in the first place.”

I reached for another beer. I had ten of them all lined across the table. Maddie grabbed it from my hand then gathered up all the full beers, dumping them all in the porch garbage can before sitting back down. I glared at her as I held my hand out.

“Give me my beer back.”

She shook her head. “No.”

I laughed. “It’s my fucking house. Get the hell out and leave me alone.”

“Again, fuck you, Cale.”

I gave her a smug look. “What do you want from me?”

She folded her arms across her chest. It caused her breasts to ride up a little further in her shirt. Her nipples were hard and pressed against the light fabric of her top. What I wouldn’t give to come home every night and make love to her.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Leave me alone, Maddie.”

She stood up and looked down at me. She turned on her heels and walked away. “There ya go, Bella. Doing what you do best,” I called out after her. I hadn’t noticed that she was carrying the trashcan full of my beers with her.

Fuck.

I was about to stand up when I felt cold water all over my body.

“Jesus Christ! What the hell?” I jumped up and stumbled backward. I turned and looked to see Maddie standing there with a smile on her face holding a bucket.

“You’re done. This ends right now. Stop moping. Zoey died because she did something she shouldn’t have. She got pregnant. Her fate was sealed the day she decided to trap you with the pregnancy. There was nothing you could have done for her. The doctor told her that her heart was too weak to take the additional stress of a pregnancy. Her whole body was too weak. She knew, Cale. She knew she wasn’t going to make it. Her jealousy consumed her and it clouded her judgment. Why do you think she always said she hated being pregnant? You didn’t kill her. Her own actions sealed her fate.”

I stood there, soaking wet. I could only tell that I was crying when the heat of my tears warmed my face.

Maddie set the bucket down and placed her hands on her hips. “Go shower and change. We are going to meet Lily together for the first time.”