“Okay, sweetheart. We’ll make it work.”

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take,” I warned, “I need you to be patient with me and—”

“As long as you’re making the move, I can be patient.”

“—and I need you to come see me more often. I can’t keep waiting on you for three months at a time.”

“I’ll do my best, sweetheart,” he promised immediately, leaning in for a kiss.

We lay there a while, just watching each other. It had been so long since we’d done that, just spending time soaking each other in without arguments or sex between us. It was soothing in a way that I couldn’t have imagined.

“You want to start a family?” I asked him quietly, reaching up to run my fingers lightly over his lips.

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, but his voice was still husky as he continued. “Doesn’t have to happen tomorrow, or even in the next few years. But, yeah, I wanna see my babies growing in your belly.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

And that was that.

Apparently, I was moving to Oregon.

Chapter 43

Callie

It was almost four months after my birthday and there was no move in sight.

I’d started the process, giving notice at my job and packing boxes of little-used items in the apartment, but it seemed that one thing after another delayed my plans.

When I’d talked to my boss at the restaurant, he’d seemed sad to let me go but willing to give a good reference whenever I found a new job. Unfortunately, he’d asked me to take over hiring and training my replacement first. For a variety of reasons, I didn’t feel like I could say no. He’d not only trusted me when he hired a kid with little experience to manage his restaurant, but he’d also been really good about giving me time off when I’d needed it during Gram’s and Asa’s visits. I felt like I owed him.

The applications didn’t come flooding in. They came in more of a trickle, and it was three weeks before we had a pool of applicants large enough to start the interview process. Most of them had little experience and a few didn’t even realize what the job was. It was a nightmare.

By the time we’d finally hired someone, a month had gone by since we’d started the entire process. I was anxious to train him so I could finally move, and I’d gone to work with a spring in my step, thinking the end was in sight… and the new hire had never shown up. He literally never showed. Not that day or the week following. Because the new hire had been the only valid option in the slew of applicants, I had to start all over again.

Thankfully, the second hire turned out to be perfect. She was an older lady who seemed a little down on her luck, but anxious to work. I’d spent the last two weeks training her, had just finished my last day, and was feeling pretty damn happy that I could finally pack up the rest of my things and make my way to Asa. I missed the hell out of him.

I hadn’t seen Asa since my birthday, and I was trying not to resent the fact that he’d promised that he would visit and hadn’t. I knew he wasn’t staying away by choice. The same frustration I was feeling was in his voice every time we talked. We hadn’t planned for such a long delay, and it was wearing on both of us.

Work issues weren’t the only things that had me breaking out in hives on a daily basis. It seemed that everything was hitting me at once, and when Asa had opened the bottle of feelings that I’d closed up tight, I’d been unable to close it again.

Gram hadn’t been able to visit because she’d picked up some sort of virus and it was kicking her ass. I paced the floor every time I talked to her, the only outlet I had that wouldn’t make her worry, while she spoke to me in a raspy tone each night. She didn’t seem to be getting better fast enough, and while I knew it was because she was older and it really couldn’t keep her down for much longer, I still worried. I wanted to be able to take care of her, but it was impossible for her to drive, and even more impossible for me to go to her. For the first time in a long time, I hated the fact that I was no longer in San Diego.

Cody wasn’t helping my peace of mind, either. He’d begun calling me a couple times a week, and though I couldn’t put my finger on it, something was wrong. He never told me what was going on, but he wasn’t the happy and teasing brother I’d known all my life. He was moody and acted like he didn’t want to talk even though he was the one who made the call. I felt like I was walking on eggshells every time we spoke because anything could set him off, and when it did, he’d hang up and I’d have to wait almost a week for another call while he ignored all my attempts to contact him.

With both my remaining family members causing me to lose sleep at night, it took me a while before I noticed the change in Farrah. At first it was little things that could be easily overlooked—a day without makeup, or letting an extra week go by before she touched up the roots of her blonde hair. But soon, things were worse, and that’s when I began to worry. She was showing up at my house at all hours of the night, high as a kite, just to pass out on the couch. The bones in her chest were becoming more pronounced and her boobs became almost non-existent as she lost more and more weight. Even with fully fixed makeup, she couldn’t hide the dark sunken circles beneath her eyes.

She was scaring me, and she wouldn’t let me help her.

I was thinking of all those things, driving home, and trying to decide how I’d pack the house when Asa called me.