“You're always starving.” Sam rolled his eyes.
“Hey, I'm eating for two.” Naomi punched him lightly in the arm.
As they all went to the table, Rylla realized she was feeling better. The pain of loss in her heart never left her, but her job and her friends helped her to heal. And who knew, maybe one day she would meet someone that she could envision spending her life with and have another child. Whether she did or didn’t have other children she would always treasure those four months with Elianna as the most precious of her life.
* * * * *
8:16 P.M.
Nate sat and stared at his TV, completely unaware of what was playing.
Evenings were the worst. Unless he was working, he just sat around his quiet, empty house, all alone. Days he had work to keep his mind occupied, and nights he could sleep, well assuming he was able to fall asleep, but evenings he just sat here, doing nothing. Nothing but think.
He really hated thinking.
Why was it he never thought about anything good?
All he did was rehash his mistakes over and over again until he came up with a million different scenarios of how he should have handled things. It was so easy to be smart after the fact when emotions weren’t running high, and you weren’t in the heat of the moment.
Too bad there was no such thing as a do-over.
Like he did every night about this time, he picked up his cell phone, opened his contact and stared at the number.
Some days he called, some he backed out.
He hated making the call. Every day he battled the decision that it was time to let it go. Nothing was going to change. There was nothing he could do about it. It was what it was. He should accept it and move on.
But he couldn’t.
How could he?
Was tonight a call night or a give up night?
Call.
He’d backed out the last few nights in a row. Tonight he had to call, he had to try, he never gave up hope that one night he would actually get through.
He dialed and waited. The phone rang and rang and rang. Eventually it clicked through to the message service.
“Rach, it’s Nate. Again. Call me back, please. We have to talk. You can't do this, you know you can't. I never agreed to it. It’s not fair, to any of us. Call me.”
He hung up and stared at his phone.
Then tossed it across the room where it landed with a thud on the carpet.
Rachel had no right to do what she did, but it hadn’t stopped her from doing it. If he’d been paying attention he might have known what she was planning on doing and found a way to stop her. But he hadn’t. He had been too wrapped up in work. Too busy with his friends. He had already known that things with Rachel were over even if neither one of them had wanted to admit it.
He might have known it was over, but he hadn’t expected her to flee the country the way she had.
Nate stood and stretched until he heard his back crack. He might have called Sam to see if he wanted to go for a workout, but his friend had already told him that Rylla was coming over for dinner. As much as he loved any chance he could get to see her, he just wasn't in the mood tonight, calling Rachel did that to him.
He could call Nick Sleigh, he’d joined the team at Sam’s company a couple of years ago and in that time they’d become good friends. But between his wife Aggie recently finding out she was pregnant with their first child, and Nick’s brother Luke’s upcoming wedding, he didn't have time for much else these days.
It seemed everyone was busy with family except him.
Because he had no family. Well, he had parents, and siblings, but it wasn't the same. He wanted a family of his own. By thirty-three he should have one. He shouldn’t be spending his nights home alone watching but not really watching TV.
What was he going to do once all his friends had kids?