Page 89 of What He Doesn't Know

Jeremiah’s eyes widened as his parents looked to each other in confusion, questioning Cameron in their next glance.

“I’m so honored to be the one to tell you that we are going to sponsor a new home being built for you and your family, right on the same lot where your old one existed. You can have it built the way it was or with whatever upgrades you want — just say the word. And,” he added over the commotion of the crowd. “The next three years of your tuition is on us, too.” His eyes found the parents then. “We hope this will help you find comfort again, and allow you plenty of time to get back on your feet without any worry that Westchester won’t be your home anymore. Once a family, always a family.”

He went to say something else, but was cut off by Jeremiah throwing his little arms around his neck and hugging him tight as he sobbed. The crowd erupted into a thunderous applause, everyone coming to their feet, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from Cameron’s face as Jeremiah hugged him.

Because I knew he was thinking about our son.

I blinked, opening the floodgates on the tears I’d been holding back as my hands covered my mouth. I couldn’t swallow, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but stand there in the eye of the emotional tornado sweeping through everything I thought I knew and completely destroying it.

Reese wouldn’t take his eyes off me, and when I finally allowed myself to return his gaze, I knew he’d ask the question I couldn’t answer.

“Charlie.”

His hand reached for me but he stopped himself, letting it fall back to his side as the crowd continued to cheer. He glanced at Cameron on stage, and when his eyes found mine again, I saw the absolute terror behind them. I saw the same fear I felt, the same shock and confusion.

“Charlie,” he repeated. “Don’t look at me like that. Don’t… you can’t…” He shook his head, stepping just an inch closer. “You have to tell me. I have to know. What does this mean? What are you thinking?”

But I couldn’t answer.

The crowd’s cheers morphed into a loud siren, the stage lights blinding me in a flash before everything went dark.

Reese

I’d never been so sick in my entire life.

I couldn’t eat, couldn’t even drink a damn beer as I paced my house and waited to hear from Charlie. Catching her in my arms when she fainted back stage should have brought me comfort. The ambulance was called, and she was cleared as being okay before I’d even left the school.

But I didn’t feel comforted, because though I’d been the one to catch her when she fell, it was Cameron who was holding her when she woke up.

I didn’t even bother to crack the door in my house as I lit up the fifth consecutive cigarette and smoked it aggressively as I paced. Back and forth, back and forth, from the kitchen to the door, my eyes catching on the fort Charlie and I spent the entire weekend in each time I passed it.

We should be together under those sheets right now, but instead, she was halfway across town withhim.

I’d been so naïve when the morning had started, comforted by a false assurance that everything would be okay and she would be mine now. It’d been so easy to feel that way after three nights of having her to myself, after hours spent talking and touching and sealing what I’d always felt for her, and what I’d known she’d always felt for me.

Even at the concert, when I held her in the dark costume room, I only halfway felt the fear I knew my words portrayed. I was scared, sure, but at the same time I was confident. I told her I’d wait forever, knowing in my heart that I wouldn’t have to wait long.

That was, until Cameron showed up.

The second I saw him on stage, my stomach twisted into the most horrid knot of my life. Watching Charlie’s emotions as he talked, as he spoke directly to her heart — it killed me. I couldn’t touch her, couldn’t pull her into me, couldn’t force her to look at me instead of him and remember everything she’d felt the past few days.

I could only watch, helplessly, as my opponent rolled up his sleeves to fight back.

It was the last thing I expected him to do.

Now, I didn’t know what Charlie was feeling. I didn’t know where her head was at as she talked to her husband in their home after being in mine all weekend. Would she still tell him about us? And even if she did, would she tell him I was her choice, or had tonight changed everything?

I sucked my cigarette down to the butt before cursing and snuffing it out in the ashtray on the counter, raking my hands back through my hair. I was going to go mad in the hours that stretched between now and when I would see her at school the next morning, and there was nothing I could do about it.

A timid knock at the door stopped me dead in my tracks before I could light another cigarette. It balanced between my lips, hanging there limply as I stared at the door as if I’d imagined the knock.

But then it came again.

The cigarette dropped to the floor as I sprinted for the door, tearing it open as I sent a prayer up to whatever God was listening to find Charlie on the other side of it. My heart pounded with the force of a cannon, but at the sight of the literal last person I expected, it stopped altogether.

“Surprise!”

Blake smiled at me from the other side of the screen door, suitcase in hand. My hand was frozen on the door knob. I blinked, wondering if the image would clear, if it was just a hallucination or my worst nightmare coming to fruition.