Like He Never Left

chapter 27

Warning! This is a hell of an emotional rollercoaster for a chapter, so buckle in and grab onto something because here we go!

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We pull out of the long, winding driveway of the plantation and head back to Martha's. 

I haven't been able to stop fidgeting, and I really don't know what to do with myself. I want to call Brooke, but Josie's right there. 

My leg subconsciously bounces up and down as I think of what I'm going to find when I arrive. 

"Easy, Colt. You're shaking the whole truck," Josie chuckles, and I can't believe that she's here with me. That she's still willing to put up with my bullshit. 

I press my heels firmly into the floor of the truck. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She pauses to glance at my phone on my lap that I've been messing with. "Call her."

"I—"

"Should call her, I know. That's what I'm saying." She smirks, and I shake my head in disbelief. Fucking women.

I do call her. 

Ten times. 

By the eleventh time the automated robot lady picks up the phone instead of Brooke, I'm about ready to have a mental breakdown. I grip my head in my hands, wondering what the fuck I'm going to do about this. I know she's mad, but I didn't think mad enough to give back her ring. 

Fucking women.

"Talk to me, Colt." Josie interrupts my thoughts, and I shake my head. 

"Thanks, but you don't need to bother yourself with it. It's a massive clusterfuck that even I don't understand."

"Yeah, and who better to understand clusterfucks?"

I sigh deeply and nod. "Are you sure? It's okay, really."

"I swear. Wouldn't ask if I wasn't."

My lips roll between my teeth as I think about what to say, and I recall Sue's words. 

"She's jealous. Of you, Tommy, SueEllen, anyone down here, and it's frustrating me." I dive in deep about how she bought the tickets without giving me any notice for work purposes, then how she got mad at me for not spending time with her. I tell her about our fight, how I said what I said and then I tell her all about today, how her fake affection was all for show. 

"Yeah, I'm going to look at that arm when we arrive. Just to be safe," she comments with a tone made of steel, knuckles turning a little white on the steering wheel. 

"I just don't know what more I can do to show her that I'm sorry. That I'm trying to fix everything."

"Fuck that, Colt," she spits. 

"What?"

"Stop with your 'oh woe is me' bullshit and come to your senses. You're not the only one in the wrong here."

"I'm just trying to cut her some slack. It's a crappy thing to get put in the middle of, and don't I deserve this?"

"That doesn't give her any excuse to be a brat about all of this. She's known for a long time now what's gone on. She's had plenty of time to get over it. You've done nothing but prove yourself to her again and again. If she can't see that you've chosen her, and if she's so insecure in your relationship that she feels the need to fake it in front of your friends, then she's the one in the wrong. If what you said is true, then she planned this, and she knew what she was walking into. But you know what, we accepted her. And now for her to throw our kindness back in our face? For absolutely no reason? I'm calling bullshit. There's something else at play here, and I don't think she's being completely honest with you." She gets angrier and more worked up the more she speaks, and her words hit home a little too closely. I don't like that what she's saying is making sense.