“No, babe. I don’t think he’s violent,” he tells her softly, stepping away from the window and getting down on his haunches in front of her.
“He’s just stupid,” Lea says, reading the situation. Rhonda looks from Ben to her and nods, taking a relieved breath.
“Go get your phone, baby,” I tell Lea, and her head swings my way. “I want you to call your lawyer and ask what the fuck is going on.”
“Good idea.” She gets up off the couch and disappears down the hall, coming back a few moments later with a phone and a long charger, which she plugs into the wall and phone. “The battery’s dead,” she explains. That’s when I notice a slight blush on her cheeks and her bottom lip looks darker than normal, like she was biting it. The urge to kiss her again sits in my gut as I watch her.
“I have fifty voicemails,” she mumbles absently then presses a couple more buttons and puts the phone to her ear. “Hi, Elaine, this is Lea. Is Tom available? Okay, thanks.” She looks up at me. “He’s there,” she says, so I nod while fighting back a smile; she’s so damn adorable.
“Hi, Tom. Yes, I heard. He showed up here and told me the news,” she says, and her knuckles turn white as she listens to him talk. “No, I don’t want to be married to him anymore. That’s why I hired you and filed for divorce in the first place.” Her eyes close and her head tips back. “Well, if we have to do that, then please go ahead. Just send me the papers.” She sighs and her eyes open back up, locking on mine once again. “Okay, we’ll talk tomorrow. Thanks, Tom.” She lowers her head and drops her phone on the table. “He wasn’t lying. He didn’t sign, so now I have to file a petition with the courts.”
“What a jerk,” Rhonda chimes in from her spot on the couch, where Ben has her tucked under his arm.
“I just don’t understand why he’s doing this,” Lea says, sounding exasperated.
“’Cause he’s a dick,” I remind her.
“Yeah, he is. My mom hated him from the moment they met.”
“Really?” That surprises me. I figured that at least at the beginning she must have thought he was good for her daughter. Good enough that she never told me where Lea was, good enough that she kept us apart for fifteen years.
“She thought he was sneaky,” she furthers making me angry.
“Why did you marry him then?” I growl, and her eyes swing from me to Rhonda and Ben before meeting mine again with tears filling them.
“Sorry, excuse me.” She pushes past me, heading down the hall. My hands fist and I look at Ben, who jerks his head once. I know I need to keep my cool but I cant stand the idea of her with anyone and it pisses me off to know that he didn’t do right by her.
“Fuck,” I mutter heading down the hall tapping the door once before entering her room finding her standing, facing the wall, with her head down and shoulders hunched.
“Just give me a minute.” I hear tears in her voice and it cuts right through me.
“Come here, Lea.” Her head shakes and her shoulders hunch farther.
“Lea.”
“No,” she whimpers like she’s in pain. “Why I married Ken isn’t something I can talk to you about.”
“For now, I’ll let you have that play, baby,” I tell her, holding my spot near the door.
“I just wish, for once in my life, things would go my way.”
Those words crush me and force my feet to move to her. I spin her around and tuck her into the front of my body, resting my chin on top of her head.
“It’ll get better, Little Lamb.”
“I’m sorry about the kiss. I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t even know what I was thinking,” she whispers, pressing her face into my shirt-covered chest.
“I kissed you back,” I remind her. Her head lifts and her beautiful eyes still wet with tears meet mine looking confused. “We have a lot of shit to talk about Lea.” I tell her softly while lifting my hand to push some of her hair out of her face and curve my fingers around her jaw. “The time will come for us to do that, but you’re right; right now isn’t the time. Right now, I want you to work on getting stronger.”
“I’m tired of being strong,” she whispers then lowers head and her voice until it’s almost impossible to hear her. “I wish for once I was the one being taken care of.”
Fuck me. Her saying those words kills me. My arms convulse around her, wanting to take her away, to protect her from everything and everyone. I never thought about it like that, never thought about how much strength she had to hold within her tiny body in order to survive losing her dad, to stay away from home, from me, to divorce someone she had vowed to love, to watch her mother die.
That statement was a game changer. Lea needs someone to be strong for her, to hold her hand and show her the way. I know it won’t be easy, but I know that if we come out of this together, it would all be worth it. I will just have to deal with the fall out head-on when it happens, and pray this shit doesn’t blow up in my face.
“You okay to go back out there?” I ask after a long moment, rubbing my hands down her back.
“Yeah.” She nods, taking a step away from me and wiping her eyes again, then her head tilts back and our gazes connect. “Thanks for…” She swallows then more tears fill her eyes. “Thanks for being my friend,” she mumbles then ducks her head without giving me a chance to reply, and leaves the room.