Page 42 of Rome
“Smells good in here. You made breakfast?”
“Yeah, I just put your plate in the fridge. I’m gonna head out to the shop early today. We have a guy coming out to do the quarterly service on our autoclaves, and he’ll be there by nine so he can get in and out before we open.”
I was waiting on the guy to finish up when Lia called to tell me that Abby was ready to talk and wanted me to come over at five-thirty this evening.
“Does that work for you?”
“I’ll make it work,” I told her. “How is she today?”
“She’s not hysterical anymore. I think she’s just sad and hurt now, more than anything. Her BP wasn’t too bad this morning, all things considered, and she is seeing her obstetrician early this afternoon.”
“I don’t suppose she wants me to go to that appointment with her?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope, I’m going with her. Just be here at five-thirty. I’m taking E-man out to dinner so you two can have some privacy to talk.”
“I’ll bring dinner for Abby and me, then.”
“OK. She hasn’t had much of an appetite, but maybe you can convince her to eat.”
The rest of the day passed at an excruciatingly slow crawl because I was so damned anxious to see Abby.
I picked up an order from her favorite Chinese restaurant on the way over, arriving at our house almost ten minutes early. I was greeted by Ethan, who just assumed I had come home from work early. He was excited to be going out to dinner on a school night, and even more excited since Lia was taking him to the pizza place he loved.
I finally got to lay eyes on Abby about twenty minutes after I arrived. She came downstairs to hug Ethan before he and Amelia left, and she didn’t even once glance my way. My eyes devoured her, and my gut twisted when I saw the dark circles under her eyes, made even worse by how pale she seemed. She was dressed in a pair of the leggings that I loved so much on her, with an oversized T-shirt stretched tightly across her stomach.
The silence was pretty damned awkward once they left. I told Abby that I’d brought dinner and followed her to the kitchen. We sat down at the kitchen table, where I’d set out plates, silverware, and a bottle of water for each of us. Abby didn’t say a word as she scooped a few of her favorites onto her plate. I watched her carefully, noticing that she pushed her food around the plate, but didn’t actually eat more than a few bites.
“You need to eat,” I said softly, as it became clear that she wasn’t going to. She dropped her fork down onto her plate with a clatter, and I winced at the sound.
“I’m not really very hungry.” She still avoided looking at me, choosing instead to stare at the collection of food containers in the middle of the table.
“I know, Abs. I’m not either.” I pushed my half-eaten plate to the side. “Can we go into the living room to talk?”
She nodded, and pushed back her chair, and I jumped out of mine to help her to her feet, as I’d been doing since her pregnancy had made getting out of chairs difficult.
“Don’t.”
She snapped out that one word, and I froze, then backed off and let her do it herself. I took a deep breath, my hopes for tonight’s talk dying a slow death as every minute passed. My stomach clenched, and I was afraid I was going to be sick. I shook off the feeling, telling myself to man the fuck up as I followed her into the living room.
She sat at one end of the couch, clasping her hands tightly together in her lap. I chose to sit in the chair closest to her, so I could face her. I wasn’t sure how to begin, but I was afraid if I didn’t say something, we would spend the rest of the evening in silence.
“Lia said you had a doctor’s appointment today. Did everything go OK? How’s your blood pressure?” Her body stiffened, and I was afraid she’d gotten bad news.
“My blood pressure was OK,” she said tightly.
“Good. I’ve been worried.” I sighed. “Look, Abs, I’m not sure what to say, and I don’t want to upset you anymore than I already have. I’ve tried to give you space, but baby girl, I’m going crazy here not knowing what you’re thinking. I know we can work this out. Please tell me you believe that?”
After a moment, she started talking, her voice low and raw, and I could tell she was holding back tears.
“I’m sorry for throwing the remote control at you the other day.”
I put my hand up to stop her. “No, Abby, you have nothing to be sorry about. Please don’t apologize to me for anything you say, or anything you have to do while you’re dealing with this. Let it all out, baby girl. You need to get all your feelings out in the open, so we can deal with them. We need to talk it out so we can move on, so we can get back to the you and me we’ve always been.”
She reached up to wipe away a tear, and I wanted to hold her so fucking bad it was all I could do to keep my ass in the chair.
“I made an appointment for us with a marriage counselor. Would you be willing to go with me?”
Her head snapped up and she looked at me for the first time since I’d walked through the door tonight.
