Things We Didn't Say_ A Novel - Kristina Riggle [40]
“Dylan!” she shrieks into the phone. “Dylan?”
Then she starts sobbing his name over and over, slumped on the kitchen counter and mumbling about the dropped call.
I pick myself up off the floor as Michael comes running down the stairs. I wipe the blood from my face from where I bit my lip hard in the fall, and allow myself a bittersweet recognition that when Dylan decided to call home, he called me.
Chapter 14
Michael
Mallory sobs on the counter and Casey is on the floor with blood on her face but what draws my attention is that Mallory is sobbing our son’s name. Casey picks herself up so I go to my ex-wife shouting, “What? What happened?”
“She wouldn’t give me the phone,” wails Mallory, and that’s when I notice she’s holding Casey’s cell. “And now he won’t answer.”
I look questioningly at Casey, who’s applying a damp paper towel to her lip. A circle of pink spreads.
“Dylan called,” she says, examining the towel. Her voice is steady. “I couldn’t make out where he was, but he says he’s fine. He was somewhere with a loudspeaker.”
Mallory tenses. I’ve seen that look. I grab her wrist and pry her fingers off the phone.
If Dylan called this number, this phone has become the most important thing in the house.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I demand of Mallory. “Keep your hands off Casey, or you can get your ass home.”
“Oh please, she just fell. It’s not like I punched her. Trust me, if I wanted to do some damage, I’d do better than that.”
“And I suppose her falling had nothing to do with you.”
“I was just trying to get to the phone! That girl was standing between me and my son!”
Casey looks pale, but answers evenly, looking again at the paper towel pink with her blood. “He called me. I was just trying to hear where he was.”
“And then the call dropped!”
Casey stares back at her, throwing the damp towel in the sink. “Dropped my ass, he hung up because you were screaming at him.”
“How dare you, you silly little bitch!” shrieks Mallory, and I seize her upper arms, anticipating her. I’d started to forget how strong she is when she’s mad.
“Let go of her!” hisses Angel, who has come down the stairs. She’s wearing her pajamas, and without her makeup, her hair brushed smooth, she looks so much younger. I open my hands from her mother’s arms, wanting to explain but knowing in the same instant she won’t care.
Mallory rubs her arms as if I’d wounded her, and she calms with the appearance of her daughter, an ally. In fact I might have hurt her a little. It wasn’t until I let go that I realized how tight I’d clenched.
“What the hell?” says Angel. “Stop with all the fighting down here, J. is asleep.”
“Dylan was on the phone,” I tell her. “He said he was fine.”
Angel forgets her umbrage over the fight and relief blooms on her face. “So he’s coming home?”
I turn to Casey, but Mallory answers. “He didn’t say that. We got disconnected, so we don’t know much. But he seems okay.”
Angel’s shoulders sag, and she sighs. “I’m going to try and sleep now, I guess. If I can trust you guys not to tear each other apart like a pack of hyenas.” She cocks an eyebrow. “Wake me if he calls again, though.”
Casey has remained silent, dabbing her lip now with a dry towel. The blood on the towel is down to a few specks. There’s a divot in her lower lip. I approach Casey to get a better look at her face, reach for her cheek. She jerks away from me, strands of her hair falling between us, blocking my view of her eyes.
Casey clears her throat once Angel has gone back up the stairs. “Could I have my phone back, please?”
I’d pocketed it, without realizing it.
Taking it out, I find myself staring at it. Dylan called this number. Not the house, not my phone. He could try again, especially if the call really did drop.
“Michael.” Casey’s voice has a note of pleading.
“Can’t I hang on to it? I’m not going anywhere.”
Her coolness crumbles before my eyes. “My mother might call. I promise to let you talk to him if he calls again, but please, it’s my phone.”
I hand it over to her, and Casey snatches it from me, burying it deep in