“This is a what?” I asked.
“Right,” she said, snapping out of it and pointing toward the kitchen with my phone. “Let’s go.”
“What is an emotional intervention?” I hissed at Rae as we followed.
“Told you, you need to let your world implode.”
“I thought that’s what we did the other day on the floor with coffee and muffins.”
She snorted. “That’s cute.”
“Oh!” Emberly said excitedly when music started pouring through my kitchen. “I figured it out. Okay, so . . .” She whirled on me, expression stern but full of sympathy. “These are for you. A caramel macchiato—decaf.” She pointed at my belly and lifted an eyebrow.
“I can have caffeine.”
“Right, but how much have you already had today?” she challenged, then nodded in victory when I couldn’t respond because she was right. “And here’s a turkey sandwich, some fruit, and wedge fries.” She gestured to the food when Rae set out a plate and started transferring everything from the bag onto it. “Eat it all. You’re gonna need it.”
“Why?” I asked warily.
“Trust me,” was all she said as she grabbed the plate and drink, taking them over to my large table. Once I was seated, she sat in the chair next to me and grabbed one of my hands. “No changing the playlist I made for you. No more cleaning. No baking. No doing anything at all but sitting right there.”
“What? Why?”
“Trust me,” she repeated. “You sit there, and you let them help you.”
“Who?”
She pointed up, indicating the voices drifting through the speakers. “Now stop asking questions.”
My chest pitched with a huff. “You can’t expect me not to when y’all walk in here and demand to be part of my cleaning process and then start giving me orders. In my home.”
She made a bemused face, whispering to herself, “It’s like you don’t know me at all,” before leaning forward to press a loud kiss to my cheek and then standing. “We love you.”
“We absolutely love you,” Rae echoed.
I sighed and asked, “When can I move?”
Emberly shrugged and looped her arm through Rae’s as they turned to leave, calling over her shoulder. “You’ll know.”
Another burst of air fled from me, my head shaking at the absurdity of it all. Dropping my head into my hand when the door shut, I let out a muffled groan. “This is stupid.”
Already, my knees were bouncing. My mind racing with all the things I needed to do—the list was short.
Horribly short.
The list of things I could do was much longer, and I knew it would only continue growing because I could always find something to keep myself busy. To keep myself moving.
But I could do this.
I picked at a piece of fruit, my stare already drifting to the time on the clock as my knee bounced faster.
Forcing out a breath, I nodded resolutely. I could stay in one place for as long as it took to finish the lunch, then I was done with Emberly’s ridiculous no-moving exercise.
I was beginning to think I hated Emberly.
Then again, I was also starting to think she might be a genius.
I’d moved from the table after finishing off about half the food, despite her demands. But I’d only made it to the couch before moving up to my bathroom a couple hours later. Letting the hot water and steam from the shower soothe my aches and hide my tears as my chest had ripped open. My heart slowly bleeding as the past weeks had tormented and plagued me. Whirling around and around in horrifyingly vivid colors and realizations until I was bare and broken in ways I’d never imagined possible. Until I was curled up in bed in one of Beau’s shirts even though the sun was still out. Tracing the angel wings on my wrist with the tip of my ring finger . . . tears having long since run dry and sure I wouldn’t be able to shed another.
World sufficiently crumbled, the way everyone had been waiting for.
Mangled heart vainly trying to find a regular rhythm when every thought of Beau made it stutter and falter.
More terrified than before that we couldn’t survive this.
I took the turn onto the gravel drive a little too fast but was too pissed to care. My anger only grew when I saw all the cars gathered in front of the house. The sight of Cayson’s truck adding fuel to the fire even though I’d been told I would find him there—find Emberly there.
Skidding to a stop, I yanked my keys out of the ignition and got out of my truck, slamming the door as I went. My steps hard and furious as I stormed up the familiar path to my childhood home, a hell of a lot different than how I’d gone walking up with my kids just two days before.
Crossing the wide porch, I yanked open the storm door and slammed my fist against the solid wood of the front door, calling out, “Cayson.”
I waited for what felt like minutes but was maybe only a second, my body twitching and trembling with soul-darkening anger before I started reaching for the handle.
But the sound of laughter coming from the barn had me stalking off the porch and in that direction just as my brothers stepped through the large, open doors.
Hunter’s expression shifted from surprise to his own form of aggression as soon as he noticed mine. Then he was hurrying to release the little girl in his arms and pushing her toward Madison.
But I wasn’t there for them.
“Cayson,” I snapped as I continued toward the group. “Where the hell is—” My hands curled into fists as the girl I really wanted to see came bouncing out of the barn, reaching for Cayson and coming to an abrupt stop when she saw me. “What the fuck, Emberly?”
My brothers started for me as the girls stayed behind, both wearing identical expressions that plainly said they were preparing to stop me.
“You need to go,” Hunter said, voice all a low warning in a tone he knew he shouldn’t use with me.
“I’m gonna kill her.”
Cayson reared back at the words before launching at me. “Touch her, and I’ll kill you.”
My eyes rolled as I stopped directly beside them. Letting all that red in my world and poison in my veins consume me.
“Beau, one more step, and I’m letting him go,” Hunter ground out, teeth clenched as he tried to hold Cayson back. “You need to leave.”
I held out my arms to show I hadn’t moved before tossing one in Emberly’s direction because this was Emberly we were talking about. The girl could scrap with all four of us because she’d been raised with us—but I’d never hurt her in my life, and I wasn’t about to start today.
But she’d still pushed too far.
Turning on her, I demanded, “The hell did I do to you?”
Her eyes darted around before landing on Cayson and Hunter, her lips parting as confusion marred her face.
“Emberly.”
Her stare shot back to me, her shoulders bunching up. “I don’t—I don’t know what I did. I tried—I helped—I mean, I thought I helped.”
“How the fuck is what you did helping me?” I shouted, causing Emberly to jerk back as Madison rushed Avalee toward the house.
“Enough,” Cayson snapped as Hunter said, “That’s it, you need to go.”