Leave the Pieces (Strawberry Inn Book #5)

Chapter 8

EMORY

“Hey Em, I did wake you, did I?” My brother, Cody, surprised me with an early morning phone call. He hardly calls, we are more of a texting family and he isn’t exactly known for being a morning person either.

“No, I didn’t sleep much last night. There was so much going on, you know? Not that I sleep much on a regular night,” I grumbled.

“Have you heard anything yet?”

“No, not yet. The nurse was in here just a few minutes ago and said Dr. Carranza was making her rounds and would be in soon.”

“Do you want to talk about the elephant in the room?” Cody says with a smirk in his voice.

“Ugh,” I move away from the chair next to Callum’s crib and sit down on the makeshift bed I put together last night. “How much did Mom tell you?”

“If I tell you that then you won’t tell me all the juicy gossip. Come on, Ems, tell your big brother everything that ales you”

“Oh shut up. You just love hearing about how messy my life is.”

“Come on, Emory,” his tone changes, “that’s not it at all. We both know I have had my ups and downs and messy fuck ups. This is me trying to be supportive.”

“I guess you heard most of it from Mom anyway. So yeah, shocker of my damn life when I walked into the hospital exam room and Glenn was the freaking doctor, Cody! The DOCTOR!”

“That must have been crazy for both of you. Did he at least recognize you?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled, “That would have been so embarrassing if he didn’t. I probably would have just died right then and there.”

“How long did it take him to put it all together?”

“Not long at all. He saw me and then did that weird thing where it was looking back and forth between the two of us and he knew, you could just see it in his face. Man, I wish I would have known so I didn't have to drop the ball on him the way I did.”

“So what does it mean for the two of you?” He asks.

“We haven’t really talked that much. He had to hand over Callum’s care to another doctor and he’s also, you know, working.”

“Do you want it to mean something?”

The question didn’t surprise me. I was trying to not overthink it. We’re in the middle of a medical crisis with our infant son, and thinking about anything else just seems pointless. “I don’t know, Cody. Obviously, we clicked at the concert and we enjoyed our night together, but it was only supposed to be that night.”

“You’re not sure how you really feel.” Cody was making a statement, not asking me a question.

“We could get along great, but at the same time what if we hate each other after getting to know each other and spending more time together?”

“That’s tough, Sis. Do you know if he’s going to want to be involved?”

I cringe at the question, “I don’t know, Cody. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy that would skirt responsibilities, so that’s good.”

“How would that work with the distance?”

“I don’t freaking know. I can’t even think about that right now. I need to worry about Callum and deal with that first. Then I’ll work through this other fucked up shit.”