Second Chances by Abbie Williams Page B

hair, standing it on end. It was a trivial thing to notice, but I reflected how he wouldn’t have been able to do that this morning, when his hair had still been a foot long. He looked different, there was no question, but he was still my Blythe, from his bowed lips and smoky eyes to wide shoulders and long legs. And his dear, kind, compassionate soul, which was far more beautiful than anything else. Again I marveled at what a tender person he truly was, how very much I loved him. I was terrified I couldn’t live without him anymore, and would have to, if he wouldn’t come back with me. My insides seized up at just the thought.
    â€œWe dated for about six months,” he said, and sighed. “I was 21 and she was 18, and my first serious girlfriend since high school. I met her through Tony—” and with that name his voice snagged on a bitter note. “He was my boss at the time. We did construction, mostly framing and roofing. Julianne would visit the job sites and I finally asked her out. But I never loved her. I know that’s not the point, but I didn’t. I liked her, I wanted to have sex with her, but that’s where it ended. Tony wasn’t crazy about us being together…he thought she was too young. Shit, I don’t even know how it happened. She was on the pill and we used condoms.” He stopped himself and swallowed hard, turning abruptly and looking deeply into my eyes. My heart caught for a second and then took up a rapid beat. He asked, “Joelle, is it all right to tell you this? God, if you told me about having sex with another man I would want to kill him.”
    I laughed a little, a release of tension, and said truthfully enough, “I want you to tell me. Please. I really do.”
    â€œOkay,” he said, his voice soft. He drew a deep breath, running his palm again over my bare leg. “Okay. But somehow she ended up pregnant. She told me and I was shocked, but I would have done right by her. I would have supported her. God, she cried and cried, like it was the end of the world. Said her brother would kill her. I told her it wasn’t Tony’s fucking business, but she wouldn’t listen. He was so protective of her, I should have suspected she might do something extreme. I found out later that she’d had issues with depression in high school, had cut on herself and some of that. But God, Joelle, I never thought she’d do what she did. Without even telling me.” His eyes were bearing into mine, and it was like a razor over my soul to see the tears he wouldn’t allow to fall. They sparked in the corners as he said, his voice husky with pain, “And then she called me from Oklahoma City just a week later. And said she’d made a decision.” [Can Tony be her brother or father or something? - MTO He is her brother I just reread the above and I don’t see where it says that he’s her brother. Can that be added in?]“Blythe,” I whispered, aching for him. In the back of my mind I was picturing Camille as she’d looked when she told me she was pregnant, hardly more than two weeks ago. God, my firstborn, my baby. If I thought she’d even considered such a thing…
    He continued, “I would have begged her to reconsider, but it was already done. She’d been in and out of some place there, I never found out where, but it was done. And I just went crazy. Screamed at her, swore at her, told her she’d go to hell for what she’d done. I’m sorry about all of that now, for saying those things. But I felt it. Later I found out she’d told Tony that I forced her to get an abortion, that I’d made her do it. I was at work that day, and Tony grabbed my phone from me and he was yelling at her, and then he threw my phone like it was a grenade and punched me right in the face. He wasn’t a wimp, either. I went down, but I was so angry, Joelle, all I could remember later was a red