Could Tell a Love 3

After Beau and Jared left the room, I grabbed a blanket off the back of one of the chairs and a pillow off the love seat. "Do you wanna sleep on the couch or on the floor?"

"I’ll let you have the couch. I’ll just curl up on the chair." She said, getting on the big chair, grabbing the other blanket off the back and covering herself with it.

"Alright, night, Sarah." I said, laying down on the couch.

"Night." She responded.

I was surprised how easy it was to fall asleep. I guess crying and panicking and stressing really takes a lot out of you.

But as soon as I fell asleep, though, it seemed like I woke up right away to Sarah and Beau talking. It sounded like they were arguing with each other. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and listened more closely.

"Okay, I understand that he was kind of scatterbrained last night, but she’s still super pissed at him, and the sedation wore off a while ago."

I heard Beau sigh heavily. "How long ago did you talk to her?"

"Maybe an hour ago, so I doubt anything changed."

"God, Miranda really irritates me sometimes. Well we’re still going to see her today, I don’t care if she’s pissed or not."

"Well yeah, obviously. Was Jared still sound asleep when you woke up this morning?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, definitely." He sighed, and I sensed a hint of sadness within that sigh. "I still feel so horrible for what I did with Eric before we left on tour. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think that Jared was okay with that. I hurt him so much when I did that...I’m such a terrible person."

"You’re not a terrible person, you just made a lot of mistakes. And obviously the mistakes weren’t too big, otherwise Jared wouldn’t be here, sleeping in the same bed as you, and having this radiant, undying passion and love and commitment to and for only you. He was obviously able to forgive you, because everyone makes mistakes, and he probably thought that no matter how big the mistakes were, nothing would tear you guys up. I think he’s right, too. You two are practically inseparable." A smile hinted in Sarah’s voice towards the end.

I heard Beau laugh softly. "Yeah, I guess you’re right." He scooted his chair out and got up, walking around the kitchen. "Now only if Miranda had enough sense to think like that, then everything would be better."

"We’ll go and see her, and if she’s still pissed, we’ll leave her and Eric alone to talk everything through. And if that doesn’t work, then we step in and try to talk to her."

"And if that doesn’t work?" I asked from the couch, yawning.

There were no voices from in the kitchen at first, and then I saw Sarah’s head poke around the wall. "Oh, I didn’t know you were up."

"You didn’t answer my question. What if your plan doesn’t work?" I asked, sitting up, stretching.

She sighed. "I honestly have no idea. We’d just have to play it by ear."

"When are we going to see her?" I asked.

"Whenever everyone’s ready, I guess." She answered, shrugging.

"Well I’m ready, lets go." I said, getting off the couch.

Sarah had to contain her laughter. "Uh, hon, you are not ready. Have you looked in the mirror?"

"Oh, is it that bad?"

"Um, yeah." Beau said. "But definitely not as bad as Jared’s bed head."

"Shhh. Don’t make fun of my bed head." I heard Jared say while yawning.

"But it’s true." He said, meeting him halfway with a good morning kiss.

I turned to look at him and held in my laughter. His hair was everywhere.

"Morning...Jared.." Sarah said in between fits of silent laughter.

He sighed with a smile on his face. "Morning Sarah. Is it really that bad?"

She covered her mouth. "Mmhmm."

He sighed again. "I’ll be right back."

I followed Jared to the bathroom to fix my hair as well.

"Don’t worry, Sarah started making fun of me this morning too." I said, stealing the brush off the counter, putting it through my hair.

"And you weren’t fooling around last night." Jared said, smirking.

"Okay, didn’t need to know that. I’m glad I slept through it." I said, parting my hair, handing the brush to Jared.

He laughed. "We don’t make that much noise. We never wake up Skylar, and his room’s next door."

"Why are you even telling me this?" I asked, completely disturbed and over-informed.

He shrugged. "Fun facts."

"Psh, whatever, Jared. When are you gonna be ready to see Miranda?" I asked.

"Whenever. I’m ready now." He said, putting down the brush, his hair looking normal. "Oh, wait, no, we have to get Skylar up and ready, too."

"Right, I can help with that, make it go faster." I offered.

"Alright, lets do this." He said, opening Skylar’s door, seeing him already up and looking through his drawers.

"Morning, sleepyhead. Did you sleep good last night?" Jared asked, kissing his forehead.

"Mmhmm, I sure did. Are we gonna go see Auntie Randi today?"

"Yup, as soon as you get washed up and ready."

"Okay!" He jumped off the floor and ran into the bathroom, closing the door.

Jared grabbed clothes for Skylar and followed him in the bathroom.

I walked back toward the kitchen and sat at the table with Beau, who was drinking a cup of coffee and looking through a newspaper.

"Why do I feel so nervous to see her." I asked as a statement.

"You’re nervous as to what her reaction to you being there is gonna be, maybe?" He offered, taking his eyes off the page he was on to look at me.

"Probably one of the things." I said quietly, making circles on the table. I felt some sort of romantic tension between Beau and I, but that was the least of my worries. I needed to worry about the one that really mattered the most to me.

Skylar ran down the hall, dressed, hair sopping wet.

"Sky, come back here! I still need to brush your hair!" Jared yelled down the hall.

"Hold on, I need my shoes!" Skylar yelled back.

"No you don’t, not yet!" Jared said, laughing.

Sky brought the shoes into the bathroom anyways.

"You are such a dork." I heard Jared say as he closed the door again.

I laughed a little to myself, looking at the papers that Beau set down. "Is he usually like this when you bathe him?"

Beau smiled. "Yeah, for some strange reason he has to put his shoes on after he washes up. It confuses me and Jared, but we just kinda let it pass."

Skylar ran down the hall again, this time hair brushed and shoes on. "Lets go see Auntie Randi!"

Jared came after him, walking, slightly wet.

"Did you guys have another water fight?" Beau asked, smiling, taking his last drink of coffee before he emptied his cup.

"Yeah, but he started it this time, not me." Skylar said, pointing at Jared.

Jared smiled and looked at the floor. "Yeah, I did start it, so I deserved to get a little wet. I’m gonna go change and then we can go."

"I might as well change before we go, too. I don’t think the hospital accepts short shorts." Beau said, getting up, setting his coffee cup by the sink, and following Jared to their room.

"But I accept short shorts." I heard Jared say as they were going down the hall.

"Those two are ridiculous." I said.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Then again, I can’t complain. That’s how Kalie and I are." Sarah said.

"Oh, where is she? I’m surprised she didn’t come with you."

"She had to go down to North Carolina for a couple months to visit her mom. She should be coming back either tomorrow or the day after."

"Oh, well that’s exciting." I said.

"You have no idea how excited I am."

I heard Jared erupt into laughter from their room.

Sarah and I looked at each other.

"I don’t think I wanna know." I said.

"You and me both." Sarah agreed.

Beau and Jared walked back into the kitchen, dressed, and ready to go.

"Skylar, we’re going to be leaving now. Are you ready?" Beau called out.

"Yeah I am." He came into the kitchen and grabbed Beau’s hand.

"Alright, lets go." I said, getting off my chair and following everyone else out of the house. I had to ride in Sarah’s car because Beau’s car was basically packed.

We got to the hospital and my heart was pounding a million beats a minute.

"Sarah, I don’t know if I can do this." I said, almost crying from how nervous I was. "I don’t want her to leave me or yell at me again."

"Just take what she throws at you. Come on, sitting back and avoiding her isn’t going to do anything to make it better."

I sighed and got out of the car.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Jared asked, opening the door for me.

"I don’t know. I think so, but I guess we’ll just have to see." I said quietly, going up to the receptionists’ desk. "I’m here to see Miranda Lambert, please."

She laughed. "Yes, I know, you can go right on back."

I smiled a little. "Thanks."

I headed towards her room, not looking back, not taking any chances that might make me change my mind. I reached her door and saw her lying in her bed, looking through a magazine. I knocked softly and I heard her say come in. I sighed and started opening the door. Either she didn’t remember what happened yesterday or she doesn’t know who it is. I opened the door the rest of the way and peeked my head in. "Hey." I said quietly.

She looked up, and then back down. "Hey." She seemed totally uninterested.

"Um, how are you feeling?" I asked, feeling awkward.

"Fine, I guess." She said, sighing, flipping the page.

I looked at everyone else in the room, giving them a signal for them to leave. She was really starting to piss me off, and I didn’t want to start yelling at her with everyone else in here, especially Skylar.

They nodded and left, well, all but Sarah. She refused to leave. I gave up on trying to make her leave and turned back to Miranda. "Okay, seriously? What is it now? Why are you acting like you don’t wanna be seen with me?"

"Psh, I’m not acting. I really don’t wanna be seen with you." She said, putting the magazine down.

"Why the hell not?" Sarah asked.

"He killed my baby, that’s why. I don’t wanna be with a murderer." Miranda explained like it was nothing.

"That is such bullshit! I didn’t kill our baby. It died of natural causes. Nothing I did had an effect on it."

"Now that right there is bullshit." She said.

"You know what, I don’t even understand why I’m arguing with you about this. You’re excuses make no sense, and it makes no sense to keep arguing about them to you. If you’re so insistent that I killed our baby, then so be it. Go find someone else." I took off my ring and slammed it on the table next to her bed, storming out of the room. No one stopped me this time, thank god. I went out of the hospital and walked down the sidewalk, not knowing or caring where I was going. I just needed to be left alone.

I don’t even know why I made the move to leave her in the first place. She was just making me so mad.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and I saw a new text from Sarah:

Where are you? Imma come pick you up.

I texted her back saying:

I’m by Pizza Hut and Subway a couple blocks away from the hospital. I’ll walk toward the hospital.

I changed directions and continued walking. I didn’t even feel like crying over this, which was making me really confused. You would think I would be depressed about leaving my wife.

I heard Sarah’s horn in front of me, which made me look up and see her car right in front of me. I got in and she drove off.

"Did she say anything after I left?" I asked.

"Not really. She started bitching me out a little bit for not sticking up for her, and then I left."

"I really hope this is just a phase...she didn’t do anything about my ring?"

"She just kinda looked at it and then didn’t pay attention to it."

"Are Beau and Jared coming home, too?"

"They’re talking to her now, hopefully trying to make things better."

"I wonder how Sky is taking all of this." I thought out loud.

"Honestly, he probably doesn’t think much of it."

My phone started vibrating in my pocket. I looked at it. Beau.

"Hello?" I answered, slightly anxious for what he had to say.

"Hey, we’re heading home now. We tried talking to her, but she wouldn’t budge. I’m sorry, Eric." He said, sadness seeped in his voice.

I breathed in deeply, feeling the need to cry for the first time today. "Is she coming home today?"

"Yeah. She told us to tell you to get all your stuff out of the house."

"What? Oh hell no, that’s my house, she can’t kick me out of my house. I’m gonna stay in my house."

"Well, if she does end up kicking you out, you know our couch is always open." Beau said.

"Thanks." I sniffled. "Do you think I’m doing the right thing?"

"Honestly, Eric, there’s not much else you can do. We’re bringing your ring back to you, too, so Miranda doesn’t do anything to it."

"Thanks." I said, looking down at my finger, and for the first time, it felt really empty, like a big part of me was missing. I covered my mouth and held back a sob. Sarah turned into Beau and Jared’s driveway.

"Are you okay, Eric?" Beau asked.

I tried calming down, but I couldn’t. "I’ll talk to you when you get here." I whispered, hanging up. I got out of the car and went into the house. I sat on the couch and brought my knees up to my chest and stared at the wall, tears streaking my cheeks. If this is what it would feel like to not have Miranda in my life, then I don’t know how I would possibly go on.