I Love Him, I Love Him Not by Ella Martin

Author:Ella Martin [Martin, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, School
ISBN: 9781621354512
Goodreads: 23129506
Publisher: Clean Reads/Astraea Press
Published: 2015-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was just after nine o’clock when I trudged up the stairs to my bedroom. I’d driven around for about half an hour after I left Bianca’s house. I didn’t have a destination in mind. I just needed to be alone.

At the top of the steps, I looked to the left at my mom’s closed door. I wondered if she was still crying or if Dr. Griffin had given her something to help her calm down. She may have even been sleeping. I wasn’t sure which I would have preferred, but I wanted to make sure she was okay. I tapped on the door a few times and waited.

“You’re home,” Dr. Griffin said when he opened the door. He was still wearing the same slacks and dress shirt he had on earlier that day. Dark, puffy circles under his eyes made him look older than he was. He was probably exhausted.

“I just got in,” I said, holding up my keys. “Is she okay?”

He nodded. “She’s asleep.”

“Okay.” I started for my room but stopped myself. I needed to say something more. “Thanks,” I said with a small smile, and I meant it. I wouldn’t have known how to deal with my mom acting like this if it was just the two of us, but Dr. Griffin made it look easy.

He stepped into the hall and closed the door behind him. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m all right.” It came out sounding more like a question than a statement, but then again, it probably was.

“You don’t sound too convinced.”

I shifted my weight and bit my lower lip as I debated talking to him. Finally, I gestured to the stairs behind me with my thumb. “Do you want to sit down?”

He smiled. “As a therapist or your stepfather?”

My mouth twitched into a grin. “Maybe both?”

He gestured to the stairs and waited for me to sit down before he joined me on the top step. “So what’s on your mind?”

My head was a jumble of thoughts. I had a million questions but didn’t know how to put them into words. I blurted out the first one that sprang to my lips. “Do you still love your first wife?” Then, mortified at the boldness of my question, I covered my mouth with both hands.

Thankfully, Dr. Griffin didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to grin for about half a second. He stretched out his legs, crossed his ankles, and we sat in silence for a few minutes. I started to wonder if I’d really asked the question.

“Heather died about five years ago,” he said at last.

“Heather?”

“My first wife.”

“Oh.” Whatever I’d expected to hear, that wasn’t it.

“It was sudden cardiac arrest,” he explained. “We had no idea it was coming. I didn’t know anything was wrong until Jessica called me at work to tell me Heather never picked her up from school.”

Five years. I quickly did the math. He’d taken some kind of break right before my second appointment with him, and I’d been reassigned to Dr.

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