Nookie's Secret (Nookie 2) (Nookie Series) by Anieshea; Q.B. Wells Dansby Page B

and the card, the harder she would cry.
    She went into the bedroom when she lost her appetite. She wanted to rest. The money sat on the bed where Joy left it, but Kevin had placed a towel over it. Joy pushed everything over and climbed under the covers. She closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep.
     
     

Chapter Fifteen
     
    Hunger woke Joy up hours later. Her eyes hurt from all the crying. She went and peed for what felt like two hours. When she came out the bathroom, she noticed that clock read 2am and Kevin was nowhere to be found. Joy got up and looked outside to see if Kevin was sleeping in his car again. No sign of Kevin’s car. Joy went back into the kitchen. She put on a pack of Ramen Noodles and ate Cheez-Its until they were ready. After her meal, she debated about calling Kevin and decided against it. Her phone had died anyway and she just placed it on the charger.
    She figured he was still mad. She got back in the bed and fell back into a deep sleep. When she awoke again it was 8:30am. Joy was upset that Kevin never came home. “He didn’t even know that she was here, so where is he?”
    Joy turned on the TV and flipped through channels. She stopped on The CW channel and watched the guy do the weather. She was lost in thought about what she wanted to say to Kevin, when she heard the news lady say something about a massacre at a wedding reception last night. She turned the volume up.
    “Police tell us last night in the Northeast section of Philadelphia, a man believed to be in his thirties, crashed a wedding reception, killing seven people. The names of the victims haven’t been released. The shooter is still at large and police are asking that anyone with any information please contact them. They want to review the videotape and talk to witnesses before they released a suspect description. We will have more on this later today.”
    Joy ran in the kitchen and looked for the calendar Kevin kept in the drawer. She looked at yesterday’s date and read where Kevin worked. He had an 11am in Springfield, and then 5pm in Byberry. Joy dropped the calendar. There was a sharp ringing in her ears and she felt like she was under water.
    She panicked as she searched for her phone. First she checked in the bedroom, she remembered that she had the phone in the kitchen on the charger. The phone was still dead because she forgot to connect the charger to the socket. She plugged it in and each second that it took for it to come on felt like hours. Finally, it came on. The phone beeped, she had a voicemail message and her hands shook as she waited for the message to come on.
    “Joy,” she heard Kevin’s voice and covered her mouth to keep from screaming. Tears flowed from her eyes. He sounded so far away. She heard him cough and he continued. “I love you. I know that you’re carrying my little girl. Don’t worry…”
    Joy heard him gasp a deep breath. “Joy I…” She listened to see if she could hear him but he didn’t say anything else. People shouted in the background. She kept the phone pressed to her ear until the message cut off.
    After saving the message, she pressed the button to retrieve the time and date. The call came in at 8:03 last night. Joy went back to the bedroom and sat on the bed. She tried to slow her breathing. “No.” she screamed. She curled up into a ball in the middle of the bed. “This can’t be happening.” She said out loud. She tried to think of what she could do. Her mind was blank and her own loud crying blocked out her thoughts.
    She jumped up. Maybe it was a mistake. Kevin is okay; he is just injured and couldn’t call yet . She reached for her phone. She couldn’t remember what the number was on the news so she dialed 911. She told the dispatcher that she was trying to find out if her husband was one of the people killed in the shooting. She was transferred to a Philadelphia number. She repeated the same thing to the person who answered the phone.
    “Ma’am, what is your