Part 406
From a distance, Howie watched the exchange and saw Nick leave Becca and the baby. He waited for Becca to get settled before slipping away unnoticed from the group. Now was his chance to talk to Becca about Sarah.
"Hey! Tired?" questioned Howie as he leaned against a tree beside Becca’s bench.
Becca was surprised by Howie’s presence. "Why aren’t you with Sarah and Jesse?"
"I wanted to talk to you alone."
Growing leery, Becca questioned, "About?"
"I need you to do me a favor."
"Okay. What is it?"
"Could you back off questioning Sarah about her health?"
Anger coursed through Becca’s veins and her cheeks flushed, "That’s NOT fair, Howie. I’m supposed to be her best friend. What gives her the right to question ME for four months but the FIRST time I ask HER, she ‘sics’ you on me?"
"Whoa! Sarah didn’t ‘sic’ me on you. I chose to talk to you on my own. Sarah doesn’t need the added stress and she HATES having everyone worry about her. You’re right, you do have a right to question her."
"Howie, I love her, just like you, but I’m sick to death of her double-standards. She can question me but I can’t question her."
Howie remained silent letting Becca get this off her chest.
"She tells Kevin and AJ EVERYTHING, but with me she holds it in and then fusses at ME for keeping things from her. Howie, I’ve known her for almost eight years and sometimes she’s like a stranger to me. I have to hear with the crew what Russell did to her."
Becca stopped to take a breath and Howie started to say something but she cut him off. "DON’T! Damnit! You ALWAYS defend her no matter how wrong you know she is. Right now, I’m hurt! I’m hurt that she won’t open up to me, hurt that Kevin and AJ know her better than I do, hurt that you would have to ask me to back off! And you’ll defend her as always, Kevin will defend her, and AJ too. She’ll come to me, like always, and apologize and expect things to be just hunky dory!! I’m tired of it, Howie. As long as things go HER way, everything’s just fine!"
Howie watched as Becca slumped with the weight of this off her chest and said, "Becca, I defend her because she’s my wife just like you defend Nick, but yeah, she’s wrong to keep things from you. She wasn’t so much upset that you were asking about her health but the fact that you doubted me. As for her being a stranger to you… Becca, you know her just as well as any one of us but you know she has changed quite a bit since you two were in college. Hell, she’s not the same woman I fell in love with. Look, my intentions weren’t to hurt you or upset you. I was just concerned about her. She’s already upset about Jesse leaving today and I didn’t want to add to that."
"Then why won’t she just tell me that?"
"She doesn’t want Jesse to know. Give her a chance, Bec. I’m sure she’ll tell you everything when she can."
"Fine, on one condition."
"Name it."
"You’ll tell me if there’s something wrong."
Howie shook his head, "I can’t do that, Bec."
Shocked that Howie would say ‘no’, she asked, "Why not?"
Howie smiled as he took Garrett from Becca so she could get herself together. He lay the burp rag over his shoulder and began to firmly pat the infant’s back. As he did, he said, "It’s not my place, Becca. Sarah should be the one who tells you. I WILL promise you two things though. First, I’ll talk to her tonight if she doesn’t explain things to you. Second, I promise to take good care of her. Becca, she’s everything to me and I do NOT want to lose her. Not after all we’ve been through."
Garrett let out a loud burp prompting the two to laugh. Becca smiled as she said, "No doubt who HIS father is!"
"None whatsoever," answered Howie with a wink.
Looking up at Howie as he gazed down at her son cradled against his chest, Becca said, "I’m going to hold you to your promises, Howie."
Howie helped Becca get Garrett changed and settled back into the seat before the two started off to join the others. They talked mostly about Jesse leaving but as soon as Jesse spotted Howie, their conversation was cut short.
Becca stood back to watch as Howie gave Sarah a kiss as if he’d been away from her for a long time. She had no doubt that Howie would stick to his promises. It was so plain to see that Howie was completely in love with her and she with him.