“Dad said the F word again, Mom.”
“Yeah, I heard him. What are you doing? You’re supposed to be in bed,” I said as I stepped around Paxton.
“I need a drink.”
“You have a cup in your bathroom. Move it.”
“Dad said I can sleep in Rowan’s bed.”
“He lied. Go.”
I tucked both girls into bed and went back to the kitchen with Paxton, busy filling out paperwork to get Vander.
“I’ll get this stuff faxed over before I go to bed. That way it will be there waiting on them when they get there in the morning.”
I sipped the tea Paxton finished for me and leaned in to read what the pen left on paper. “How long do you think it will be before Lyndsey and Jonnie get the home study to them?”
“I made Jonnie promise to do tomorrow when I showed her to the bathroom. She has a crack in her pool,” Paxton said with a crooked smile.
“You’re evil.”
He shrugged one shoulder and kissed my cheek. “It worked, and I am so glad you take charge like that now. We would have been playing this game for hours before.”
“Yeah, well someone has to do it. You suck at the word no.”
“I can’t help it. I love them so much. I never want them to feel anything but happy, ya know?”
“Yeah, but you’re not the one home with them all day long. They’re listening to me,” I assured him.
Both our eyes shifted to my phone, and Mi’s name.
Paxton’s eyes stayed on my phone as he asked the loaded question. “Do you want to stop?”
“Is this for me or both of us?”
“Both.”
“Do you?”
Paxton pulled me to stand between his legs, wrapping his arms around my waist. “I mean, I feel like it’s helped me a lot. I’m hearing things straight from your mouth, and I can feel how you feel by your words. It makes me feel compassion for you. I’ve never had that for you. Not really.”
“Go take the trash out. I’ll meet you upstairs.”
I was already settled into bed by the time Paxton came up, waiting for him to put in the password for my email. I decided at that moment that had to change. The girls were about to start school. There was no reason for me not to have access to my own email.
“You don’t want to sit outside?” Paxton asked while plopping his ass right on my leg.
“Ouch. No, I want to lay in bed. My back hurts.”
“You okay?” He questioned as his body laid over top of me to get the link from my email.
“Yes, fine. I’m tired tonight.”
“Tired or emotionally drained?”
I lifted the covers for Paxton, agreeing with that statement. “For sure.”
“Hey, guys. How’s it going?” Nick suddenly said, appearing on the screen. Good thing we weren’t naked. Geesh.
“Gabby, Gabby! Hey girl,” Mi waved from across the room again.
“Get out, Mi!” Nick yelled.
I laughed and leaned in. “Hi, Mi. Thank you for spending the afternoon with the girls. They haven’t stopped talking about it.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow. Nick doesn’t let me hear any of this. He thinks it's violating some HIPPA law or something,” Mi teased, more sarcastic than not. I just wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be funny because Nick broke all sorts of HIPPA laws when he handed me over to Lane. Then again, it could have been because she was a doctor. She knew those laws.
Nick ushered her out again with an annoyed tone. “Mi, you do this every time. You tell me you won’t come in, and every time you do.”
“I’m going, I’m going. See ya, Gabby, and it was my pleasure. Best company ever.”
Nick waited for Mi to close the door and began, shaking his head back and forth in frustration. Paxton and I exchanged glances with hidden smiles.
“How was your last talk? Did you talk about everything?”
“Yes, we’re good. Let’s keep going. Let’s hear the next one,” Paxton coaxed.
I knew at that very moment he was hiding something. No more doubts. There was something he wasn’t telling me.
“You’re good with that, Gabby?” Nick asked totally overstepping Paxton, but in a nice way. Sort of.
I looked to Paxton first, trying to read his face, and I knew as soon as I saw it, he would have done whatever I wanted him to do.
“Is that what you want, Gabriella? Do you want to move on, or do you want to talk about it with Nick here? I’ll do whatever you want.”
I smiled, leaned into him a little more, and turned to Nick. “We’re good. You can go.”
Nick nodded and started tapping keys, causing the screen to go black. “Okay, we all know that it’s Lane’s voice you’re going to be hearing. The beginning has been clipped just like before. I didn’t do that, and I can’t control it. Lane did it. I’m going to sign off, but I’m a text message away. Just remember, talk about it, Paxton is learning a lot of this for the first time, too, Gabby. Keep that in mind. Unlike you, it’s his own fault, but nonetheless, they're things he didn’t know, too. Like what you’re about to hear. Got it?”
“Yes, thanks, Nick,” I said with a nod.
Paxton didn’t say a word to Nick. He stared at the black screen and waited to hear my relaxed voice.
I took a deep breath and waited with him, anticipation and edgy nerves.
“Lay down. I’ll rub your back while we listen,” Paxton coaxed from my side.
I gave him a strange look, feeling a little awkward about the reversed roles. “I said I was fine.”
“Lay down,” Paxton ordered while ripping my pillows from behind my back. He tossed one to the side and slid the laptop over.
Of course I obliged, coming to my knees and then my stomach. I felt his large hands before I heard my sleepy voice from the computer. His thumbs dug into my shoulders and I moaned, feeling sore spots I didn’t know were sore.
“Did you ever meet Tatiana, Gabriella?”
“Yes, she came to our house once, not long after Ophelia was born.”
“But never before? You didn’t meet her before that day?”
“Not technically. I watched her, but that’s it. I didn’t know she was his wife. Paxton didn’t wear a ring.”
“Go on.”
“I was in the middle of the boulders when I saw her. It was the same day that I ran into you on the beach. That day.”
“Just keep going, Gabby. So it was about three weeks after you met Paxton for the first time?”
Questions that I couldn’t answer took the place of Paxton’s massaging hands, and my eyes opened. “What’s he mean by that? He sounds like he doesn’t want you to talk about something. What is it?”
“Shhh, I don’t know, babe. Right below my left shoulder blade,” I said while my body jolted below his, coaxing him to keep rubbing.
“She was on the beach with a baby, maybe six months old or so. The baby played in the sand while she talked on a cellphone. I thought it would be rude if I just popped out, so I stood there and listened.”
“What did you hear, Gabby. Who was she talking to?” Lane questioned.
“I—I’m not sure. A man. She told him she was trying, and promised this would be her last trip there, she promised to tell him before she left.”
“Tell who, Gabriella?”
“I don’t know. My attention was mostly on the baby. She was the cutest baby I’d ever seen. Fuzzy white hair stood straight up on top of her little head. Her hair would no doubt be as pretty and shiny as her mother’s someday.”
“When did you see her again?”
“Later that day. I followed her, wondering where she had come from and where she was headed.”
“And where did you see her?”