“So… Callie is planning to rent a moving truck in a couple of days. I wanted to have a little barbecue before she leaves… this was before I knew about Aspen… what do you think?” he said.
“I think it’ll be fine. It will probably be good for her to see a healthier barbecue,” I said.
“Yeah… not really gonna be much drinking… and I usually start making people leave my house around eight or nine,” he said, then laughed.
“Oh no, don’t want to interrupt your precious beauty sleep,” I teased.
“Exactly that… and I need to wind down in quiet… and some of them just be talking too much,” he said.
“Do I talk too much?” I asked, the question slipping out of my mouth, my insecurity slipping in.
“Not enough,” he said, then gently poked my ribs, tickling me. Laughter erupted from me.
Chapter 33
The last few days we spent adjusting to our new life. I had my mother complete paperwork, which granted me temporary custody. Quinn had a lawyer friend who helped us with the paperwork. Aspen was adjusting well. We went to her school yesterday, and she hadn’t been going nearly as much as she should have been. Despite that, she was still doing well in school. We decided to let her return the following week, to spend the rest of this week settling into a new routine. We focused on getting her back on a school sleeping schedule.
Hyder offered to assist Callie in moving down to Louisiana. They rented a moving truck. We spent the previous days packing her room up. Part of me was quite sad that Callie would be leaving. The time we spent in Louisiana had brought us close. We often called each other during the day to chat. The other part was ecstatic for her. Going back to where she was born and doing something she was passionate about made me happy.
It didn’t take us long to load the moving truck up with all of her things. Everything was mostly contained in her room. She had a few things like books and decor around the house, but most of it was Quinn’s things.
The barbecue went great. Nobody got so drunk that they couldn’t stand; hell, most of the people didn’t drink. Aspen had stayed by my side almost the entire evening. Quinn had gone tothe furniture store and had a bed delivered for her, so she could start enjoying the room. Callie slept on the couch, and then she and Hyder left first thing in the morning.
Quinn and I got up early to see her off. Quinn didn’t let any tears fall, but I knew he was sad. He and Callie were close, you’d almost think they were twins, by the bond they shared. Callie and I, on the other hand, had tears streaming down our faces. I knew that I could call her and she could call me, but saying another goodbye broke my heart. She welcomed me into her family with wide-open arms. She was one of the first people who was nice to me while I was captured. I didn’t really have a family, and my current family was so broken that I couldn’t fix it. I didn’t even know how to fix it.
After Callie and Hyder left, Quinn and I moved into the kitchen and started making breakfast. We had a long day ahead of us. His insurance claim for his truck came through last night, and we were approved to replace it. He decided he wanted a truck with a backseat since we had Aspen. It couldn’t have happened at a better time, because we were planning to get Aspen stuff for her room. She had no idea that she was about to be spoiled beyond spoiled.
She stumbled out of her room, her hair standing up in every direction. We had made French Toast with bacon, something she was also quite fond of.
“What’s your favorite color, Aspen?” Quinn asked.
“Teal… no purple… no teal,” she said.
“So teal paint?” he asked.
“Yes!” she shouted.
I couldn’t help but smile. Watching her joy was contagious. The first three nights here, she had nightmares. I stayed with her on the couch until she fell asleep, before going to my own room. Last night was the first night she didn’t wake up crying.
We first went to the dealership. Quinn browsed different trucks. The three of us piled into a maroon one and drove around, but he didn’t like it. None of them had leather seats, which he was a little disappointed about. He ended up settling on another black Dodge that had an extended cab. Aspen was more excited about the truck than Quinn was. Instead of driving two vehicles to shop, we decided to take the Civic back to the house to drop it off. Aspen insisted on riding in the truck with Quinn.
Once we got the car back at the house, I got into the truck, and we headed to Knoxville. Quinn wanted to go toToys R Usand some other stores. Aspen had never been there before. I went a couple of times when my father was still around.
The drive was only about an hour. Aspen chatted the entire time. The topic moved from what that cow was doing to why Paxton was so sick. Sometimes I didn’t know how to answer the questions, and Quinn swooped in and elegantly handled it.
As soon as we pulled into the toy store parking lot, Aspen had perked up and was looking all around.
“Why is theRbackward?” she asked.
I looked at Quinn.
“It’s supposed to be like a kid wrote it,” he said.
“But why would they write their letters backward?” she said.
“Well, sometimes kids struggle with letters,” I said.
“This looks like a fun store,” she said. We both let out a little laugh.
