Page 42 of Together Is Where We Belong

“You okay?” one of the nurses asked as we left for the day.

“Yeah, why?”

“You just seemed rather quiet today. Not your usual chipper self,” she responded as we locked up for the night and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

“I just didn’t sleep last night.” The lie slipped off my tongue easily. Too easily.

“Go and get some rest. Tomorrow is a new day,” she said with a smile and a wave before she headed to her car.

I couldn’t help but look around to see if I saw anything out of the ordinary, paranoid that he’d found me and lurked in the distance as he waited for the perfect moment to strike.

I shook off my unease and hurriedly walked to my car.

As soon as I got inside, I immediately locked the door, feeling marginally safer, but not fully.

I wouldn’t feel completely safe until whoever was stalking me was found and put behind bars. Until then I’d remain hypervigilant and hope that he stayed far away from Texas.

The whole way to my parents’ house I gave myself a pep talk so that neither my mom nor dad would notice anything wrong. I didn’t want anyone to worry or know the situation had escalated until I knew for sure and had talked with the detective.

My parents knew about the stalker, but not the extent of what had happened to cause me to abruptly leave South Carolina and come back home.

After I pulled into their driveway, I sat in the vehicle for a few minutes to collect myself.

I shook my arms and took a deep breath before I got out. I couldn’t take too long to go inside or an inquisitive seven-year-old would bound out of the house and ask way too many questions. Ones I couldn’t answer.

“Where’s everyone at?” I called out as I entered my parents’ house.

“In the kitchen,” my mom yelled back.

How’d I know she’d be in there? She lived in the kitchen, and Luke was probably helping her cook dinner.

I walked into the kitchen to find Luke on the step stool behind the island with an apron on as my mom supervised him stirring the contents in the pot. By the smell of things, she was making spaghetti. I’d know the smell of her sauce anywhere.

“You want to join us for dinner?” my mom asked without looking up at me; her sole attention was on Luke making sure he didn’t get too close to the stove.

“Sure. It smells delicious. You need help with anything?”

“I helped Grandma make the sauce from scratch, Mom. She doesn’t buy it out of the jar like you do,” Luke said as he continued to stir the sauce.

My mom tried to hide her laughter, but I heard her anyway.

I’d tried to make my mom’s sauce once, and it was a catastrophic failure. I never tried again.

“You want to set the table? The garlic bread will be done in a minute,” my mom said as she looked up at me. Laughter was still in her eyes. I loved how happy she looked and how she had taken on the role of helping me with Luke the minute we’d moved back. During our video chats, she looked like she’d wanted to ask so many times about us moving back, but she never did. She knew how important it was to me to be independent, and she was just an encouraging ear whenever I needed to vent or gave out advice only when I asked.

I put my purse down and rounded the island to get the plates out of the cabinet. Once I had those in hand, I grabbed the silverware and walked over to the breakfast nook and set the table.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked once I was finished and sat down at the table and watched Luke’s serious face as he stirred the sauce.

“He’s in the den watchin’ somethin’ on television,” she said as she helped Luke down from the step stool so she could check the bread.

“Watch your back, sweetheart. This is goin’ to be hot,” she warned Luke as she waited for him to step far enough back that he wouldn’t get burnt and pulled the tray of bread out of the oven with her oven mitt covered hand.

My mom brought over the bowl of spaghetti noodles, the pot of sauce, and the bread she’d put in a basket, and called out to my dad to let him know dinner was ready.

After my dad said grace, we all made our plates and enjoyed our meal. Luke told me all about his day with my parents and as he talked I looked back and forth between my parents. As they ate, they never took their eyes off Luke as they listened to him boast about his adventures. I loved their attentiveness to him and loved how much Luke enjoyed being with them every day.

Once dinner was done and our bellies were full, I asked Luke to go into the den with my dad under the guise of helping my mom clean up dinner.