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“Easy there baby, you have a nasty bruise,” he stated kicking off his shoes and sliding into the bed with her. He brushed the hairs that’d fallen out of her bun away from her neck to survey the bandage.
“Mmm…it hurts,” she cringed when his fingers quickly checked to ensure there wasn’t any swelling.
“Let me get your pills. The doctor prescribed some pain medicine last night for you,” he reminded her when her face blanked.
“No, I can’t. It wouldn’t be good for the baby…”
“Sweetie, what are you talking about?” he asked as confusion hit him in the gut.
“I shouldn’t have told you…not yet anyway,” she muttered before drifting back to sleep.
He held her awhile trying to figure out what that had been about but he had no clue and so he stewed over it until she woke again. This time when her eyes opened, they didn’t hold the smile they had before, but the pain was still there.
“Joel?” she said moving away as she glanced at the clock. “What are you doing here?”
“Making sure you’re okay. Paige, do you remember what happened yesterday?”
“Yeah, Jim’s kids were missing. I found them in the cavern and now…now I feel like I was hit by a brick wall. Why are you here?”
“Your dad was worried. Said you were having trouble sleeping, that you tossed and turned all night, so I came to check on you. Do you remember waking up earlier?”
“No, the last thing I remember is taking one of those pain killers and having Maggie jump up beside me to sleep, why?”
“You seemed to be out of it. You didn’t want to take the pain medicine because of the baby…”
“Joel, that’s insane. It was the medicine talking; it’s always affected my head.”
“It didn’t seem like it. You seemed happy. You said you knew you shouldn’t have told me yet.”
“Joel, I have no idea what I’ve said in the last eight hours or so. Ask anyone who’s been around me when I’ve been on medicine. It makes me loopy, and I say or dream all kinds of things. I’m not pregnant or ever going to be. I’ve already told you that. Now can you get me some Tylenol or something? Anything other than the pain killers because I don’t want to go up in the chopper woozy.”
“You’re not going anywhere until you’ve healed. Paige, that bruise is about three times as big as it was. Your father will have a heart attack if you leave now.”
“Fine…just go away. Take Maggie out for me please? She’ll be fine running in the back yard all day.”
“Meet me downstairs for breakfast in fifteen or I’m coming back in here and dragging you down there dressed or not,” he warned calling for Maggie.
Paige watched him go and after the door closed, she let out the breath she’d been holding in since he’d started questioning her. She knew lying was stupid especially about something like not remembering what she played off as a hallucination but she didn’t want the truth in that hallucination coming out. Something about Joel showing up in her bedroom, turning off the alarm and warning her they’d wake her dad had pulled her back in time to a morning so similar that she’d felt as though she were twenty again.
Telling him about her miscarriages wouldn’t do them any good. She’d had enough time to think over the actions of her father and Joel and though she was still mad at them, angry that they had decided to make a choice for her about her life that caused a ripple effect that still caused problems, she didn’t want them or anyone in her family feeling sorry for her.
She had a good life. Granted she was alone but maybe that was simply the way it was supposed to be.
She got ready and was about to head down the stairs when she realized that she was doing exactly what Joel and her father wanted again. She’d agreed to stay today when she shouldn’t have but she couldn’t exactly call up her pilot and have him land in the backyard without someone hearing and stopping her.
Her camera bag caught her eye, and she moved back into the room, changing into her hiking boots and grabbed her bag with her sketchpad and ideas she had about the mine. It wouldn’t take her long to get there if she cut through the woods and she could go over the information one more time. It would keep her away from her family and well away from Joel until she could slip back into the house unnoticed and into her bed.
She continued to leave the house earlier and earlier over the next few days, knowing she should simply go home but unable to pull herself away from the mine and the ideas that had flowed through her head. Last night no one had been around when she got back and she’d slipped into her bedroom and slept soundly for the first time in two weeks. She was out of the house before the sun had fully peeked above the horizon and she’d grabbed everything, knowing it was time to put her ideas all together and onto her computer.
Sometime over the last five days, her goal of leaving and getting back to her ‘life’ had changed into staying and making her father listen to her and her ideas. She could have the mine back in running order sooner than anyone else could. Her knowledge of the place had given her a unique edge to finding the solution and she just hoped that they’d see the error of their ways. She was the only person who would be able to do it.
She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and checked the number. Joel again. She wasn’t ready to talk to him, wasn’t ready to admit that he was still in her head and her heart. She would but first they had to see that she was right and that she always had been.
∞∞∞
“You didn’t find Paige?” Sam asked Joel as they stood outside the nursery staring at the little baby boy that bore the Brighton name. He’d been born early that morning after a relatively short labor of eight hours that both his parents were thankful regarding.
“I checked her room, her camera bag and things were gone.”
