AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lauren pushed the bill of her cap up on her head, frowning. “Has Sky opened up? Let it out yet? Cried?”
Shaking his head, he growled, “No… none of the above.”
“Okay,” Lauren said, gripping his arm and giving it a gentle squeeze, “let me see if I can get her to start releasing that shit she’s carrying.” She saw hope creep into Cal’s dark eyes. Her heart tore because she saw the grief and a helplessness etched on his face. “Look, I know a little about this. You came out of a dysfunctional family, too?”
“Yeah,” Cal rasped, giving her a gentle look, reaching out, squeezing her hand gently, feeling HER pain.
“Sometimes,” Lauren said, her voice growing strained, “it takes one to know one. I’ve been where Sky’s at right now. I got thrown into a closet for two or three days at a time. All I got was water.” She grimaced. “I hate talking about it, Cal, but I’m telling you, Sky went through severe isolation, maybe a deprivation unit of some sort. She’s behaving like it. She’s behaving like I did when I was a kid.”
Wincing, Cal knew all about deprivation units. His voice became hoarse with shock. “You really think so?”
“Yeah,” Lauren muttered, pulling the bill of her baseball cap lower over her eyes to shade them. “Where’s she at?”
“In the meadow.”
“Okay, I’ll go to her. You stay here. Don’t come and interrupt us. I’m going to try and spring that hatch open in her, and if you show up, she’ll shut back down. This has to be a girl-to-girl talk. You men have no clue about how to communicate. Let me handle this.”
Cal placed his hand on her proud, strong shoulder. “Thanks, Lauren. I guess I don’t have the tools or the education to fix this one.” He saw her give him a sour grin.
“Don’t call it education. Call it experience, and that’s what the hell it is. It’s a bitch and a half.” She squeezed his hand. “We’ll be back in a while.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” Cal said, meaning it, feeling his eyes tear up. Lauren turned on her heel and walked confidently out of the garage, made a left turn, and headed down to the meadow below their house. Cal stood there, feeling guilty. Feeling helpless. He hated that feeling more than any other, having grown up with it until age eighteen. He loved Sky. But he couldn’t reach her. Slowly, Cal turned and trudged back into the house, praying Lauren could help her.
Sky heard Laurencalling her. She looked up from the book she was reading beneath a pine tree near the creek. Lifting her hand, she felt some of the heaviness leave her as Lauren grinned a hello and jogged down to where she was sitting.
“Hey, Girlfriend,” Lauren said, sitting down opposite her after giving Sky a tight, heartfelt hug, “how are you doing?” Lauren pulled off her cap and dropped it beside her, crossing her legs, resting her elbows on her knees, focused in on Sky.
“I should be happy. I’m home, Lauren.” Sky shrugged. “I just feel… horrible inside.”
“You’re pregnant. It’s the hormone cocktail from hell.”
Sky’s mouth pulled slightly upward as she held Lauren’s warm green eyes. “You make me laugh. I love your bluntness.”
Chuckling, Lauren stretched out on the dried brown pine needle carpet, propping herself up on one elbow, studying Sky. “It’s a tough time in any woman’s life.”
“And you know this how?”
“Uh uh, this is about you, not me.”
Frowning, Sky shut the book and set it aside. “I don’t mind being pregnant,” she admitted quietly, her voice soft. “I love that there’s a little one growing inside me.”
“Do you sing to her? Rock her? Talk to her?”
Sky blinked. How could Lauren know these things? She saw the look on her friend’s face and decided not to go there. “I do. I know it’s too early to tell the sex, but I know she’s a girl, Lauren.”
“Women always know,” she said wryly.
“I feel bad for Cal.”
“Why? He wasn’t kidnapped and tortured for a month. You were.”
Her words hit Sky hard. Her blond brows fell, and she looked down at her tightly clasped hands in her lap. “I’m hurting him. I love him, and I don’t want to be like this around him. But I can’t help it. Now,” Sky grimaced, “I’m in a prison once more. Only this time, I’m a prisoner of my own emotions.”
“When you get tossed in a dark room for days at a time, Sky, it breaks everyone.”
Sky jerked up her head, a gasp escaping her. She stared in shock over at Lauren, who was giving her a cool, steady stare in return. “H-how did you know?”
“Two or three days of deprivation?”
