checking the clock as I walk out of the door. I nearly drop my mug, practically jumping out of my skin when I see Turner sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Journey’s still sleeping,” he says, barely above a whisper.
It’s heart-wrenching to see him looking at me like this. It’s as if he’s looking right through me, as if he doesn’t even know who I am. A cloudy mist of grey is settled all around him. Neither one of us move, we just stare, me with pleading eyes, his shadowed.
I close my eyes and try to will away the tears that want to fall.
“Clove.”
He says my name so gently. When I open my eyes, he is standing right in front of me, his eyes casting a different look. My heart plummets to my stomach. He’s forgiving me. I see it. I don’t move as he brings his hand up and strokes the side of my face, his touch both tingling and comforting.
“I forgive you. I’m sorry about the way I reacted earlier. I’m standing before the woman I love and asking you to forgive me.”
I lean my forehead against his chest. The words, ‘I forgive you’ playing over and over in my head. His arms circle my waist.
“You’ve done nothing for me to have to forgive you for,” I say into his chest.
“I have. I should have been man enough to tell you right then that I never once blamed you for any of this and that I love you so fucking much, Clove. The things you went through, sacrificed... you did it all to find me. I’ve known it all along, it’s just… I needed a little time after hearing you say it to finally convince myself that neither one of us are to blame for this. The entire time I was without you, I blamed myself for not fighting hard enough to get back to you. For not leaving that damn house with you when you begged me to. If I would have, things may have turned out differently. Or maybe not. We will never know.”
One hand leaves my back and cups my chin and this time when he looks at me, I see the same love in his eyes that I have seen since the first time he told me he loved me.
“This part is over. I don’t want either one of us to talk about it again. I am, and always will be, in love with you. Every part of me belongs to you, and I know, God, baby, I know every part of you belongs to me.”
************
“She’s clean.”
I turn around from loading the dishwasher to see two big grins strolling into the kitchen.
“And she’s not wearing pink,” I say as I kiss her chubby little belly.
“Not today. Of course this was buried in the back of her closet. My mother’s doing, I’m sure.”
“Speaking of your mom, has she called back yet?” I’m starting to really be concerned.
“No. Why don’t you take her? I’m going to call her again.”
He passes the baby off to me, snatches his phone off the counter, and sits at the table.
I hear Melody answer, so I take Journey into the other room and click the television on. I’m starting to get bored being cooped up in here. Things have been crazy, as if everything is moving so fast. I haven’t even caught up on what’s happened in the world. It’s like I’ve been in a coma this entire time. I guess I have, if you want to get technical about it.
I sit Journey on a blanket on the floor and curl up on the sofa, scanning through the channels while she plays with her rattle. Finally finding one of the national news stations, I settle back with my knees off to the side, watching and listening to nothing but grief and sadness. Why can’t there be something happy on here? No such luck.
I startle as I see my face as well as Trent’s and Tina’s pop up on the screen. Blood starts pumping in my ears as I hear them talk about the story; how I haven’t been spotted since I left the hospital, the BOLO for Tina, and on and on. I let the drone of the reporter’s voice wash over me when I see in the far background a man being chauffeured out of the hospital in a wheelchair, hands and legs shackled in cuffs. Nurses help him out of it with care.
The