Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
And for the first time ever, I hear her giggle. The coldness that had settled in my bones since I was eight gets a touch warmer, sending me off my axis. I push off from the wall to get a closer look at her as she smiles up at Lilah.
“See.” Lilah nods. “Now, come and pet her.” She looks at her hand before moving behind Lucy, putting her hand in hers, and raising it up to the side of Rosy’s neck. Her tail’s going side to side as she gets rubbed. “She’s soft, right?” she asks Lucy, who nods. “Maybe tomorrow, if you come back, we can come back and see her again,” she suggests after a while. Lucy doesn’t say anything, but when she steps out of the stall, I see she has a little bit of a small smile.
“Did you have fun?” I ask, waiting for her to speak to me, but all she does is nod. “Thank you, Lilah,” I say to Lilah, hoping maybe Lucy will also thank her. However, it’s still radio silence.
“Anytime,” she replies, letting go of Lucy’s hand. “I’ll see you around, Lucy.” She waves at her before she walks away without giving me a second look.
“You ready to go see your new room?” I ask, and she just shrugs. The light in her eyes not too long ago is long gone, and in its place are the eyes that have haunted me for the past five days. Eyes that remind me of a time I blocked out and forced myself to forget. Told myself that I would never again feel pain like I did before. Eyes that look like a deer caught in headlights. Watching your life go from what you thought was happy to emptiness in a blink of an eye. If anyone knows what she is going through, it’s me. I also have no idea how to help her.
I turn and walk out of the barn with her by my side. Her head is down as we get back into Charlie’s truck. “We don’t live too far from here,” I say as she gets into the back and puts her seat belt on.
We pull up to the house, and I stop the car, looking over the seat at her. “Here we are,” I announce, getting out of the truck and walking around to see her slowly getting out and looking at a house double the size she used to live in. Opening the back of the truck, I grab the two of the four bags of clothes she has before going to join her. “Grab your backpack,” I say before she closes the door, reaching in for her pink backpack that holds her tablet and a bunch of other knickknacks she packed with tears running down her cheeks the whole time.
I wait for her to close the door to the truck before walking to the front of the house. She walks one step behind me, looking at the big black door as I put the code in. “There aren’t keys,” I inform her. “The code is one, four, seven, nine.” Even though there isn’t going to be a time in the near future that she will be arriving home without me, she should know it. I open the door and hold it open for her.
“Welcome home, Lucy,” I say as she steps inside hesitantly. Once she’s inside, I step in and kick off my shoes beside her. “I can give you a tour of the house, and then you can rest.” I watch her as she looks around the open-concept room. “This is the family room,” I say as I point at the big U-shaped couch I bought as soon as I got the house, hoping to fill up the space and make it feel like it was a home and not just a place where I crashed. “And that’s the kitchen.” I point at the kitchen right off the living room. “I don’t have a table.” I point at the empty space beside the big island. “But I’ll get one.” She doesn’t say anything nor does she step more into the house than she needs to. “That’s where my room is.” I point at the hallway on the side of the kitchen. “And your room is right over there.” I point at the opposite side of the house where her room is. “Autumn got things set up when we were still…” I trail off. “We have your things coming next week,” I tell her of her small bedroom set as I make my way to the bedroom.
Opening the door, I see Autumn did not fuck around when she said she took care of everything. A queen-sized bed with a cozy plush cream headboard sits in the middle of the room. There are two small ivory bedside tables, one on either side, with a white circle alarm clock on one, leaving the other empty. Four rows of pillows fill the top of the bed, with a light cream-and-brown checkered cover folded in half, showing you the light brown sheets. “I guess this is your room.” I laugh with her as she steps in and sinks into the cream-and-brown-colored carpet. “We can change anything you don’t like,” I assure her, “and we can add your stuff to this as soon as it comes in.” She takes off her backpack and tosses it on the bed.