Remembering Sunday

Remembering Sunday (42,43)

Chapter 42

I watched the stroller roll down the steps and no matter how hard I tried to I couldn't catch it.

My eyes shot open and I tried to shoot up out of the bed, but something weighed me down. I looked down to see two heads full of wavy black hair. I could tell they were both sound asleep, but I needed to touch them so that I could be sure that they really weren't hurt. As I went to raise my right hand I realized that my fingers were intertwined with Dane's. He was also asleep; his head lay on the bed beside our hands. I tried again to pull my fingers free and his eyes shot open. They were bloodshot and regarded me with nothing but frantic worry.

"Evie?" He asked as though he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Shhh, don't wake them up," I smiled and the grimaced as I realized what I probably looked like. He surged forward brining his lips to mine in a bruising kiss and then as though he realized he may be hurting me he softened it.

"Don't you ever do anything like that again, you almost got yourself killed, the boys too and where the hell would that have left me?" Before I could answer his lips were back on mine again. "Why didn't you wait at the gallery? We could have come up with a plan. Dammit anything would have been better than you just going there by yourself..." I pulled him down into another kiss.

“I did what I thought I had to. I knew you would come for us, but I couldn't risk waiting. I didn't know what that lunatic was going to do if I took too long." I said in a soft voice.

"I never would have been able to forgive myself for not holding onto the stroller.”

“Evie you aren’t in this alone anymore; you have to let me help.”

“I know and I’m sorry,” he looked perplexed and I smiled. “It’s not easy for me to trust that you aren’t going to leave me again.” Before he could say anything I covered his mouth. “I should have said it wasn’t easy, because now I do. I’ve always depended on other people or things to help me get through everything and then when I finally took over for myself I took on everything. I didn’t want them or me to de dependant on you and I didn’t know how to balance it between the both of us.”

“That’s what you were worried about all this time? Eve I’m never going to leave you and the boys again. I told you…”

“Actions speak louder than words Dane.”

“Why would I ask you to marry me if I were going to leave you?”

“Exactly,” he plopped down into his chair once again confused. “You wouldn’t do that to me. You are a lot of things Dane, but cruel is not one of them. I want to share my life with you. Not let you take over or leave everything to me. I was just too stupid to figure it out.”

“You’re not stupid, misguided, jaded, confused, but never stupid besides a stupid woman wouldn’t have left the coordinates behind for me to find.”

“She would if she was scared shitless. When I pulled up to that house…”

“Why did he take you there?”

“He thought I needed to face my past so we could have a future. I almost broke down; I knew that was what he wanted. If he had shut up, but his voice kept me in the present until he showed me that even then I had strength.”

“How?”

“He wanted to know if I screamed and I didn’t. I kept from screaming,” I started. “With my mother’s husband, to protect Tammy and to keep him from getting what he wanted I kept from screaming.”

“Sick bastard.”

“He asked because it wasn’t in any of the interview sessions he sat in on or any of the recorded statements, but I didn’t scream no matter what he did to me,” he took my hand and gave it a little squeeze. “Are they really okay?” I asked running my fingers through Ethan’s and then Evan’s hair.