Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

40. Sarah

Having Callie home was amazing. Knowing she was going to be okay was all I needed.

Her first night home, I took the bag of clothes from the hospital and put them in the laundry. I took her basket downstairs and turned on the load, joining my family outside once I was done.

Callie was chatting happily with Grace, texting on her phone to her grandmother and laughing. My heart swelled when I saw her smiling. To think we'd come so close to losing her.

Grace and Boyd extended their stay for a few more days, seeing as a couple of days had been spent in the hospital and Callie had been unconscious for two of them.

Callie was still very wary around Boyd and avoided being alone anywhere with him. She'd even become a little wary of Brendon.

We sat around chatting until my phone beeped.

"Callie," I said, getting her attention.  "Anna wants to come tomorrow to show us what she designed for your room."

Callie smiled and nodded. We still had no idea what they'd discussed.

I went back inside and switched over Callie's laundry. While pulling her wet clothes out, something sharp poked me. I carefully pulled the clothes out and found my small knife. The one I used for fruits and veg. I frowned. How had that wound up in here?

It must have gotten mixed in somehow.

I shook my head, put the knife to the side and switched over the last of the laundry.

Callie was coming in as I was returning the knife to the kitchen. She saw me and froze.

"You OK?" I asked. She looked around and then nodded and went upstairs.

She was back down in a minute so I didn't think much of it.

I turned the dryer on and went back outside. Callie had joined Brendon in the pool, though I saw she was still wearing a t-shirt. She also wasn't letting B get too close to her in the pool. Was she worried Brendon would hurt her? That broke my heart. We had to find someone to help her.

A little while later, Callie said she was hungry so we all decided it was a good time to get ready for dinner. We decided to go out to an Italian restaurant we knew so everyone went up to their respective rooms to shower and change.

While B was getting ready, I was already ready, so I went downstairs. Callie was already showered and dressed and playing on her Switch. Her brow was furrowed in concentration. I looked over her shoulder and saw she was playing Fortnite. I smiled. Brendon must have taught her. I got into her line of sight and got her attention.

"Having fun?"

She made a so-so gesture.

"This is kind of hard," she smiled. "But it's fun. I see why Dad likes it."

I smiled and kissed the top of her head. I couldn't get enough of this kid. She smiled up at me. I melted. She's just so precious.

Once everyone was ready to go, we piled into the car. I let Callie sit in the front with Brendon. She didn't seem comfortable with Boyd, which upset me because he's such a teddy bear of a man, but Callie's history made it unsurprising. I knew Brendon had looked up some therapists, and I hoped we could get Callie in soon.

Brendon was getting really good at sign language. He was signing one handed with Callie, who was signing back. I wasn't sure what they were discussing because I couldn't see Callie's hands really, but she was smiling and laughing.

We pulled up to the restaurant and got out of the car. Brendon signed to Callie that the staff knew us pretty well here and he was certain we'd have just as good an experience here as at the cafe on the beach.

Callie nodded and we went inside. Brendon put his arm around Callie, and I saw she had a conflicted look on her face. She so badly wanted to trust Brendon, but she was still unsure of who she could trust.  I wondered if the incident with the bathroom was what made her distrustful.  It made sense to me.

We were seated and given menus. Callie was beside Brendon and Grace, and she looked pretty relaxed. That made me smile.

"What are you in the mood for?" I asked her.

"I don't know," she said. "I kind of want spaghetti, but even I can make spaghetti," she smiled.

"Have you had chicken Marsala?" I asked her. "Do you like mushrooms?"

She nodded.

"Try that. It's really good and it comes with a side of spaghetti if you want."

She looked through the menu.

"What's 'chicken picatta'?" She asked.

"Chicken with lemon and capers." I said.

"What are 'c-a-p-e-r-s'?" She spelled out.

"They're flower buds that are pickled. They're interesting. Not everyone likes them."

She scrunched up her nose.

"I think I'll try the chicken Marsala," she said. I smiled.

Grace pulled out her phone and texted Callie who texted back. When Brendon and I had started talking about kids, we thought we'd try to have a strict 'no phones at the table' rule. But with Callie, we didn't have a choice, which kind of made me laugh.

Boyd was texting Callie, too, and she was answering him and smiling. I was hoping she was warming up to him. I hoped she no longer saw him as a threat.

The server arrived and greeted us. We introduced Josh, the server who had been our server several times, to Callie.

"This is our daughter Callie," I signed and said. Callie smiled and waved.

"Nice to meet you," Josh said, smiling. I interpreted for Callie.

"We adopted Callie a couple of weeks ago. She's Deaf."

Josh nodded and smiled at Callie. He got a pensive look on his face then looked at me.

"Can you teach me to say 'hi, my name is Josh'?

I showed him and he stumbled through his name. Callie frowned.

"J-A-S-G?" She spelled to me.

"J-O-S-H," I corrected. Callie nodded and smiled. She signed hello back to Josh.

He took our orders and watched intently while we signed with Callie about what she wanted.

The evening was awesome. Callie seemed more relaxed than she'd been in the past few days, and her smile seemed so much more genuine.

But I knew she needed someone to help her deal with her past.