Shot Throught the Heart

forty-six

The month recovering at my mom's house was honestly such a nice month of peace that I wish we could just move in permanently. I knew it would only be a temporary stay, but as the days went on and on, the thoughts of moving back here to North Carolina really started to stick.  Getting to spend time with Dominic again had me feeling like a teenager. Also getting to know Dominic's girlfriend on a deeper level made me happy to know he found such a nice girl to call his own. Then there was also Mallory. As my recovery started to move along, we found ourselves getting close again. Partly because Kuzma and Logan became fast friends. There was a bit of a language barrier there at first, but as the days went along, Kuzma's English improved tenfold.

            As for Mallory and myself, while the two kids would play, we would walk around the park. It was helpful for my stamina as we watched the kids from our lap and it also helped me start to decompress from being on guard 24/7. About half of the time, Morgan would join us on our walks, while other times, she would hang out with the kids or stay home to work a bit. She went to Fort Bragg and got a laptop so she could start to work on a few small things from home. Mallory and I started to rebuild our friendship as she told me all about things at work and how Troy and Shane were doing.

            Then I think the best part of being back in North Carolina was just spending time with mom and Peyton. This was the first time in memory I just got to live at home with them again since I was signed up at seventeen. I really loved to just watch them be and love each other. The way mom would be waiting for Peyton some night when she got home from work late and just comfort her. Or on some nights when Mom would stay up late in her studio lost in a new commission and Peyton would have to come and coax her out of her studio to go bed. The looks of love past between them when they thought nobody was looking. The way they both fussed over Kuzma, Morgan and myself whenever we needed help with something. There was so much love present in the house now and it made it hard for me to want to leave this safe haven we found ourselves in.

But finally, as our month was up, I was moving around a lot better, Morgan's shoulder was mostly all healed and it was time to head back to Georgia for the formal adoption court date. Dominic was going to be making the drive with us to help move us back into our house. Mom and Peyton are going to be following him down in a few days to be there for our court date. It was going to be a bit of a rush to get everything done in time before we have to go to court though. So with a lot of hugs, we piled into the stuffed SUV Dominic rented to bring us back down, and we started to make the 7 hour drive.

            Kuzma was a good sport and ended up sleeping for most of it. By the time we hit Augusta we were all over the drive so we stopped for lunch and to stretch out for a while before we hit the road again. When we finally pulled up to the house, it was like a sight for sore eyes. God, I missed being home. Morgan and I both agreed that we were going to let Kuzma pick which bedroom he wanted first and then move into the other one together.

            Needless to say we were all a bit restless when we got out of the car and we told Dominic to leave everything in car while we went inside. Kuzma went right upstairs and looked at both of our bedrooms before picking mine and laying out face first onto the stale sheets. I couldn't help but chuckle at him before pulling his shoes off to let him rest for a while. Morgan was already in her room cracking open a window to let some fresh air inside as I took a seat on the bed.

            We both quickly made the decision just to order pizza for dinner as it was easy and we don't have any fresh food in the house. That is the first thing on the list for us to do tomorrow before I go meet with my lawyer for the adoption hearing. From what mom and Peyton have already told me, the application was filed on my behalf while I was still overseas. They worked on getting all the paperwork together while meeting with lawyers here and in North Carolina to make sure we had all of our ducks in a row.