Leave The City (Book 8 of Adopted by the Josephs)

52. Sarah

Sam slept hard after her therapist left. I could only imagine how tired she must feel. To have every memory of what happened the night of her car accident come rushing back in one fell swoop? I was exhausted for her, just thinking about it.

I set about making dinner while she slept. Brendon was puttering around outside a bit and then came back into the house and helped me a little while I got pasta boiling and was cooking some ground beef with garlic and onions. I was going to make a beef casserole that my mom would make when we'd had a bad day, or on cold winter nights. Detroit is not as nice and warm as LA, that's for sure. But it was home.

"Do you think she's okay?" Brendon asked, grating some cheese for me from a block of cheddar I had out on the island.

"I don't really know, B," I said. "I hope so. But I can't imagine how hard it was for her to have all those memories come flooding back at once. It's no wonder she's so tired."

"This kid," Brendon said, shaking his head. "When does it stop for her? When does she get a break?"

I shook my head. I know he wasn't actually asking.

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" he asked me. I stopped what I was doing, looked up and out the kitchen window, and sighed.

"We'll help her through all this. And Dr. Angela. Also, we can, and probably should, call Jenna and Tyler."

"I think maybe Samantha should call them and tell them what happened," Brendon said. I nodded. Samantha deals best with issues when Samantha deals with the issues herself. Although, she's not always comfortable having those types of discussions. I know when we suggest she call her parents and let them know what happened, just to keep them in the loop, she was going to struggle with it. I would promise her, she can hold my hand, and even have me on speaker phone and part of the conversation. But first, I had to let her sleep and, maybe, process.

I put dinner in the oven once I was done putting it all together and set the timer for an hour.

"I'll go wake her up just before dinner is ready," I said. "Can you take it out of the oven when the timer goes off?"

"Yep," Brendon said, looking down at Penny Lane, who was very interested in the cheese he was nibbling on. I smiled.

Brendon and I sat in the living room for a little while while dinner was in the oven.

"With everything Sam's been through," Brendon started. "From the time she was born, and even since she's been living with Tyler and Jenna, she hasn't had a break. But for the most part, she's so positive and compassionate."

I looked at Brendon. I couldn't quite read the look on his face, but I was wondering if he was thinking about Jess. Our daughter had also been so positive, even in the face of her illness. Even after her assault at school, when she could have died from her head injuries, she still had been so compassionate and positive when she recovered.

I missed her so much.

A little while later, the timer went off, bringing me out of my daydream.

"Bren, you grab that, I'm going to wake Samantha up," I said, getting up and putting down the book I had intended to read, but had wound up staring at as I remembered our daughter.

He kissed me on the cheek as I passed him by, and went into the kitchen. I climbed the stairs to Samantha's closed bedroom door and knocked gently. No answer. Realizing that she hadn't eaten anything since we'd gotten home, and I assumed she hadn't eaten lunch, her sugar could be low. But my phone's alarm hadn't gone off.

I opened the door quickly, but quietly, and moved over to Samantha's bedside. I checked her carefully and saw she looked like she was just deeply asleep. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the edge of the bed. She frowned just a little at the movement, and let out a sigh. I smiled and tucked a lick of hair behind her ear. She really was a beautiful young woman. In every possible way. She was so kind and generous, forgiving - even though she can hold one heck of a grudge.  She was simply a beautiful person.