To Love a Stray

Chapter 24

Micah’s story:

I sit at the base of the tree as I close my mobile phone with a snap. I rest my forearms on my raised knees as I allow my head to hang forward. Feelings of frustration and helplessness flood me. Another day, another phone call to Alan Cummings and Alan relays another refusal to talk to me from Rosy. Yesterday I hadn’t even gotten that far - Alan announced it was not a good time to call and then he had cut my phone call short. I open my phone to look at the time before closing it once again, not even nine o’clock and my day is shot to hell. I rub one hand over my face trying to chase away the stiffness I feel from keeping a smile on my face, attempting to keep positive about the situation. The truth of it is I am just plain scared Rosy has moved on.

I get to my feet and head back towards the buildings, might as well try to occupy myself with stuff to keep me from thinking about missing Rosy. I am not far off the edge of the home paddock when I hear the faint sounds of someone talking. Curious I follow the sound and find Celeste leaning against a tree holding her phone to her ear. Every now and then she makes a sound in her throat as she listens to someone talking. I move away slightly to give her some privacy. Short of taking a wide arc around her there is no way I can pass without disturbing her.

As if sensing someone near by Celeste glances around, she meets my eyes for a moment before turning away once again. A minute or two later she ends her phone call and turns to watch me walk towards her.

"I thought for a minute it was Steven or Mikkarl come to find me," Celeste says as she falls into step beside me.

"Let me guess," I say evenly. "You wanted some privacy to either make the call or you were expecting a call and didn’t want your brothers listening in,"

"Both of them know I was making the phone call," Celeste says finger combing her hair over her scarred cheek. "They just don’t know I snuck out of the quarters to do it."

I laugh softly, it seems like the accident hasn’t changed Celeste’s headstrong ways.

"I notice you’ve got your phone out as well," Celeste says making me aware that I am still holding my phone in my hand.

"I take it you were calling your boyfriend," I say knowing she has no steady boyfriend but I don’t want to have her start with questions I might not want to answer.

"Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t," Celeste says airily and I glance her way with interest. I have heard that exact tone from Jazzy in the past when she was trying not to admit to anything without an outright denial.

"So you snuck out to talk to some young tom," I say then add teasingly, "Maybe I should tell Steven I caught you making kissy noises down the phone at him,"

"Don’t you dare Micah!" Celeste exclaims as she stops and turns to face me.

"So you don’t want your brother to know you were chatting to some tom you really like?" I ask raising my eyebrows. What I can see of Celeste’s face turns bright red and she turns away from me with an embarrassed sound.

"Just because I was chatting to some guy …" Celeste mutters under her breath.

"Although you were getting pretty friendly with Justin and Kirby last night," I say lightly. "Maybe you’re just out getting some fresh air now,"

"Are you trying to be nice?" Celeste asks suspiciously with a sideways glance at me.

"Maybe I am just tired of everything ending in an argument," I mutter.

"Is it true you’re trying to patch things up with your ex-girlfriend?" Celeste asks sounding very serious.

"Who told you that?" I ask quietly.