They Saved Her!

Chapter 27- Cage

Amber's P.O.V.-

She was little nervous meeting this mystery man. Sure he was Jenni's dad and Evan's best-friend, but that only seem to make it worse. She wanted to make a good impression. For some reason she wanted this man to like her.

She felt Ethan squeeze her hand. Looking down she realized she had reached for him with out even knowing it. This was so new to her. To have someone there when she needed them. And well for to actually lean on that person. She had been so afraid of people and men in general for so long that she was surprised at how at ease she had been feeling since they had arrived at Evan's shop.

Even the forty-five seconds it had taken them to get through the crowd downstairs hadn't been as bad as she thought it would. Though she did think if she would have tried to walk through the crowd not even six months ago she would have probably freaked just at the idea let a lone been able to actually do it.

She had her back to stairs when she heard foot steps coming up them. She turned real quick but didn't let Ethan's hand go. When he turned the corner. She froze for a second. Not from fear this time, but from shock. She knew this man.

She let go of Ethan's hand and stood up. “Uncle Cage?” She asked in a whisper. She hadn't seen him in over ten years but she knew it was him. He hadn't hardly changed at all. He had a few more laugh lines around his eyes then he did before and he now had gray streaking through his pitch black hair.

She watched the slow smile cross his face and he held open his arms. Amber ran across the room and jumped into his arms. She had missed him. He had made every summer of her younger years so much fun. He would come and spend a couple weeks with them and take her fishing, to baseball games, to the museums, and parks. Pretty much anywhere she wanted to go.

 The last time he had came, he had told her that he wasn't going to be able to come back. She hadn't understood it at the time and that had been her first heartbreak, but after a few years she had put his memory behind her and moved on with her life. But all the memories of the time she spent with him came rushing back as she was held in his tight hug.

Cage's P.O.V.-

He couldn't believe he was holding this little girl in his arms. He looked over her head and straight into the eyes of his best-friend. How the hell was he going to explain this to him. He was in deep shit. He had kept a secret from him for eighteen years. He had made that promise so many years ago not to tell him. He had kept that promise knowing some day he would have to tell him, but now that day was there, he didn't know if he was ready. He knew that keeping that promise would hurt his friendship but at the time he had thought it was for the best.

Looking at his friends curious eyes now, he knew he couldn't keep that secret anymore. Slowly he pulled Amber back. Holding on to her shoulders he looked into her face. He could see this girl was tired, and she had lost the light that used to shine so bright in her eyes. That sadden him. She used to be such a happy, active, bouncy, bright girl. Just like his Jenni. But now you could see the scares hidden in her eye's. He wondered what she had been through in the tens years since he had seen her.

His heart ached at the thought they had to step out of her life and hadn't been able to walk back in. At the time he had thought it was for the best. Amber's mom, Irene, had asked him not to come back. Said it was to hard on her to see him and was forced to remember, but now Cage wished he would have stood his ground and made her let him come back.

Brushing the few strands of her brown hair out of her face he asked her, “How are you baby girl?” He ignored the two men at the table and concentrated totally on Amber.

She had been smiling at him, but it slowly faded, “I am doing better now.” He wondered what that meant, but he wasn't going to ask right now. The room suddenly had filled with tension and he was pretty sure it all surrounded what had happened to her.