Crystal Bay

Chapter Fourteen

The last two months have flown by and a frigid February is upon us, making me long for spring even more than the rest of this winter has. Other than my family tree, Paul and I were not able to glean very much useful information from the small book my great, great-grandmother had hidden away for me. Actually, I'm of the mind that maybe we have, we just don't have enough of the pieces put together yet in order to recognize it. I've spoken with my grandmother several times and, in our first talk, she did confirm that the Lyla that Paul and I met is, in fact, her mother. Other than that, according to her, she had nothing much to offer. One curious thing I did note was that, for a few of the women, minor seeming things like favourite flowers and foods were listed in the book. I can't fathom the importance of this, but it must have been included for a reason. I just have to figure out why these minute details mattered enough to be included. My attempts to take control of my dreams have been fruitless so far, fear always gets in the way.

There have been no more issues with my pregnancy, leading me to believe that Paul may have been right when, shortly after my hospital stay, we argued about the book. He accused me of allowing it to consume me and stated that he thought it was that exact thing that drove me into the hospital in the first place. From that point on, he made it a point to ensure that we limited the amount of each day that we spent studying it and filled the rest of our time with less stressful activities. Melody has been hovering over me when she's home, as well, making sure that I eat and sleep and doing everything she can to make sure I don't overdo it. As much as I appreciate both of them, I have to admit they're driving me more than a little crazy, a fact they've both told me more than once they're quite aware of. Not that my annoyance will stop them, of course, so I do try to hide it as best I can most of the time. Usually I'm successful...usually. There have been a few moments where I've snapped, though I apologized immediately.

I did keep my promise to Paul and scale back my hours at the diner, though not by as much as Dr. Rose ordered me to. To my surprise, he wasn't upset like I'd expected him to be, he just laughed. "I know you better than that," he'd said. "I can't believe you cut down your hours at all without putting up a huge fight." 

"It's hard to fight when you've got your mother in your corner and she actually works there," I'd pointed out, laughing with him. "She had it all half-arranged before I even arrived to discuss it." 

"That's true, but you are the boss, you didn't technically have to go along with it. I honestly didn't think you would." 

"She was reasonable about it, having me just give up one kitchen shift and agree not to open more than once a week. I figured I owed it to her to be reasonable, too. Also, your mom has the ability to make me forget I'm the boss, so there's that." He'd chortled loudly at that last.

Since Ryan's passing, I've seen a lot more of Joe and Paige, as well as Sophie. My brother has decided that we need to start seeing each other at least once a week, he says families need to stick together, as much as possible. I think losing Ryan has him thinking a lot about if something were to happen to another of us. Ryan's message to him went a long way toward getting him to forgive himself for being late, that night. For the most part, I think he's finally stopped blaming himself, as hard as that was for him. Sophie helped to reassure him, as did Ryan's parents and Chris, who has been spending a lot more time in Pinewood, lately. He's even rented a house there, mentioning that he's considering starting a home business, to remain closer to his parents. I think it'll be a long time, however, before any of us can talk about him without tears in ours eyes. The way he was so suddenly and tragically ripped from our lives will stay with us forever. Even months later, I feel like the whole in my heart will never be filled, it will remain hollow for the rest of my days.