Page 26 of Save Me
He reached up with his free hand and rubbed his short beard. “So, I am. Sorry, did I hurt you?”
“No, just tickled.” Emma started to wiggle free from his arms. “I guess Mama likes the kissing part better.” Brock easily set her down and laughed while Emma walked over to the arts cabinet and started getting out her coloring books and crayons.
“I guess my kisses aren’t for everyone,” he joked as he looked at Crissy.
“I guess not.” She walked over and laid a hand on his face. “I like the beard,” she assured him. “And the kissing part.”
Brock’s arms wrapped around her again, and she relaxed for just a moment, letting the worries about another killer out there waiting to get to her disappear.
At least for a moment. Then her phone rang, and she jumped in his arms.
“I’ll answer it,” he said, taking her shoulders.
“No.” She took a deep breath. “I won’t let him scare me from living. Besides, it’s my job.” She walked over to answer the call. Thankfully, it was from a woman looking to book the rental.
When she hung up from the call, Brock was sitting beside Emma, coloring with her.
“Wow, the two of you are so good at that,” she said with a smile.
“You paint.” Emma motioned to the cupboard.
She glanced down at her watch and winced. “I still have a few things to do.”
“I can help,” Brock said, starting to stand up.
“No, you stay here with her.” She motioned to Emma, who had already turned back to her coloring. “I’ll finish up quickly and be back to start dinner soon.”
“Pizza!” Emma shouted.
She thought about it for a moment and asked Brock, “If you want? Eddie’s is just down the street.”
“Eddie’s sounds good.” He nodded. “I used to work there in high school.”
“You did?” Emma stopped coloring and looked at him, as if suddenly he was the man of her dreams. “For real?”
“Yup,” Brock said and started answering her daughter’s million questions about working in her favorite pizza place.
She stepped back outside, and as Brock and her daughter’s voices faded, the worry built. Worry about what would happen to Emma if anything happened to her.
Carl wasn’t an option. Carl’s parents were both deceased. He had a grandmother somewhere in a nursing home living off her government pension. Her father wasn’t an option either. Nor did she want Emma to go into the system.
She thought of Brock and his parents. What it must have been like growing up in a loving home. What could she have become if she’d been nurtured in childhood? If she hadn’t been afraid every moment of her life of being beaten or worse.
It was one thing Dr. Rizzo was helping her through now. Not letting fear ruin her life or stop her from living. The old Crissy would have never allowed Brock to kiss her. Would have never stepped out in the red swimsuit and been so carefree. Not after what she’d gone through.
For a while there, she’d been perfectly content spending the rest of her days hiding. Never taking any sort of pleasure for herself ever again.
Then something changed. She’d grown. Morphed into something new. And it was largely due to Emma and Dr. Rizzo’s help.
The moment her daughter started forming sentences and was able to really interact with her, she’d started looking at life through Emma’s eyes. Things could be amazing and fun, no matter the circumstances.
Somehow, she was having a difficult time returning to that line of belief after last night’s call. Especially now, knowing that there was a woman out there that had hadn’t been as lucky as she’d been two years ago.
She was just finishing up her chore list when Beth came through the fence. When she spotted Crissy carrying a basket of pool toys back to the large container they were housed in, she rushed over to her.
“Is it true?” Beth asked her a little breathless.
“Is what true?” she asked her.
