Page 2 of Save Me
She and Emma had fit nicely into the smaller two-and-a-half-bedroom pool house that sat on the back of the large rental property in Key West. The half bedroom was actually a large loft, which Emma had moved into shortly after her second birthday. She’d turned the space into a perfect little girl’s bedroom and play area.
Living in paradise, being self-reliant, and not having to wait tables and be around strangers all day was good for her recovery. Most importantly, it was good for Emma.
Carl’s absence from their lives was only a good thing. It allowed her and her daughter to blossom and heal. She’d won sole custody after Carl had shown up to divorce court high and raging about how this was eating into his online gaming time. The female judge had closed the case quickly, assuring her that Emma wouldn’t have to spend an hour of her life with Carl and that she wouldn’t have to pay him any alimony, which he’d screamed in court was his due.
After that day, she hadn’t seen or heard from Carl once. They were better off for it, but it still stung. She’d thought Carl was the one.
He’d saved her from the horrors of her childhood. She had never had to worry that Carl would lift a fist to her. He may have yelled and been a basic child in a lot of areas, but he’d never hit her.
Back then, she’d believed she needed to be with someone. That she needed a man to save her from… well, a worse man.
Now, she no longer cared if she grew old by herself, just as long as Emma was happy. And thankfully, her daughter was flourishing.
How was it that Emma was almost three already? Crissy stilled as she thought back to the joy of holding her daughter for the first time.
Other memories filled her mind as well.
The first year after… what had happened to her, everything was a blur. She’d spent months in the hospital and then even longer in recovery, learning simple things like how to walk and how to hold a fork again. Thanks to Emily, she hadn’t had to worry about Emma during that time. Her friends Emily and Jamie had stepped up and saw to her daughter’s every need while Crissy recovered.
After all, the two women had almost gone through what she had. It was because of them, and their now husbands Rafe and Blaine, that Crissy was alive today.
She’d gone to a counselor almost daily, learning to breathe through the panic attacks, just trying to live again. Even now, she walked three blocks to the small office for weekly meetings with Dr. Elizabeth Rizzo.
The psychologist wanted to meet with Emma as well, but Crissy was determined to keep every aspect of her dark past away from her daughter. Besides, Emma was just two months shy of her third birthday. She didn’t even remember Crissy struggling to learn how to walk or being broken and bandaged up any longer.
Shaking any thoughts of her past away, she got back to the task at hand—making the beds, cleaning the bathrooms, replacing any soiled towels with fresh ones, emptying the trash cans, and removing any food or items left in the rental. Once she was sure everything was perfect, she sent a text message off to the new renters, telling them that the property was ready for check-in. She received an almost immediate response that they were en route. ETA thirty minutes.
That gave her half an hour to herself. She stepped out onto the patio and scooped some leaves out of the large lagoon pool and added a bag of salt to the water. She enjoyed maintaining the pool and found it extremely calming. Then she peeled off her tank top and shorts and dove into the refreshing crystal-clear water.
Taking these small moments to herself, as the doctor suggested, was something she had to force herself to do. If it were up to Crissy, she’d fill each waking moment with work or time with her daughter. She couldn’t really afford to let her mind wander. Not when it kept whizzing her back to the shipping container where she’d been held.
Since her mind wouldn’t stop that train of thought as she floated, looking up at the cloudless blue sky, she flipped over and did a few laps until she was breathless. With each stroke, she focused only on her breathing and the sound of her heartbeat.
When her phone chimed that there was someone at the front gate, she climbed out, shook the water from her short hair, pulled on her clothes, and went to greet the new guests.
This month’s renters were a large family—three siblings and their four young kids under ten, along with their parents. The large group would fill the house to capacity. The closeness of the family and the ease with which everyone interacted made her jealousy surface, as it always did.
In the past year that she’d worked there, she’d seen it all. Families that constantly fought with one another, ones that ignored each other, and ones that truly loved one another. This seemed to be the latter. And as much as it hurt her to see, she was thankful for it.
The other types of families were a drain on her and sometimes the house. In the past year, she’d had to learn how to repair drywall after one particularly violent fight between a father and his son.
After getting everyone settled, she walked next door to gather Emma from her morning play session with her neighbor Beth and her three-in-a-half-year-old daughter Tilly.
Beth was a stay-at-home mother whom Crissy had instantly liked. She trusted her with Emma completely. Emma and Tilly had become best friends days after they’d moved there.
Beth’s husband was owner and head chef at one of Key West’s most expensive restaurants, Oliver’s, which had been named after him by his parents when they’d started the place back when he’d been a child.
Crissy opened the back screen door on the smaller home and stepped into the kitchen without knocking.
Beth was sitting at the table, feeding her one-year-old, Johnathan, while Emma and Tilly sat on the floor across the living space, watching cartoons.
“So?” Beth asked. “Did the group get settled?”
“Yes.” Crissy sat down with a sigh. “It’s a larger group this time. A nice family with kids. I think they’ll be fairly quiet for the month.”
“Good.” Beth sighed. “The last group kept Oliver up.”
“Yeah, it’s hard to gauge just how crazy groups of retirees are going to get.”
