Keep Me Safe (19 page)

Parker laughed and I heard voices getting louder in the background.

“Sorry baby, gotta go. But don’t worry, you will need that. Hopefully I won’t be too much longer. See ya in a bit, okay?”

“Okay. Go get em!” The line went dead and I scoffed at the stupid phrase that just came out of my mouth.

I couldn’t believe I slept that long. I knew I was up late last night, but I couldn’t recall the last time I had taken such a long nap. I stood up and stretched to get rid of the stiffness in my back. I must’ve slept pretty hard for my back to feel tight after just a nap. I looked in the mirror and I had a line going across my face from the pillowcase indenting my skin.

I heard distant laughing outside and made a quick decision to go lay on my patio. I put my swimsuit on and grabbed a bottle of water and my iPod. It was slightly overcast, which brought a slight breeze that always made it bearable outside. I plopped down on the chair, put my headphones in and closed my eyes.

I went through half of my playlist before I flipped over to lie on my stomach. The song “Magic
”
by Colbie Caillat came on and I started to smile.  The song pretty much said everything I felt about last night. All I needed was Parker and his touch. It was amazing what he did to me and the feelings he brought out of me. Or didn’t bring out of me, for that matter.

I knew we still needed to talk about the information I gave him last night, though. His actions made me think that he could handle what I told him and was okay with it. But why? Because he cared for me enough not to be scared away by it or because he
didn’t
care that much and didn’t see himself having children with me? It was really early in our relationship. Asking if he wanted to have kids with me would’ve been stupid. Memories of last night came flooding back and I replayed his words over and over again in my mind.

“I’m falling in love with you.”

I knew he wasn’t leading me on. I was too fucked up to be a play toy. No one would willingly deal with that. I didn’t know what I was obsessing over anyway. We just needed to take it one step at a time. There was no reason for me to get ahead of myself. There was no doubt in my mind that I was in love with Parker. I thought the same thing he did - I would’ve thought it was crazy to feel the way I already did about him. There was something that pulled me to him and I was enjoying every minute. And the sex last night was unflippinbelievable. Just thinking about it made me smile again.

My music stopped and I realized I’d been daydreaming for quite a while. I grabbed my empty water bottle and headed inside to make some lunch, hoping to make the day go by a little faster until he finished with work. When I was done making a sandwich, I went into the living room to catch up on some more TV.

As soon as I turned it on, the afternoon news was playing. The very first shot was video of the apartment complex where I dropped Parker off this morning. It had the same yellow “POLICE” tape around the grass and I noticed the brick building with the number 17 on it that I noticed this morning. The background shot switched to live and the news anchor was in front of the camera.

“Police have apprehended whom we believe to be the suspect in several stalking and rape incidents in the area. Officers and the SWAT team came to this apartment building behind me around seven this morning. Neighbors described the scene as a lot of shouting and a loud bang, presumably from banging down the door. Detectives aren’t commenting on the suspect’s name at this time, but we will have the information for you as soon as it’s available, right here on FNX13.”

The video went right back to the activity outside the building from earlier and there was a shot of Parker and another detective looking through the doorway of the apartment. My heart started beating faster at just the sight of him. He looked so handsome and looked like he knew exactly what he was doing.
Not that I knew one way or the other
. Then I realized how glad I was that this guy was off the streets. I knew it had been bothering Parker, and the fact that a monster like this wasn’t able to hurt anyone else made me feel so thankful. A part of me knew how it felt to be scared like that and I couldn’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been having a complete stranger with their hands all over you.

“Come on baby, let’s go upstairs. You know you want to.” He grabbed my arm and tried to get me to go with him.

“Brent, you just smacked me ten minutes ago. You really think I want to go and have sex with you right now?”

“Fine, suit yourself. I’ll go out and find someone who does.”

Brent grabbed his keys and stormed out the front door. I heard his tires squeal and I didn’t see him for the rest of the night.
I snapped back from the memory at the sound of the music on the commercial. Truth be told, it had been at least a year since Brent and I had actually had sex. Of all the things that went wrong with our marriage that was the one thing that never happened. He never forced himself on me or had sex with me without my consent. I think a part of him knew that I could only handle so much of his shit, and that wasn’t something I was willing to forgive.

I finished the last couple bites of my sandwich and turned the TV off. That was enough for me. I went upstairs and put on some yoga pants, a sports bra and a tank top. I hoped some exercise would get me out of this sleepy funk. Plus a workout always made me feel more attractive. I grabbed my phone instead of my iPod in case Parker called and hit the pavement.

Thirty minutes later I jogged slowly back to my driveway and saw Matt and Tyler getting out of the car. As soon as Matt noticed me he waved.

“Hey Matt! Hey Tyler!”

“Hi,” Tyler said, in a typical ‘unaffected teenager’ type voice.

Beth came out to meet them and walked down the driveway towards me.

“Hey, I know I told you to come over if you wanted to, but Matt just picked up some chicken and corn on the cob from the store. He felt like using the grill, I guess. Do you want to come over for dinner?”

“Yeah, that’d be great. I was going to cook for Parker, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to be finished in time.”

“Awesome. Come over whenever you want, but we’ll probably eat in an hour or so?”

“Sure! Let me grab a quick shower and I’ll be on my way over. Do you want me to bring anything?”

“Um,” she paused, “Do you have stuff for a salad? I didn’t have the boys get it because I know they won’t eat it.”

“Yeah! Tomatoes, cheese and cucumber okay?”

“That’s perfect. Thank you. It doesn’t have to be too big. It’ll just be me and you eating it. Boys,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“You got it. See you in a few.”

I walked back towards my house and saw that there was a long, rectangular box leaning against my front door. As I got closer, I realized that it had the logo for a flower company on it. I grabbed the box and headed inside, laying the box on the counter. When I opened it, the scent of an entire bouquet of tulips assaulted my nose. I started to breath heavily and knew they had been sent by Brent.

Tulips had been my favorite ever since I was a little girl. I mentioned that to Brent when we first started dating and he bought them for me all the time for no particular reason at all. But after he became abusive, they were his way to apologize for hurting me, physically or emotionally. I used to put them in the vase outside and claim there wasn’t enough natural sunlight in the house, or I’d just wait for the first sign of decay and I would throw them out. Tulips weren’t happy for me anymore.

I closed the lid on the box and took the whole thing out to the garbage can next to the house. Why was he doing this to me? He wasn’t supposed to be contacting me or coming anywhere near me, although technically he hadn’t done either. Was he
really
the one who left the note on my car? Did I actually see him when I was shopping with Parker yesterday? I looked around to make sure there was no one around or anyone watching me.

I didn’t need this. My anxiety was almost nonexistent anymore. My need for medication had gone down significantly and I was moving on - moving on with someone who I was in love with and, as far as I could tell, had no plans to do
anything
to hurt me. I went back in the house and double checked all the locks. I suddenly felt nauseous, so I grabbed some more water. I was going to have to tell Parker about this. He wanted us to go through this together, and frankly, I needed him.

Twenty-One

By the time I was dressed and ready for dinner at Beth’s house, I still hadn’t heard from Parker. I knew this was a big case and he seemed to be right in the middle of it all. From everything I’d seen so far, he loved and enjoyed his job even if he was pissed it took him away this morning. It seemed safe to assume it wouldn’t be the last time.

I checked the mirror on the wall halfway down the stairs to make sure I looked okay. I didn’t know how long I was going to be at Beth’s, but I wanted to look nice if Parker called sometime soon. Although it was a stupid thought, I didn’t want him to see me and regret what happened last night.
Hey, I said it was stupid.

I grabbed the salad out of the fridge I’d put together earlier and grabbed my cell phone off the counter. When I stepped outside, I was surprised by a semi-cool breeze. I stood still for a second and let it blow softly on my face. There weren’t too many perfectly comfortable days in Florida. It was miserably hot or a very weird, wet cold, so the cool days were something to be cherished. I smiled, hoping this was the start of a good night.

“Come in!” Beth yelled as I knocked on the screen door. I walked through the house to find her standing at the counter with a plate full of raw chicken.

“Am I too early?” I questioned.

“No, not at all! Matt forgot to get beer at the store earlier, so he took his sweet ass time going back.” As though he had been summoned, Matt walked in from the back patio. “Here’s the chicken, babe. I’ll bring the barbeque sauce and corn out as soon as I get the corn all wrapped up,” she said, handing him the plate.

“Alright. Hey Sadie, glad you could join us.”

“Thanks for having me over.” I waved as Matt headed back outside.

Beth started wrapping ears of corn in aluminum foil.

“Do you want a beer?” She pointed to the fridge with the roll of foil in her hand.

“Sure,” I said walking towards the fridge. “What do you have?”

“Um, he got Miller Lite and some apple ale stuff he says I
have
to try.”

I opened the fridge and eyed the apple ale. I felt like I was betraying my sacred Miller product, but what the hell. Beth watched me as I twisted off the cap with the bottom of my shirt and took a sip.

“How is it? Matt knows I hate beer and swears that one doesn’t taste like beer.”

“He’s right,” I said, taking another sip.

“Cool, will you open one for me?”

“Sure.”

I handed her the beer and walked back around the island to sit on one of the bar stools.

“Haven’t heard from Parker yet today?”

“Not since this afternoon.” I sighed. “I hate feeling selfish and wishing he was here, but I know he’s got something really big going on.”

“Yeah, Matt was watching the news earlier and saw that they caught that guy stalking all those women. He called one of his coworkers after that to find out if that’s what happened, but he never said anything else about it. Have you heard about that?”

“Yeah, I saw it on the news last week sometime and then Parker brought it up on our date after that.”

“Jeez, that’s romantic,” she teased.

“Well, it wasn’t his fault. He was staring off into space and I asked him if everything was okay and he brought it up. He didn’t say much, but I could see that it was bothering him.”

“Yeah, both he and Matt are really sensitive to that subject. Their mom was in an abusive relationship before she knew their dad.”

It was as if the light bulb had gone off over my head so brightly that it was blinding me. There had been finesse in the way he spoke to me after I’d told him about Brent. I’d wondered how he’d come up with the perfect words to say to me, and without any effort.

“Oh wow, that’s terrible. And they knew about it?”

“Yeah, it was common knowledge in their house. When they were old enough to date, Kate explained to them how and why you were supposed to treat women a certain way. I have to give it to her; she did a hell of a job with those boys. I can’t wait for you to meet her next Thursday.”

“Me either,” I said quickly.

Next Thursday. Thanksgiving. I suddenly missed my parents. I knew it would only be six weeks or so until I saw them for Christmas, but this would be my first Thanksgiving without them and it made me a little sad.

“Are you nervous about meeting Kate and Charlie?”

“Oh no, not at all. I was just thinking about my parents. This will be our first Thanksgiving apart. It just didn’t work out for me to go back to Wisconsin this year and my parents can’t really afford to fly here. The prices of flights around that time are ridiculous.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Will you see them for Christmas?”

“Definitely. I’m going there to spend a week or so. School doesn’t start again until January fifth, so I’m going up there for a couple days.

“Well that’ll be good. I got homesick all the time when we moved from Miami to here. I was only fourteen, but I remember wanting to go back all the time.”

Beth’s phone chirped and she pulled it out of her pocket.

“Sorry, it’s just a text.”

“Oh it’s fine! I’m a high school teacher. I’m used to coming second to text messaging,” I teased. Beth finished what I assumed was a text back to whoever messaged her and stuck the phone back in her pocket.

“I’ve got enough corn done for now, you want to go sit on the back porch?”

“Yeah, definitely. There was an awesome breeze as I was walking over here. Hopefully that sticks around.”

“I hope so too. I’m tired of sweating like a whore in church!”