Keep Me Safe (20 page)

We both laughed and I realized that she reminded me a lot of Stephannie. They had that same open, blunt, honest attitude. I loved it.

When we got to the backyard, she handed the corn to Matt who was standing at the grill. She put the barbeque sauce and an extra plate on the counter space next to him.

“Thanks babe,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

“You’re welcome. Now hurry up, I’m starving.” She slapped him on the butt and winked at me, enjoying her obviously common teasing of her husband.

I sat in the chair facing the water and Beth sat across from me, both with our beers in our hands.

“This stuff is really good,” she said loudly enough for Matt to hear her.

“I told you! I had some at Jeff’s house the other night and knew you’d like it.”

After some small talk, Matt loaded all of the grilled food onto the empty plate and put it on the table next to the grill.

“Tyler, dinner’s ready!” Beth yelled inside the house. “Help yourself, Sadie.” She and I stood up and walked over to fill our plates. I sat down with a healthy helping of barbeque chicken, corn on the cob and salad that Beth had gone back inside to grab.

“This corn is really good Matt. And I’m from Wisconsin, land of the corn broils, so I’m hard to impress.”

“You’ll have to thank Beth. She puts all the stuff on it. I just stick it on the grill.”

“Well, either way, it’s delicious.”

We were all silent as we stuffed our mouths when I felt my chair shake a little. My involuntary instinct was to grab the arm of the chair with my free hand, terrified that it was giving out underneath me. The second I grabbed it, Parker leaned over from behind me and kissed me on the cheek.

“Miss me?” he whispered in my ear.

“Hey! Yes I did!” Parker lightly squeezed my shoulder as he walked the few feet to the table with the food and grabbed a plate. “Did you call me? I didn’t hear my phone ring.”

“No, it’s okay. Beth texted me earlier to tell me you were coming over for dinner, so I texted her a few minutes ago to see if you were here.”

“Sorry,” Beth mumbled, chewing her food. “In my defense, he told me not to say anything.”

“Yeah, I figured I’d surprise you,” he said with a smile.

“Well, I’m glad you did.” I grabbed his hand loosely as he walked past to sit in the chair next to me.

When we were done eating, Matt came out with another round of beers, and started asking Parker a bunch of questions about everything that had happened today.

“A woman called the station today, saying her neighbor had come home really early this morning which wasn’t normal. But she said he was wearing sunglasses and had the hood of his sweater pulled up over his head. The sun hadn’t come up yet so she knew it looked off. She happened to watch the news at six this morning and noticed the sketch of the suspect we’ve been looking for and swore it was her neighbor. We pulled his photo up and it was almost identical. We brought him in and interviewed him, asked him where he was during all of the attacks and he didn’t have a decent alibi for any of them. We had enough to hold him, so he’s in lockup for the night. Hopefully, the warrant for his DNA comes in and we can find out for sure.”

Although his explanation was informative, the expression on his face said much more. He was relieved. Now knowing what I did about his mom, I could see why this bothered him so much. I didn’t realize what telling him about my past could conjure up for him.

“So you think you got the right guy, then?” Matt questioned.

“Yeah, I think so. When we interrogated him, he wasn’t giving us straight answers. Thankfully, he never lawyered up, but he was definitely hiding something.”

“Good. I hope they lock that bastard up and lose the key,” Beth retorted.

Parker and Matt both shot her the same ‘not surprising’ look. I stood up to take my plate to the kitchen.

“Are you guys finished? I’ll take your plates to the kitchen.” I held my hand out.

“Here, I’ll help you.” Parker stood up and leaned over to grab Matt’s plate and I grabbed Beth’s.

Parker followed me inside to the kitchen, putting the dishes in the sink as soon as I sidestepped. I turned away from the counter and Parker grabbed me by the waist and spun me around. The second I was facing him, his hands gently gripped my face and his lips were on mine. As though we’d been separated by a lengthy period of time, he kissed me like he’d been waiting for me. His tongue found mine in an instant and my arms, nearly paralyzed from surprise, could only lift as far as the bend of his elbows. My head swirled with the sudden rush and by the time I started to
really
kiss him back, he slowed and locked our lips one last time before pulling away.

“I’ve been thinking about doing that all day.”

“Oh yeah?” I stepped back down from my tiptoes and left my hands in the fold of his arms. “So have I.”

“I’m sorry it took so long, but I’m here now. Do I get credit for that?” He brushed a stray strand of hair out of my face.

“
Extra
credit.”

“Do you think it would be rude if we left and I took you back to your house?”

“You’d know better than me. They’re your family after all.”

Parker leaned to the left to look past me, gauging the situation.

“Come with me, we’ll at least say goodbye.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me back outside with him. Matt was cleaning up the grill when we stopped in front of our chairs.

“So, it’s been a long day,” Parker explained. “I’m tired, but I need to spend some time with my girl first. We’ll just catch you guys later?”

“Uh huh, tired my ass,” Beth teased.

“Whatever dude, she’ll just make you do the dishes next time.” Matt said, walking past us with all the leftover food.

“That’s right, next time!” Beth had that look of sudden memory on her face. “I’m pretty sure the next time will be Thursday for Thanksgiving. I invited her over. You’re okay with that, right Parker?”

“Of course I’m okay with it. Sadie says she is too. It’s our family she has to meet.”

“Yeah, of course. I don’t mind meeting your family. Thank you for inviting me too, that was really sweet.” I really didn’t mind. I was glad I’d have people to spend time with.

“Stop thanking me. Just promise you’ll help me even out the estrogen to testosterone ratio in my house.”

“You got it.” I said as I laughed.

Parker and I both waved and headed back towards the front of the house. He yelled ‘bye’ to Tyler when we passed the staircase though I’m not sure he got an answer. Tyler never did come down for dinner.

He opened the front door for me and kept ahold of my hand as we walked through.

Twenty-two

The only way to get to my house any faster would’ve been to run. I opened the door and giggled at our quick pace getting here.

“I feel like a teenager sneaking around!” I shut the door behind us and we were greeted by darkness. “Hold on, let me find the light switch.”

“Or you could not…” His fingers trailed slowly up my outstretched arm, causing goose bumps to prickle my skin.
Damn, he was good at that.
I felt the warmth of his body against my back and my heart started beating faster.

This kind of exhilaration was completely opposite of everything I was used to for the last couple of years. The thought of night time and being alone with a man would’ve caused me a huge amount of anxiety. Brent was usually only home in the evenings, and usually took his aggressions out on me after dinner. The selfish bastard wanted to at least be fed before he hit me. At no point since my date with Parker at the coffee shop had I pulled or shied away out of habit. I was so thankful for the peace I felt that at this very moment.

I could feel my heart beating, even in my ears. I turned around and pressed our bodies together, all my nerve endings seemingly more sensitive because of the lack of vision. I stood on my tiptoes and weaved my fingers through Parker’s short hair. There was an eagerness to his actions as he started to kiss me causing his body weight to shift and shuffle us backwards. When he reached the wall, I could feel him put both hands on either side of my face against it. He tapered off the kiss and pulled away just far enough to keep our lips from touching.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so forward,” he practically panted. “I can’t explain it, but you just do that to me. I don’t know if it’s because of last night, or just because I was
thinking
about last night all damn day.”

“Shh, it’s okay.” I put my finger up against his lips. “I may be a lot of things but unsure isn’t one of them. I have some issues, but I’m not fragile, Parker.”

“I know.” His shoulders relaxed as he sighed. “I just don’t want to be too pushy and trigger a bad memory or make you feel like I’m not treating you with complete respect because I would never –“

“I trust you,” I interrupted. “You don’t have to treat me any differently than you’d treat any other woman.” The thought of him with someone else made my stomach want to flip.

“But you
are
different. I’ve never felt this way before. I’m used to detaching myself from women, not being consumed by thoughts of one. I guess I’m learning too.”

“You said we were in this together, right? So let’s learn together. I promise to tell you if you’re being too forward if you promise to tell me if I’m being too needy.”

“Yeah, I meant what I said. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.” I could feel him smile against my lips.  “Are you sure you’re not needy right now though?”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t needy,” I said enticingly. “Last night was amazing. I’ve been thinking about it all day, too.” I dropped my head to his chest and he wrapped his arms around me. “If you’re not too tired, do you want to take a blanket out back and sit on the beach for a while?”

“I’d love to. Can we pretend to be teenagers again and make out?”

“Sure.” I laughed. “I’m pretty fluent in teenager.”

I reached over for the light switch and Parker smacked me lightly on the butt as soon as it came on. I walked over and grabbed a huge comforter out of the hall closet. I tossed my shoes off and walked through the kitchen where Parker was standing with the fridge door open.

“Beer?” He pointed one in my direction.

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Parker was still dressed in his slacks and polo from today and he still looked as hot as he did this morning. He slid his dress shoes and socks off before opening the back door.

As I walked towards the door, I stepped on something slick and nearly lost my footing. The item slid across the hardwood floor and over towards Parker standing by the back door.

“What the hell was that?”

Parker picked up what looked like a piece of paper.

“It’s the card.”

“What card?”

“The card from the flowers.”

“Oh my god, there was a card?” My head started spinning and I felt nauseous. “Wait,
you
put a card in there?”

“I can’t believe I forgot about them. I just had them sent last minute this morning. Wow, it has been a long day. Did you not see it?”

I felt so embarrassed. 

“Oh my god Parker, I’m so sorry. I got home from my run earlier and they were sitting on my doorstep. They were tulips, and I assumed they were from Brent because of our history, and I didn’t see the card.”

I dropped the blanket and covered my face, the tears automatically falling from my eyes. I heard Parker put the beers on the counter and walk over to me. He lightly grabbed my wrists to pull my hands away.

“Hey, don’t cry. You didn’t know. I’m sorry you felt scared at all that they might be from him. What made you think they were from him?” He hesitated, “Were you going to tell me?”

“He used to get tulips for me when we started dating because they were my favorite. Then after we got married and the…
it
, started, he’d send them to me as an apology. Like he thought they would make me forget that he had just put his fucking hands on me.” I sniffled and rubbed the tears from my face, certain I was going to die of embarrassment. “I’m so sorry Parker. I don’t know why I got like this. And I was going to tell you, I just totally forgot about it once I saw you at Beth’s house.”

“It’s okay. Don’t apologize. I had no idea, I’m the one who is sorry.”

“No, please. That was so thoughtful. I guess I saw the flowers and I automatically assumed they were from Brent and I didn’t give it a second thought. I’m sorry. I threw them in the trash can outside. I’ll go get them.”

As I went to pull away, Parker kept the soft grip on my arms to stop me from going.

“No, don’t. I don’t want you to have to look at them and worry about seeing the good instead of the bad.” He wiped a tear I didn’t know was there from my cheek and slightly bent his knees to be at eye level with me. “I’ll just get you some more. No more tulips, I promise.”

There was that smile that made everything right in the world. He kissed my forehead and reached down to grab the blanket. I sighed and brushed away the few damp strands of hair from my face.

“Is there any other flower I should stay away from?” Even though his tone was serious, he winked at me and put me at ease.

“Nope, I think we’ve covered all the bases of flowers that make me turn into a crazy person.”

He laughed and walked out the back door with the beers and the blanket. When he finished spreading it out on the sand, we both sat down shoulder to shoulder facing the water. The moon was barely visible behind the clouds, shining just enough light for us to see each other.

“You’re not crazy,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to make light of it with my question. You’re going to have things that set you off.”

I wondered if his knowledge was from his experience as a police officer or from the stories from his mom. Although, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to bring up his mom just yet.

“I know you didn’t. It’s really weird. I feel lucky in the sense that I didn’t feel like a lot of battered women. “Sure, I stayed, but I knew I wasn’t going to forever. I had my plan to get out and I stuck to it until it was time. Obviously, getting the shit beat out of me sucked, but I knew leaving him and not looking back was the only way I was going to really escape him.”