Page 61 of Broken Doll

"Hope, have you picked out the tiles for the floor?" I ask her. I know she has looked at the book and folded some of the pages she likes, but we haven't had a moment to sit and look through it together yet.

She's not talking to me, and that always worries me, as I don't know if it's because she's thinking about her past, her family, or something I said that reminded her of them.

"No not yet, but it's your house so you should see what you like." She puts my plate of food in front of me and Jackson puts a gift on the counter for her.

"Happy birthday Hope, I hope you like it." He pushes it closer to her, and she doesn't move.

I see her body tense up a little, and a small part of me is worried that something is flashing through her mind. Jackson taps my arm and nods letting me know that he's leaving the room for a moment. Walking around the counter, I stand next to her as I lean on it.

Taking her hand in mine, I say, "Talk to me." A flashback has just run through her head, and I might not want to know what it is, but I need to know what we just did wrong, so we don't do it again.

She takes in a long deep breath, closes her eyes then opens them as she lets the air out. “Are you going to let Jackson... Do I have to… Will Jackson—”

Oh my God, she thinks that I’m going to let Jackson sleep with her. That’s the last thing either of us want. “No, why would you think that?” I ask. Jackson has never made a move on her or said anything for her to think like that, and I've never mentioned anything like that to him.

“When I get gifts from other men, then—”

“Stop, Hope. You have to start believing me when I say that you willneverhave to live that life again. The life I want you to live is with me and me alone.” Softly pulling her over to me, her head falls on my chest. “Jackson got you that gift for your birthday as a friend and he’ll get you one for Christmas too.” I kiss the top of her head, wrapping my arms tighter around her.

"Sorry," she whispers into my chest. I choose not to say anything to her, she's told me something about her past, and I'm happy about that.

I see Jackson standing by the table and give him a nod so that he can rejoin us. “I thought we could sit at the table,” I say, grabbing my plate as Hope brings over some coffee.

“If you don’t like the color, I can change it,” Jackson says as he puts the gift in front of her.

Her hands move onto the table, and very slowly she brings the gift towards her. I see Jackson watching her as she opens the paper and I eat my food. Can't believe how hungry I am at the moment and the fact that Hope makes amazing food is even better.

As I see the gift, I’m pissed that he got that for her, but at the same time happy too. “What is it?” Hope looks over at me.

“It’s an e-reader, so you can download books and read them on there,” Jackson answers for me. “If you put it on charge I can show you how it works, we can link it to Leo’s account.” He looks over and smiles.

I wait for Hope to walk away from the table. “Why did you buy her that?”

"You said that she likes to read, I thought it would be a perfect gift." He looks hurt. And he's right, she does like to read, and I love that she does.

“The reason I never got her one is because that was going to be my reason for her to leave the house, to go to the bookstore and buy books,” I tell him. I mean Jackson didn’t know about that, so I can’t be too pissed at him about it.

He sighs deeply. “I can take it back—”

“No, once she knows how it works, she will love that thing. I’ll get a bookshelf made and tell her that she will have to fill it or something.” I turn to see Hope as she joins us again.

“Thank you,” she says, well whispers but we both heard it.

* * *

“How are we going to ask Hope abouthim?" Jackson looks over his shoulder at Hope walking around as she mops the kitchen floor. You'd think I would be used to her doing all this stuff now, but I still hate it; I hate her cleaning when I can pay someone to do it.

“We?” I narrow my eyes at him.

“You, but I’ll be right here.”

“I don’t know. I suppose we could just ask. We have no idea how they are linked or anything,” I tell him, as I take a drag from my cigarette.

"Before I forget, I'll be at your office next week for the meeting about We Are Loved, and I had an idea about it too."

“What’s your idea?” I’ve got the group coming in next week so they can meet Jackson. I won’t sign off on it unless he likes them too.

“Think about it, there are girls out there like Hope, who are too scared to talk to anyone; yes you said one of them is studying to be a psychologist, but what about a medical doctor?” Jackson looks at me as the light bulb flashes in my head, how did I not think of that before?

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