Page 40 of Defending Our Ever After

“The walkies are charged, but don’t plan on much more than a four-mile range,” Mike adds. “I’m more comfortable with that plan, than with you trying to get back up here in the dark.”

“I appreciate it,” I sincerely respond.

With those words, I go and take my daughter from Shelby’s arms and blow a raspberry through one of the gowns Elsbeth had made for her. That’s been our game for a while now and I love the laugh that she’s still developing.

“Eww,” I groan, getting a whiff of her. “I’ll go give her a quick sponge bath before I go.”

“We’ll all take care of her while you’re away, just hurry back,” Shelby says, squeezing my arm.

“I talked to Trisha, in case anything happens, she’ll take care of Sara,” I whisper to her, giving her a nod while we exchange a look weighed down with the knowledge of all the things thatcouldhappen.

“Eddie,” Mike calls me and I see him pulling on his coat. “Let’s get some supplies packed up for you.”

“Can you stand her stink for a few more minutes?” I ask Shelby, reluctant to give up time with my daughter, but appreciative of Mike’s offer to help me.

With her nod, I pull myself away from Sara and whatever is starting to smell really good in the woodburning stove, to follow him out to the barn.

“I appreciate you doing this,” he says, as I match my pace to his. “Elsbeth does also, though she doesn’t have the words to express herself right now; what with Jace…”

“I understand,” I tell him, opening the door to the shed he has perfectly organized. “My dad was always partial to Muhammad Ali’s quote that I’m going to mangle:service to others is the rent you pay for your room here. Of course, his version was in regard to chores and a room in his house.”

“Ha! I like that one, and I think you got it right.” Mike grins as he takes two small packs out of a bin. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your parents.”

“Dad was a hard worker, easy going; you know the type people would always gravitate toward? Mom loved him, but was jealous of anyone who took his attention away from her for even a moment. She’d would ignore me until just before he got home from work, then she’d arrange us so he would come in and think she was mother-of-the-year. That way he’d think we’d been playing a game or working on my homework all along,” I tell him. I can tell he’s listening to me even though he seems to be putting identical items in each bag.

“Were they alive when The Event happened?” he asks, as I start to get suspicious that he’s thinking of coming with me.

“No. Mom killed him a couple months before I was old enough to leave for basic training. She’d convinced herself he was going to leave her the moment I was out of the house. The lawyer her parents hired got her an insanity plea and sent her to some fancy mental hospital. Regardless, she committed suicide the first chance she got.” I pause for a moment, pointing at the bags. “I’m going by myself, Mike, no debate.”

“Christ, Eddie. I don’t think I ever heard that.” Mike claps me on my shoulder, unsure of going in for a hug. “Let’s be thankful she didn’t try to kill you too.”

“She intended to,” I tell him something I’ve never said out loud before. “I was supposed to go to a friend’s party, but she made up some excuse to ground me and I got pissed off; I swore at her which was a huge ‘no fly zone’ for my dad, that made him back her up. I snuck out anyway.

“My friend lived a couple blocks over and when we heard all the police sirens, we thought they were coming to break up the party, so I crossed through the backyards and ran home. The squad cars were all pulling up to my house—our neighbor had called them when he heard three shotgun blasts. Later they said Mom fired into the pillows I’d stuffed under my blankets and that Dad was hit twice as he was running to my room.” I turned back to face the last rays of the afternoon sun, suddenly feeling claustrophobic in the small outbuilding.

Mike slowly exhales as he stands beside me, we’re both looking toward the horizon and I’m beyond grateful to the man for his silence. In the wisdom that comes with his years, he seems to know I don’t want a fucking hug or for him to tell me how sorry he is. It’s in the past and not something I dwell on; it takes a moment for it to click with me why I even told him.

It’s Sara. If anything happens to me, I want the people who will raise her to know something real about me. Not that my background will become a bedtime story for her, I think and catch myself smiling at the bad joke running through my mind, but life doesn’t get any more real than my mother’s decision which changed the course of my life.

“I understand you’re going alone, but I want you to hide this pack near the base of the mountain. You might not be lucky enough to get out of town with all your things and you’ll sure as hell need supplies if meeting up with Aiden doesn’t work out.”

“Gramps! Uncle Eddie!” Dylan calls from the door to the house. “Dunch is almost ready.”

“I’m glad he settled on ‘dunch’, ‘linner’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.” I chuckle at Dylan’s word for the late afternoon meal that seems to work best with all of our schedules.

“Elsbeth was cooking up one of the canned hams today,” Mike informs me. We share a look before double timing it back inside to get cleaned up.

Chapter 15

Shelby

“Mom!” Dylan hollers my name and I turn to see him and Rachel running toward me at breakneck speed.

“Well, your training has paid off I see,” I say when the two of them reach me. They’re both gasping for breath, which tells me they’ve been running for a bit, so I just wait them out.

“Tank,” Rachel gasps out. “Missile thingy.”

That was definitely not what I was expecting and a sharp chill shoots through my body. As I turn to look toward the front gate, my brain is screaming that they came from behind the barn, which means they were uphill—where our property meets up with Lee’s place.

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