Page 1 of Protect Me
ChapterOne
KATELYN
A pair of glaring red lights jerked in front of my car, nearly clipping my front bumper.
Reflexively, I stomped on my brakes. My car skidded to a stop seconds before it would have slammed into an obnoxiously lifted truck with chrome rims.
“Jerk face!” Knuckles white on the steering wheel, I loosened my clenched jaw. “May you get fined and not be able to pay the bill, you arrogant, slimy newt!”
A hitch the size of Kansas would have totaled my front end.
Not that it mattered.
With a belch of black smoke, the truck scampered down the mountain highway, the driver oblivious.
The ring of my phone echoed through my car, distracting me from my rage. With a deep exhale, I hit theacceptbutton on my car dashboard.
The dulcet tone of my best friend, Vinita, followed.
“Kaaaaaatelyn!”
“Hey,” I breathed, relieved to hear her voice. “Please tell me something happy about you and Zayne. How are baby preparations going?”
Concern laced her tone. “Uh oh. What’s going on?”
My nostrils flared as I hesitated to respond. Vinita was only a few short months away from delivering her first baby—a boy. Notbeing at her side during this momentous time was hard enough, but the breakdown of my day made everything worse.
“Talk to me,” Vinita commanded when my silence continued. Realizing I wouldn’t be able to squirrel out of it, I gave in.
“It’s just . . . today was the worst day ever. I dropped three drinks at work this morning, the espresso machine stopped working, Dahlia called in sick so I had to do the morning rush myself and I still don’t know the drinks super well. It took me forever to do anything, so the line built up. People got all passive-aggressive and huffy. To make it worse . . . “ I sighed. “. . . last night, I couldn’t get any sleep.”
The hastily-stated final sentence was a bald lie.
Sort of.
I couldn’t get any sleepwas code forthe nightmares are coming back.Vinita and I always had our own language.
“Again?” she asked softly.
Tears filled my eyes at her compassionate tone, but I blinked them back. “Yeah, but it’s fine.” I cleared my throat. “Really.”
“Kaaaaaatelyn!”
The sharp edge of her reprimand made me laugh—she sounded just like her mother, Vani.
“I’m fine, really.” A sniffle punctuated my insistence. I pulled off the side of the road, chest heavy. “I just . . . I don’t know what triggered the nightmares this time, but I’ll figure it out and work through it. It’s been a year since I last had a dream like that. I kind of hoped I was over it already.”
“You don’t justget overtrauma like that.”
I snorted. “Don’t I know that. Maybe healing never ends?”
“Of course it does. It’s been five years, Kate. Look how far you’ve come. You’ve worked so hard in therapy, but that doesn’t mean healing is absolute or even linear. You’ll slip back into memories every now and then and you’ll fight your way back to the light. I’m here for you.”
Having a Marriage and Family Therapist as a best friend had been a lifesaver forsomany reasons.
I swallowed again. “I know. Thank you for the reminder. So, what’s up?”
Sighing, she said, “I had a favor to ask, but now I realize it may not be the best time.”
