Page 54 of A Curse On Black Lake
The screen door slams, and I watch them through the window, get into a car and drive away.
The cash register door clicks shut, and I turn around, facing Eliana. She’s leaning against the countertop, and I can’t read the expression on her pretty face. It’s like she shut down.
“Are you alright?”
She drops her head, and her shoulders go up and down with a long breath.
I walk around the counter and pull her into my chest. I don’t know why I do it, but I feel like I need to. She needs someone to hold her because she’s crumbling. I could see it in her eyes from the moment I met her. But none of it was my business.
I’m making it my business now.
Her cheek rests against my chest, and her body shakes in my arms. A sob bursts from her as her arms come around my waist.
I scoop her into my arms and walk into the living room, sitting us on the couch.
“Is this okay?” I ask her.
“Yes,” she rasps.
Placing my hat to the side, I pull her close. She tucks her nose into my neck and cries. My heart twists and rages in my body. I’ve never seen someone so terrible to another human being. Working in law enforcement, I’ve seen all kinds of things. But I’ve never seen that.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her lavender scented hair.
Her shoulders finally stop shaking, and she links her arms around my neck. I tighten my arms around her waist and try not to think about how good this feels. It’s almost a relief to feel someone holding me.
“It’s not true, you know,” I mutter into her hair.
“I know,” she rasps. “I know they were saying things to egg me on, but I miss her so much, and it hurt to hear.”
“I know you do. I miss my dad too,” I murmur.
“How long has he been gone?” she asks.
“A little more than a year.”
Her arms tighten slightly as if to say she’s sorry.
“He was a good man. I might be thirty-one now, but he was my example in life. He was who I want to be one day.”
“I have a feeling you already are,” she says.
I huff and drag my nose lightly over her shoulder. “I don’t know about that. I’m not sure he would be very happy with me right now.”
“I don’t know that my Grams would be very happy with me, either.”
“But you found me,” I tell her.
She huffs, and I feel a slight rush of air as if she’s breathing me in. “I couldn’t let her last words be in vain. Plus,theywouldn’t let me walk away from it either.”
“You make it sound like they forced you,” I mutter.
“No, no one forced me, but it doesn’t matter now,” she says.
“Do people say things like that to you on a normal basis?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “Maybe, but no one has ever done that for me before, other than Grams,” she whispers.
I pull back, and she sits up to look me in the eye. “Stand up for you?”
