Page 21 of Follow Me
She started to deny that when shereallythought about it.
Before everything happened, she wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Hell, she’d usually kept two or three different flavors in the fridge and rotated through them. Kel loved them, too.
Like so many other things, flavored creamers had gone by the wayside when her descent into her self-made hell began.
And that’s what it felt like—hell.
“How long until I can justdothings again without thinking about them, do you think?”
He shrugged. “I don’t have an answer for you there.”
* * * *
When they returned to the house Mal got it unlocked and turned off the alarm while Doug started carrying in her groceries. When she started helping him unload the car, he tried to protest, but she stopped him.
“They’re my groceries, Sir, and it’s my house. I’m not an invalid. I appreciate the help, but please don’t stop me from helping when I can.”
He smiled, nodding. “Duly noted, and congratulations.”
“What do you mean?”
“Standing up for yourself. Master doesn’t mean you’re a doormat for him, even for ‘good’ stuff.”
“Then please teach him that. I feel guilty if I try to stand up to him when he’s trying to help.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“You specifically said you feel ‘guilty.’ Why guilty?”
She froze, thinking about it. “I…I really don’t know.” She stood there for a moment, trying to dig into it. “I’ve never thought about why I feel guilty. Maybe because I’ve put him through so much already?”
He opened the front door for her and closed it behind her despite the bags he was holding. “I’ll make note of it, and it’ll be one of your topics on the phone tomorrow with Doyle.”
“Thank you, Sir.” She set her bags on the counter and started unloading them. “Did I make a mistake asking him to move out?”
“You didn’t ask him to move out, did you? I thought you just asked him to sleep at the apartment.”
“I don’t know if I really clarified that to him, though. I mean, I think I did, but I could be wrong.”
“Then I guess you have your first topic of conversation tonight with him on the phone, don’t you?”
“If he’ll talk to me.”
A dark scowl momentarily furrowed his brow. “If he won’t talk to you, text us immediately. Or call me if none of us respond within five minutes to your text. In fact, new standing rule—if you need us, and you text us and one of us doesn’t respond, youwillcall me. If you do call me and I don’t pick up, you are to leave a voice message. At first, you are to default to that, even if you aren’t sure if it qualifies as urgent. We can fine-tune that later.”
She started to protest, to qualify it regarding time of day, and realized no, she didn’t have to. It was taken out of her hands. “Yes, Sir.”
Once Doug left she finished putting the groceries away. She wasn’t exactly hungry, but she knew she needed to drink one of her shakes. She’d had to get her body back in the habit of eating. Normally, she ate every two to three hours at the center, but the shakes were an easy way to add calories on a day like today.
The meal plan was designed not just for caloric intake, but to gradually increase the volume she could eat, adding healthy snacks between meals. This meal plan was for two weeks, and the dietician would work with the men and with her to alter it based on her weight. After that, she finished putting away her things.
Being home almost felt…weird.
Good, but strange.
The emotional tug of not having Kel here only added to that. But she knew the men were right and had confirmed a suspicion she’d had for the past couple of months and hadn’t been able to verbalize before.
