Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I eased over to my gun case and being as quiet as I possibly could, turned the combination and retrieved my glock. Walking at a side angle and keeping to the shadows, I made my way up the stairs and down the dark hallway to my room. Our room. Not now Cade.
I felt her so strongly I had to stop and rub my hand over my heart, once again questioning why now all of a sudden she was back on my mind so strongly. So much so that I couldn’t even brush her aside long enough to deal with whatever this was.
I looked around the dark room slowly, gun drawn, eyes peeled. It took two tries before I saw it. There, in the corner, someone was crouched down low. I hit the light and aimed but didn’t pull the trigger. Lucky for me I didn’t.
I stared in bemused silence, not even daring to breathe as my eyes and mind tried to make sense of what I was seeing. My lips moved to form her name but no sound came. But my heart already knew.
As I came out of my stupor the shock knocked me back on my feet and I thought my heart would burst in my chest it was beating so hard. “Zandi?” Her name was little more than a whisper on my lips.
Her head came up and around and she flew at me, throwing herself into my arms. “Zandi? Baby?” Is this real? She felt real. I put my hand behind her head holding her in place against my chest as my senses reeled.
I buried my face in her hair, as she held onto me tight. Her little body was shaking like a leaf in a storm as the most pitiful sounds left her lips. What? How? I couldn’t seem to hold my thoughts together as they chased each other around in my head.
I squeezed her hard enough to crack a rib and it wasn’t enough. The tears I’d held at bay all day were finally free and my heart beat strong and sure for the first time in two years.
“Baby, is it really you?” I had to clear my throat twice to get the words past my suddenly dry lips. “Oh baby is it really you?” I was afraid my mind was playing tricks on me. That maybe I’d longed for this so hard that I’d conjured her somehow.
But then she nodded her head where it rested over my heart that was about to give out. I felt her lips move against my chest as if she was trying to say something, but then she started to hyperventilate.
I wrapped my arms tighter around her not knowing what else to do in that moment. Was I hallucinating? Was this some kind of strange leftover from my sickness?
What the hell kind of doctors do we have around here anyway? Fucking quacks, I should sue them. How could they send me home when I was still so obviously out of it?
But when I felt the wetness of her tears soaking through my shirt, and felt her shoulders shake I knew. The shaking trembling body in my arms was no hallucination. This was real.
“Baby is it really you?” My voice shook in disbelief as I kept repeating the same words over and over again. I was finding it hard to believe that she was really here.
Had I somehow done this because I wanted it so badly? Had I somehow thrown myself into some kind of alternate universe or had my mind finally snapped? I’m not prone to such weakness, but there’s always a first time for everything.
I ran my hand over her hair a couple times and regulated my breathing in a bid to get my heart under control while my mind finally accepted that she was really here. That no matter how hard it was to believe that I was holding her again, it was really happening.
“Baby how are you here? Where did you come from?” She was crying too hard to answer as I held her against my chest. I felt tears leak from my eyes and my legs went weak as it finally hit home. My wife was back. Just as I’d always hoped.
How is it that something I’d always wished for, suddenly felt so impossible? How could she be here after all this time? It was beyond the realm of belief. Surely things like this didn’t happen in real life.
I tried to imagine a million scenarios but nothing made sense. She’d appeared pretty much the same way she’d disappeared years ago. Out of the blue and without warning.
And why had she been crouching in the dark like a scared little girl? I chose to put the questions aside for now as I said a silent prayer of thanks. However it came to be, she was here now, back where she belonged.