Ding Dong!! Is She Dead? (13 page)

“Now, Allie before you say anything, this is where I live. I do not expect anything from you, but I cannot let you go back up there and sleep at the hospital. You have been through too much and need to rest in a bed, not in some uncomfortable hospital chair. I will sleep on the couch and be a perfect gentleman. I even own a gun and my home security system is very good. Nothing is going to get past me to harm you. Just for tonight, okay?”

Allie simply sat there and then realized just how tired she really was. She shocked him when she agreed without any fight and simply got out of the truck with her backpack. Walking around the truck, she waited while he recovered from her quick surrender and met her where she was standing on the sidewalk. Pushing the button to lock the truck, he turned to Allie and simply put a comforting arm around her shoulders guiding her toward his condo apartment. At the door, he turned to look at her and saw that her second wind was completely gone. Holding herself up by sheer willpower, she put a hand out to hold the wall up while he unlocked the door.

She was taken by surprise when he scooped her up and carried her inside, turning to close and lock the door. He continued to the bedroom where he placed her gently on the bed. Without speaking he pulled the covers down and removed her shoes laying them on the floor by the bed.

“Um did you need to use the restroom or anything before you go to sleep?” Justin was trying to think of all the things a woman might need to do before going to bed.

Appreciating the fact that he was trying to take care of her and be a gentleman, Allie nodded yes. “If you will just make sure that I don’t fall over on the way there or back that would be wonderful.”

After a very uneventful trip to the bathroom, Allie managed to sit down on the bed without falling over. Justin took her shoulders and gently laid her down and pulled up the covers to tuck her in. He walked over to turn off the bathroom light, when Allie sat back up.

“Don’t turn off the light, please? I won’t be able to go to sleep for fear that he will be lurking in the shadows.” Allie couldn’t help the way that her body started shaking just from the idea of what Mike would do to her if she let her guard down.

Justin walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge reaching up so that he was close enough to put his arms around Allie.

“Do you want me to sleep on the floor in here with the door closed? I can even move the dresser in front of the door if that will help you feel safer.”

Justin knew that she was going to have bad dreams for a while, but with the way that she was shaking it might take a few years before they went away.

“Thanks, for trying to comfort me. I really didn’t mean to drag you into all of my baggage. I am usually much more independent than this. I don’t understand what is wrong with me tonight.”

Allie wanted to move back from Justin’s embrace, but when she thought about that she seemed to snuggle in closer.

“I guess for now I wouldn’t mind if you were holding me until I fall asleep. It would be so nice to let someone else worry about me for a change.”

Justin smiled, “I think that you need to let someone else take control and watch over you so that you can rest. I am going to go and set the alarm and make sure that all the locks are good and maybe even put the cedar chest in front of the front door. I will come back to move the dresser and then I’ll hold you for as long as it takes for you to go to sleep.” Justin just wished that he could be there to watch over her for more than one night, but he would take what he could get.

Allie waited; listening to him set the alarm and heard him moving something across the floor, which she assumed was the cedar chest. He came back in and closed the door of the bedroom, moving the dresser in front of the door. Justin then opened one of the drawers and took out a pair of shorts which he carried into the bathroom.

Allied tried not gasp when he came out of the bathroom without a shirt on, he was wearing only the shorts. While he wasn’t a guy that went to the gym on a regular basis, he was still a good looking guy and it had been a while since Allie had seen a guy look like that in person. He walked around and climbed on top of the covers.

“Last chance to change your mind, I can sleep on the floor if you prefer.” Justin was certain that Allie wouldn’t change her mind since she hadn’t taken her eyes off of his chest.

“Um, no, not changing my mind, but it is just for tonight no guarantees on future sleep overs.” Allie tried to be stern, but wound up smiling at Justin, who was only inches away.

“Lay down, Allie, I will be a perfect gentleman for tonight at least. Now, tomorrow, all bets are off.” Justin eased her back to the pillows and pulled her head toward his shoulder.

Allie didn’t need directions, she just snuggled in realizing that he had not only made her feel safe, but protected as well. Before she could enjoy the feel of his smooth chest under her hand, she was asleep.

It took Justin a little longer, but he realized that while they hadn’t had sex this whole evening had been more intimate than his last few relationships had felt over several weeks’ worth of dating. Processing this thought, he drifted off to sleep and woke midafternoon to the ring of his phone.

Justin hopped up to answer the phone. Allie just mumbled something and snuggled deeper into the covers not waking up.

Justin answered with, “hey, hold on just a sec.” He walked over to the door and pushed the dresser back in place with a small thud. Glancing at Allie to make sure that she was still asleep, he opened the door and closed it gently.

Putting the phone back up to his ear, “Okay, Mom what’s up?” Justin sat on the edge of the couch as he heard the beginning words of a lecture that could take a while from his personal experience.

“What do you mean what’s up? We have called three times since 8 a.m. and texted you several times with no response. If you hadn’t answered this time, your father was coming over there to make sure that you were all right.” His mom finally stopped for a breath of air.

“I’m sorry mom, I was asleep.” Justin felt awkward sitting in his boxers while his mother was on the phone and there was a girl asleep in his bed.

“Well, we were worried and it is close to three in the afternoon. With all that went on last night, we knew you might sleep in. Since you still hadn’t answered and it was much later than you normally sleep in, we thought you might be one of those that were involved at the Three W’s last night. You know how I worried I get when things happen in the world and I can’t get ahold of my children. Plus you normally call me to let me know that everything is okay before you go to bed, so that tells me that some woman was more important than texting your mother to let her know that you are all right.”

Hating how close to the truth his mother truly was, Justin wasn’t even sure that he could explain the situation without digging a hole that much deeper.

“They haven’t released the information on what happened last night. Were you there? Did you see what happened?”

Now, that she knew that he was all right his mother would move on to the more important reason that she was calling to see if he had any information that could be used for gossip.

“Sorry, Mom, I’m okay. I was there and did see most of what happened, but I really can’t tell you about it since it is a police investigation and they asked us not to talk about it yet.” Justin ran his hand through his shaggy brown hair with a sigh.

“I had no idea that they would put that on the news, but I guess that it makes the most sense in a small town. I should have called. It was just crazy until it was all over when we realized that sleep would be the best idea since it was so late. We fell asleep and I guess your call was what finally woke me up.”

Ignoring his apology, his mother immediately picked up on the fact that he had used the words “we”.

“So we aren’t as important as some girl after all. You do have a girl over there and were so tangled up that you couldn’t call to let us know that you were okay. I guess that I didn’t raise you as well as I thought that I did.”

Justin quickly cut off his mother knowing that he could be in more trouble for interrupting, but needing to set her straight about Allie so that she didn’t get the wrong impression.

“Whoa, Mom. Slow down and hold on for just a minute. It was much different than that, I wound up at the hospital with a girl and she…”

This time his mother interrupted him in mid - sentence, “Justin you had better not have gotten some girl pregnant. I just couldn’t take that from you, my baby. What did I teach you all those years and now you have just gone and thrown it all out the window.”

“Mother, SHUT UP.” Shocking her into silence seemed to be the only way that she might listen to what he had to say.

“I had to take Allie to the hospital because she was attacked. When they released her, I wasn’t just going to let her go home to an empty house since I know that had to have really shaken her up. I got her some food and then offered to sleep on the couch, but she started so shaking bad when I turned out the lamp that I couldn’t leave her like that. I slept on top of the covers and she is still asleep. We didn’t tangle any sheets as that was the last thing on her mind after what happened to her last night. I was simply caught up and didn’t even think to call you since it was almost five in the morning.”

“Oh my Justin, I can be there in just a minute so that we can help you take care of her.” Knowing that his mother would do just that, Justin again had to stop her before the entire town was on his doorstep.

“I really appreciate that mom, but no one can know where she is. Her attacker is still out there and he has no idea that she is here. I didn’t even notify that police that she was staying here since it was spontaneous. How about this, after church tomorrow, if she is up to it I will bring her to the
PLACE
so that she can tell you the whole story. I think that for tonight if she will sleep that will be the best medicine for her. Although, it is wonderful that you would offer to come help take care of her.”

Justin seriously hoped that his mother would stay out of it until Allie was up to going before the inquisition squad at his family’s house.

His mother took the hint, “I’ll let things alone only for tonight though. I will start something for lunch tomorrow. I’m guessing that I couldn’t get you to bring her to church in the morning?”

Hope would always spring eternal in his mother’s plans. ”Not possible since she is kind of in hiding. Also, you know how women can be sometimes. While lots of love is great, in this case I think it would be a bit overwhelming. Let’s just take it one step at a time for now. I’ll call you as we are headed out there tomorrow okay mom?”

“Well if you are sure that you don’t need me tonight?”

Justin responded with “I love you mom, bye.” Hanging up, he looked down and realized that a shower was next on the list of things to do. Then he would make some food that might temp Allie to eat and help her rest better. Chicken soup would be a good idea even if all he had was the canned kind, but he would have to check and see.

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Allie woke up to the wonderful smell of food cooking. Wondering exactly who was cooking, she got up to investigate.

Allie groaned as she tried to stand because of all the bruised muscles from the accident. Her neck was still sore enough that she wouldn’t be doing any sort of exercise in the near future. Walking slowly to the door she peeked out to make sure that it was only Justin in the kitchen. Relieved that it was still the two of them, she headed to join him.

“Hey that smells wonderful. What is it?” Allie was impressed that he had cooked on the stove instead on microwaving something as most single people did.

“Hi, sleepy head, that wonderful smell would be homemade chicken soup. I had my brother pick up the ingredients and bring them over so that whenever you did wake up it would be ready.” Justin turned from stirring the soup to face Allie.

“What time is it?” Allie felt out of balance since she had slept the morning away.

“About nine in the evening, so you have been asleep most of the day. I would say about sixteen hours so far, although I’m willing to bet that if you eat, shower and go back to bed you will be out again. You had a really bad night.”

“Oh, crap. Megan and Sally will be worried about what happened to me. They were expecting me this morning to come and hang out. Where is my cell phone?” Turning around quickly to go to her backpack, she had to grab hold of the counter to keep from falling over.

Justin hurried around slipping his arm around her waist and helped her over to the couch so that she could lay back down.

“Stay right there and I’ll bring your bag to you.” Justin went to the bedroom to retrieve the phone. Making sure that Allie would be able to sit up; he also grabbed hold of some pillows so that she could prop up on the couch. “Here you go.”

Allie looked slightly green from all the movement. “Did you need to take one of those pills to make you feel better?”

“No, let me call Megan and then I will eat something. I’m not sure that I could take a shower at the moment. I will take something before I crawl back in bed unless you are going to take me back to my house?”