Chapter Twenty-Three | Gage
Twenty-Three
Gage
“You need to sleep,” Patrick scolded as he stood at the foot of the bed and stared down at where his sister was asleep on my shoulder.
I didn’t know what time she finally fell asleep, but I was thankful that she was resting.
It had been a long day, followed by an even longer night, and I didn’t want her to catch whatever cold Daisy had.
The sun had already come up, and her parents had taken Daisy into the living room after Patrick and Dave made sure everything was safe.
Duke had been calm for once, which made me feel more at ease that whatever threat there had been was gone.
On top of everything, the power had come back on sometime early this morning, which made me question whether it had anything to do with Joel.
While Duke had been on alert last night, there were also strong winds that wreaked havoc outside, which may have triggered him.
“I’m fine,” I lied, trying not to move so I didn’t wake Julie.
“You’re a shitty liar. I’ll take her to her room. Which one is it?”
“They’ve been sleeping in the room next to mine. Other hall, down at the very end,” I answered, knowing he wasn’t going to give up.
He bent down and reached for Julie right as her eyes fluttered open and she jolted beside me.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking around panicked. “Where’s Daisy?”
“Everything is fine,” Patrick assured her as he squatted in front of her. “Daisy is in the living room with Mom and Dad. They got up about an hour ago. She’s been fever-free and has an appetite, so Dad is making her French toast while Mom sits with her on the couch.”
“Is that safe?” Julie questioned, looking from her brother to me.
“Duke is with them,” I assured her. “Patrick and your dad checked the house before they took Daisy out there.”
“You need to get some sleep,” Patrick told her, his eyes showing the lack of sleep he had gotten.
“You’re one to talk,” she argued.
“Yeah, but I don’t have a daughter who needs me to take care of her. We’ve got Daisy for a bit. Try to get a few hours of sleep in while you can.”
Patrick stood up and gave me a nod before walking out of the bedroom and pulling the door closed behind him.
“Want me to help you up?” I offered as I stood and extended my hand to her.
“I can’t remember the last time I was this tired,” she replied, taking it. “I don’t even care where I sleep. I just want to pass out for a few hours.”
Before I could object, she crawled into the bed Daisy had slept in, pulled the blanket up around her, and was out. I wasn’t about to leave her by herself, so I picked one of the other beds, grabbed a blanket, and followed suit.
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I had no idea how much time had passed once I finally woke up, but when my eyes opened, my heart sank when I noticed Julie was gone. I got up and made my way to the living room, where Patrick and her dad were watching TV while Julie and her mom sat with Daisy at the kitchen table.
Daisy looked like she was feeling better, but it was the worried look on Julie’s face that had the hairs on my arms standing up. I hated that, thanks to that asshole, Joel, we were all constantly on guard.
I frowned as I walked over to the coffee maker and tried to figure out what was going on as I made myself a strong cup.
“There’s still plenty of time to send your letter in, honey,” Lynn said softly as she gently rested her hand on Daisy’s arm. “Why don’t we put a few things on it and then your granddad and I can make a trip into town to drop it off?”
“But what if he doesn’t get it? Santa doesn’t even know that we’re not home. What if he takes presents to the apartment and is mad because we aren’t there?” Daisy asked, her lower lip trembling.
I let my head fall back on my neck when I realized what was happening.
“Santa knows a lot, my love,” Julie assured her. “Trust me, he will find you wherever you are. He won’t forget about you this Christmas. I promise you that won’t happen.”
“But I don’t even want anything. I just... I just... I want to go home!” Daisy cried out, throwing her hands on the table as she erupted in tears.
Julie covered her mouth with her hands as she tried to fight the tears before reaching for her daughter. She leaned over and turned the chair so she could reach Daisy before scooping her up and pulling her onto her lap, where she held her.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Julie asked, rocking slowly as she kept her arms locked around her daughter. “Do you not like it up here?”
“It’s not that,” Daisy replied with a sob. “Last year, we did a lot for Christmas, and it was fun. This year, we haven’t shopped for presents, and you seem really sad. I miss how Christmas used to be when we lived in the apartment. It was the best.”
Julie closed her eyes and rested her head against Daisy’s.
“Guess what I heard on the news this morning?” I said, standing in front of them as I noticed the worried creases in Julie’s forehead.
“What?” Daisy asked, looking up at me with the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.
“I heard that they got the roads cleared, so we can head into town. I thought we could visit some stores and do some Christmas shopping if you'd like. Thanks to that blizzard, I haven’t had a chance to get anything for anyone yet, and it’s left me feeling a little frazzled myself.
” I made a silly face, hoping it would drive the point home.
“What’s frazzled mean?”
“It’s kind of like, silly,” Julie answered for her. “And I think that’s a fantastic idea, because I’ve been feeling a little frazzled myself.”
“Well, then, I guess there’s only one thing left to do,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows and pressing my palms together as I pretended to be working out some evil plan. “Let’s go shopping!”
“Yay!” Daisy cheered, climbing off her mother’s lap to give me a high five.
I knew that we were all worried about when and where Joel would appear, but I wasn’t going to put Christmas on hold and ruin a child’s holiday just because some asshole was obsessed with the woman I loved.