Chapter 15
Fifteen
Rebekah
We’re back in Adam’s cabin before lunch.
Our cabin. He keeps correcting me, but it’s hard for me to grasp that I live here now.
It’s my home. My mind is blown by all that I’ve learned.
I tried to watch what Adam did for the few hours he worked, but it meant nothing to me.
So many screens. The only time I’ve seen computers before was when I was occasionally in town as a child.
A few times my mother took me to the library.
I’ve never used one. I know nothing about them.
Adam told me about spreadsheets and development contracts and patents. I only managed to memorize some key words like those because he used them frequently.
In all the years I knew the Gallants before they left the mountain, I had no idea Adam’s parents were so important.
Apparently, they’d developed some important thing, and to this day, they make a lot of money selling it.
A GPS application, whatever that is. In addition, the brothers continue to create new things and sell them.
I don’t understand what those things are, and I feel ridiculously inept thinking back on it.
Adam has bags of food in his hands. He filled them from the fridge in the main house and now loads everything into our refrigerator. Even the fridge is more modern than anything I’ve ever seen. It already had food in it. I’m not sure why we needed more. So many options.
I didn’t pay close attention to all the electronics in this house yesterday.
I was too busy being enamored by my new husband.
Now that I look closer, I see that the fridge has a large panel on the front, and Adam occasionally taps on it like it’s a computer.
It probably is, but it doesn’t have a keyboard.
He had something he called a tablet in his office with a similar screen he tapped on.
He gets water and ice out of the front and hands me a glass before making a giant sandwich from a length of what he calls French bread.
I giggle when he guides me to the table and once again settles me on his lap. Apparently, he’s not joking about feeding me. We’re going to share this long sandwich.
The way he always clasps my hands in one of his makes my heart race. I don’t understand my body’s reaction to him holding me like this, but I don’t question it, either. I feel safe in his arms. Safer than I’ve ever felt.
It’s like being in a cocoon. Nothing can happen to me when Adam’s holding me.
Most of the time, he’s touching me—either with an arm around me or my hand in his.
It’s rare that we aren’t in contact. I don’t like it when we’re separated even by an inch.
I feel nervous and kind of lost when he isn’t grounding me.
I haven’t said anything, and I won’t. He’ll think I have a screw loose. My need to be close to him is irrational. I don’t want him to grow tired of me.
Reminding myself that he’s always the instigator, I try not to let my fears get the better of me. If he didn’t want to touch me, he wouldn’t.
“I know I’ve introduced you to a lot, sweetheart. Your brain is probably flipping upside down. Don’t worry. Anything you need to know, I will explain. Anything you want to understand better, just ask. Anytime I ramble on and you’d rather I just shut up, all you have to do is tell me.”
I gasp. “I would never tell you to shut up.”
He chuckles. “You can, firecracker. I won’t get mad. I promise.”
I shake my head. That’s not going to happen.
I’m growing to realize we are from very different worlds.
I’m a mostly uneducated mountain girl with a lack of knowledge about the rest of the world.
But one thing that was drilled into me from birth was that a woman must obey her husband.
My mother did, and my parents reminded me of that often.
After taking another bite of the giant sandwich, I swallow and look at my husband. “I do have a question.”
“What’s that, firecracker?”
“What’s the tall pole in the middle of the property?”
“Ah, that’s a cell tower. It allows us to have our own internet and cell service. Those are what we need to use our phones and computers.”
I nod, sorry I asked. I know he uses a phone.
He carries it with him always. I’ve seen them in town before.
Lots of people have them. Even people who live up in the mountains and off the grid have them.
I understand the concept, but it’s mindboggling that someone can talk to another person who’s far away through a small metal box in their hand.
“I’ll get you a phone and teach you how to use it. They’re like tiny computers nowadays. You could bury yourself in a phone playing games, reading, listening to music, or a million other things. Mmm. On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t get you a phone. You’d never look at me again,” he teases.
I gasp. “That’s not true.”
He chuckles. “I’m kidding. And, for the record, I never want you to stop asking me questions, sweetheart. What else do you want to know?”
I look around the room. “You said you have a saferoom here in the cabin.”
“Ah, yes. That’s an important one.” He sets me on the floor and stands to take our plate to the sink. When he turns back around, he threads his fingers with mine and guides me to our bedroom.
I’m not surprised when we enter the closet. After finding out the entrance to the basement in the main house is through the pantry, I can’t be shocked to find this secret opening in the closet.
He stops in the middle of the walk-in closet. “Do you see it, sweetheart?”
I look around. “No.”
“Good. That’s what I want to hear.” He crosses to the row of clothes along one wall, pushes the hangers to one side, and sweeps a hand out. “Voilà.”
I giggle at his slight silliness. “How do you open it?”
He points to a switch on the wall at the main entrance to the closet. “That looks like an ordinary light switch, and it is. If you lift it, the lights come on. But look underneath the switch. See the little pad that’s flush with the plate?”
I step closer and nod.
Adam sets his thumb on it.
I hear a popping noise similar to the one I heard in the main house when Adam opened the secret door in the same way.
Sure enough, the wall opens up, and Adam gives a pull to widen the entrance.
It’s smaller than an ordinary door, and Adam has to duck to get inside, but once he’s in, he holds out a hand for me to follow.
There’s a light fixture in the ceiling. It must have come on automatically with the door opening.
The room is small. It’s not a room at all. It’s a small cubby hole. Long enough that I could stretch out if I were to lie on the floor, but not very wide. Probably three feet by seven feet. There’s a large box in one corner and a pile of blankets and a pillow next to it.
“It’s not the sort of place you would want to be forced to hang out in for very long,” Adam explains, “but it would keep you safe if you needed to hide. It’s also fireproof.
The box has water, some packaged food, a flashlight, and a gun.
I’ll reprogram the pad so that your thumbprint works on it, too. ”
I shudder. I never want to have to use this saferoom. I might go crazy in here.
Adam continues, “If anything ever happens that makes you feel uneasy, come in here, shut the door, and lock it from the inside.”
“What about you?” I ask.
“You don’t worry about me, sweetheart. Nothing is going to happen to me.”
I shake my head. “There’s no way I would lock myself in here alone. I’d be scared to death.”
He lifts my chin. “Imagine how scared I’d be if I thought you wouldn’t do everything possible to save your life in the case of an emergency?”
I take a deep breath and relax my shoulders.
Adam steps closer. “Hopefully, neither of us will ever need this room. It will be a long fucking time before I leave you in the house long enough that you would need it without me. So don’t fret.”
It’s hard, but I try to push my concerns out of my head.
Adam guides me out of the claustrophobic rectangle, closes it, and arranges the clothes to cover the entrance once again. When he’s done, he leads me into the bedroom.
All the air leaves my lungs when he suddenly bends, catches me in the tummy with his shoulder, and lifts me off the floor. Before I know it, I’m tossed on the bed, and he’s climbing over me.
He tips his head toward my stomach, drags my shirt up several inches with his teeth, and kisses me below my belly button. “What if my child is already growing inside you?” he asks, his voice deep and low.
I swallow.
“What if a few years from now, when we have three kids in those other bedrooms, something happens to scare you? Would you gather up our babies and hide them, or would you decide to wait until I got home?”
I whimper as he nuzzles my tummy.
He lifts his head. “It will never be just you anymore, sweetheart. Starting right now. You could be pregnant as we speak. Would you risk our baby because you don’t want to go in the saferoom without me?”
Shoot. He’s right. “No,” I whisper. My hand comes to my tummy. Is it possible there’s already a baby growing inside me?
“Look at me, Rebekah.”
I meet his gaze.
“I need to know you would never do anything reckless. I need you to tell me you will do everything in your power to stay safe, always.”
I nod. “I will. I promise.”
“Good girl. Now, we haven’t even been married for twenty-four hours. Why are we wearing so many clothes?”
Giggles bubble out of me. I’m so glad he broke the serious lecture about morbid thoughts of invaders. Sex is a far better subject.
Sitting up, I pull my shirt over my head and toss it to the side. I’m very much in favor of us getting naked.
Adam chuckles as he stands and yanks his shirt off, too.