Chapter 33
The last few days we spent adjusting to our new life.
I had my mother complete paperwork, which granted me temporary custody.
Quinn had a lawyer friend who helped us with the paperwork.
Aspen was adjusting well. We went to her school yesterday, and she hadn’t been going nearly as much as she should have been.
Despite that, she was still doing well in school.
We decided to let her return the following week, to spend the rest of this week settling into a new routine.
We focused on getting her back on a school sleeping schedule.
Hyder offered to assist Callie in moving down to Louisiana.
They rented a moving truck. We spent the previous days packing her room up.
Part of me was quite sad that Callie would be leaving.
The time we spent in Louisiana had brought us close.
We often called each other during the day to chat.
The other part was ecstatic for her. Going back to where she was born and doing something she was passionate about made me happy.
It didn’t take us long to load the moving truck up with all of her things. Everything was mostly contained in her room. She had a few things like books and decor around the house, but most of it was Quinn’s things.
The barbecue went great. Nobody got so drunk that they couldn’t stand; hell, most of the people didn’t drink.
Aspen had stayed by my side almost the entire evening.
Quinn had gone to the furniture store and had a bed delivered for her, so she could start enjoying the room.
Callie slept on the couch, and then she and Hyder left first thing in the morning.
Quinn and I got up early to see her off.
Quinn didn’t let any tears fall, but I knew he was sad.
He and Callie were close, you’d almost think they were twins, by the bond they shared.
Callie and I, on the other hand, had tears streaming down our faces.
I knew that I could call her and she could call me, but saying another goodbye broke my heart.
She welcomed me into her family with wide-open arms. She was one of the first people who was nice to me while I was captured.
I didn’t really have a family, and my current family was so broken that I couldn’t fix it. I didn’t even know how to fix it.
After Callie and Hyder left, Quinn and I moved into the kitchen and started making breakfast. We had a long day ahead of us.
His insurance claim for his truck came through last night, and we were approved to replace it.
He decided he wanted a truck with a backseat since we had Aspen.
It couldn’t have happened at a better time, because we were planning to get Aspen stuff for her room.
She had no idea that she was about to be spoiled beyond spoiled.
She stumbled out of her room, her hair standing up in every direction. We had made French Toast with bacon, something she was also quite fond of.
“What’s your favorite color, Aspen?” Quinn asked.
“Teal… no purple… no teal,” she said.
“So teal paint?” he asked.
“Yes!” she shouted.
I couldn’t help but smile. Watching her joy was contagious. The first three nights here, she had nightmares. I stayed with her on the couch until she fell asleep, before going to my own room. Last night was the first night she didn’t wake up crying.
We first went to the dealership. Quinn browsed different trucks.
The three of us piled into a maroon one and drove around, but he didn’t like it.
None of them had leather seats, which he was a little disappointed about.
He ended up settling on another black Dodge that had an extended cab.
Aspen was more excited about the truck than Quinn was.
Instead of driving two vehicles to shop, we decided to take the Civic back to the house to drop it off.
Aspen insisted on riding in the truck with Quinn.
Once we got the car back at the house, I got into the truck, and we headed to Knoxville. Quinn wanted to go to Toys R Us and some other stores. Aspen had never been there before. I went a couple of times when my father was still around.
The drive was only about an hour. Aspen chatted the entire time. The topic moved from what that cow was doing to why Paxton was so sick. Sometimes I didn’t know how to answer the questions, and Quinn swooped in and elegantly handled it.
As soon as we pulled into the toy store parking lot, Aspen had perked up and was looking all around.
“Why is the R backward?” she asked.
I looked at Quinn.
“It’s supposed to be like a kid wrote it,” he said.
“But why would they write their letters backward?” she said.
“Well, sometimes kids struggle with letters,” I said.
“This looks like a fun store,” she said. We both let out a little laugh.
“It’s the best,” Quinn said.
We all walked in together. Her little blue eyes looked all around, taking in the large store filled with toys.
“What’s your favorite type of toy?” he asked.
“I like babydolls,” she said.
“I heard they have a lot of babies here,” I told her.
I stood between the two of them, one hand in Quinn’s and the other in Aspen’s.
I was free.
I wasn’t a prisoner.
I was home.
I held her hand.
Everything hit me in that moment. A single tear rolled down my cheek as we strolled through the store.
Not only was I free, but Quinn and Aspen were too.
All of us were hostages of something greater than us.
Quinn and I had been free in Louisiana, but we weren’t really.
I knew when we ventured out, he was always looking over his shoulder.
There was always a sense of paranoia that followed us there.
I thought he slept well before, but the last few nights showed me that he could sleep even more peacefully. His body wasn’t as tense. He carried a smile on his face all day. I started to see that at the cabin, but now, he had peace.
His thumb gently swiped against my cheek. I looked over at him and smiled.
“Tears of joy,” I said.
“I know,” he said.
We walked into the aisle filled with baby dolls. Aspen dropped my hand and gasped. She studied each one as she walked over to it.
“You might need to give her some guidelines,” I whispered.
“That would take the fun out of it,” he said.
I shot him a look.
“Okay. Okay,” he said. He took a step closer to her. “Alright, kiddo, you can get up to four babydolls and an accessory for each one.”
My eyes widened. Somehow, the guidelines I was thinking of weren’t the same as the ones he was thinking of.
“What?” he mouthed.
“Four?” I mouthed back.
He nodded and gave me a big smile.
“Can I get this one?” she asked, grabbing one of them off the shelf.
“Why wouldn’t you be allowed?” Quinn asked.
“Well… It’s a brown babydoll, and my friend at school says we can’t get brown babydolls, but I want one that looks like you,” she said.
“You can have any babydoll that you want, brown or white,” he said.
“Okay!” she shouted. She grabbed the baby and placed it in the cart.
He flashed her a smile, then looked back at me. Neither of us said anything but we didn't have to. We both knew what that little girl had already been told about the world, and we both knew we were going to spend a long time undoing it.
She grabbed three more baby dolls. She got clothing and tiny diapers for them. We walked into another aisle where there were little kitchens and a laundry center. Her eyes lit up, and she squealed. She looked up at us. Quinn looked over at me with a growing smile.
“Her room is awfully big,” he said.
“Quinn!” I said.
“I know it might seem like we’re buying her love, but she's basically starting over. She has nothing, and I wasn’t prepared for this,” he said.
“Okay!” I said.
He got another cart and maneuvered the boxes into it. Aspen was practically dancing as we walked through the store.
“There’s one more thing… It’s for… all of us,” he said.
I tilted my head forward at him with an eyebrow raised, but we followed him through the store.
We made it to the electronics area. He grabbed a Super Nintendo with Super Mario World and Donkey Kong.
I played them a couple of times at a friend’s house, but it was only for a short time.
We definitely didn’t have these at home.
After we left the toy store, we headed to another store.
He wanted to get her bedding for her room, as well as a dresser.
She paced in front of the bedding sets. Ultimately, it came down to 101 Dalmatians or Beauty and the Beast. She went with the latter.
He got her a dresser, as well as more clothing and shoes that fit her better.
While she did have clothing, a lot of the jeans weren’t long enough.
Once we had the truck bed and the cab filled, we headed back to his—our—home. She passed out shortly after we started heading back and slept until we got there.
I reached over and grabbed Quinn’s hand, interlocking our fingers together. I looked over at him.
“I love you,” I said.
His head quickly turned toward mine, eyes dancing.
“I love you, too, Zalayuh,” he said.