Bejewelled

Ch 13

Gabe drove right to his parents’ house, pulled up in Lori and Dan’s driveway and Cinda got out, opened the back door and grabbed Smokey’s cat cage. She had struggled with the drive for the first hour and a half and then had settled down from mewing every 10 seconds to once every minute or so.

She would be glad to get out of the cage and roam the house. The minute she picked up the cage, smoky started mewing again, she saw the irritated look Gabe gave the cat and glared right at him for it. He had been the one to insist on her coming home, so he had to deal with it. Cats did not like to travel, surely he knew that.

Lori appeared on the front porch and came down the stairs to hug her tightly, “You will stay here as long as you need to.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“Yes, it is.” Gabe interrupted her with a warning tone in his voice, his way of reminding her of what he had threatened to do, if she didn’t return home, it was not so subtle either, even his own mother frowned at him.

Cinda glared at him again. That hadn’t been what she meant, she had been going to announce that she had a home here in town where she could stay, but clearly now was not the time. She walked inside the house and the minute the door was closed she let smokey out.

She was a bit shy at first but eventually warmed up to the house. Lori thought she was adorable and smokey let her pat her and smooched about her legs. It had been a long drive for all of them. Gabe excused himself the minute he had the bike off the trailer and was gone.

She was glad he was gone; her guard could come down finally and she wasn’t feeling so alone anymore, Lori and Daniel would never allow her to feel alone or out of sorts in their home, her home.

It was late and they had stayed up to greet her, it had been a really long day for her and as tired as she had been, she hadn’t been able to relax in his car with Gab sitting next to her. Not enough to get any rest, that was for sure, she retired to her room, thankful for the make-over it had received not long after she left for Uni. It no longer looked like it did that fateful day of their incident.

Cinda showered and lay down on the bed, sleep would only elude her until she couldn’t physically keep her eyes open any longer and that wasn’t all that long. She had barely had any sleep in the past week, maybe 5 hours a night. Perhaps tonight would be different.

It was difficult to know that nothing of her life with James was left, nothing except for the safe they had, which had been brought to her as the only thing remaining from her apartment.

In it was his will and the letter he had left for her in the event of his death, there was also her will and a letter she had written to him. It remained in there un-opened, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to throw it away, it meant a lot to her, and she would always keep it, a reminder of how much she had loved him and their life as brief as it had been.

She had read his letter, cried, yelled and screamed at him for the things he had known about her, but had not told her, for how he had loved her anyway, even knowing the truth, how he had still felt blessed to have her in his life.

But he wanted her to be happy, and he had expressed his wishes at the end of the letter, in that don’t argue with me, I know best, way that he had about him sometimes. She had actually done what he’d told her to. Wanted to give him that one last thing. So here she was not yet in her own house but had one to move into, because he’d told her she needed to move back home to be truly happy.

It was a quiet week with no visits from Gabe whatsoever, he was back to normal she thought, back at work and staying well clear of her. Cinda had stayed put as ordered by him, but he had not stipulated the length of time she was required to do so.

Cinda had a house not that far from here, just a few blocks away, it backed right onto the bush, and though it was in need of renovating, she’d bought it because of that. It would give her a good distraction while being there. She wanted to be there in her own home.

She had taken to running everyday, out there in the bush across from Lori and Dan’s home. Like old times, even after waking up with no memory, she’d had the urge to run. Sometimes it was a need that she could just not ignore, so had begun running within a week of being taken in to their home as their foster daughter.

Cinda knew where she had been found all of them years ago. Had been there a hundred times or more, trying to recall anything from her past. But had never so much as even gotten an inkling, into who she truly was or why she had been out there at all.

The first memory she had in this life was those deep dark blue eyes staring down at her filled with concern, that was how she had come to think of him as blue eyes.

Though he’d pretty much moved away the minute she was out of the hospital and their foster brother/sister relationship hadn’t been all that close, not really. But there were times when she had found him right there. To calm her raging fear filled mind and she knew she could trust him, somehow she had always felt connected to him and at one point he had her too.

Cinda stopped at the place where she had been found, there was nothing, still she didn’t recall anything at all, just his eyes looking down at her, the very first memory she had in this life of hers. She turned and ran on, being there at that particular spot, had never helped her, why would it now?

She continued to run until she was exhausted, checked her heart rate and the distance she had travelled, not a personal best. But it would do. She headed back, she had to get on with life, hard to do, but it had to be done. Couldn’t just do nothing all the time.

She couldn’t stay moping about Lori and Dan’s house forever and though they were happy to have her home, she knew her being here was keeping their son from dropping by as well. They’d not seen him in a week, Lori had mentioned it just that morning, at breakfast. How it was odd they’d not seen him, that he would normally drop in for breakfast or dinner once or twice a week.

Seeing as she had a perfectly good home to go to, she would go, it was time.

Lori was upset about her decision to leave, she thought Cinda was going back to the city, it took a while to convince her that she wasn’t going back to the city just yet.

So told her that she actually had a job to do here, and would be staying in town for a while, month’s, perhaps even a year. Didn’t tell her she’d bought a house here for herself, not just yet, might just hold off on that until Christmas, would make Lori’s day. That woman loved Christmas. So, it would make for a really good time to tell her.

She explained that she had gotten a place here in town to stay at, and that it was just a few blocks away, that Lori could come visit anytime she wanted to, even wrote the address down for her. Prayed that she wouldn’t give it to Gabe, though if he did ask she knew that Lori wouldn’t think twice about giving it to him, and Cinda didn’t want to offend her by asking her not to give it to him.

Lori had no idea of their past history and she wanted to keep it that way, so did Gabe, for that matter, they needed to keep it that way. Cinda didn’t want his mother being mad at him or blaming him for Cinda’s lack of visits over the years, and she would in all likelihood. Gabe was her only son, her only real flesh and blood child, and she would not be the one to come between them.

Smokey didn’t seem to like the new house at all, she hissed and growled and ran away down the hall, Cinda let her be, she had to adjust to the new house, and she would come out when she was hungry or wanted some attention.

There was minimal furniture in the place she’d had a bed and lounge delivered but that was it, she hadn’t planned on moving in just yet, so it wasn’t set up for living. Not even a fridge she was going to have to go shopping, but for now take away would do, the electricity, water and gas were all connected and that was the main thing.

Sagging down on to the lounge she closed her eyes and sighed, here in her home she was alone, part of her needed to be alone. Another part of her was terrified that being alone would bring her undone. She stood up this wasn’t going to work unless she kept herself busy doing things around the house, or the garden.

Sitting in an empty house, alone with her own thoughts was suddenly not something she wanted, but she couldn’t go back to Lori and Dan’s, she’d only left 10 minutes ago. How weak she was to not survive 10 minutes by herself. She wasn’t weak, she was strong and if life had taught her anything it was how to pick herself up and move on.

It was never an easy thing to do, but she had done it, and more than once before, and she would do it again each and every time she had to.

But that being said, she didn’t want to be totally alone either. She grabbed her helmet and headed out the door, it was still before lunch, and she had plenty of time to get some shopping in for the necessities. She had been going to just pack up everything in her apartment and move it here, but now that was gone, she couldn’t do that at all, there was nothing left to move. Sighed and pushed that thought away.

Cinda was sitting on her bike out the front of a white goods store, talking to William on the phone when she heard the whoop of a police siren, her head turned, and she groaned in annoyance and muttered “what now?”

Heard William chuckle and say, “You in trouble with Gabriel again?” Almost sounded like he was teasing her.

Cinda shook her head and told him she would email him later on that afternoon and clicked the line closed. The man was still chuckling, she noted.

Gabe was already out of the patrol car and stalking towards her. He looked more than mad. Why? She had no idea, had not so much as glimpsed the man in a solid week. She hadn’t done anything wrong, and currently wasn’t doing anything wrong either, as far as she knew.

The bike was not running, it was still sitting with its stand out even, her helmet was still hanging on the handlebar and though she was sitting on it talking on her phone, there was nothing illegal about having a conversation like that. She was not riding and talking.

She frowned at him as he stalked towards her, which turned into a full glare when he grabbed her by the arm, pulled her off her bike and walked her away out of earshot of his partner. Not Grey or Manny she figured, knowing he wouldn’t care if they were there when he yelled at her. They’d seen it before.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” He demanded of her.

Cinda pulled her arm free and frowned up at him, she had no idea what he was talking about, “Nowhere, not that it’s any concern of yours.”

“Nowhere?” He grated out, waving an arm at her bike and then the road out of town. Cinda suddenly got it; she was parked on the edge of town.

It must have looked like she was leaving town without his permission, to him. Oh, how she wanted to take him down a peg or two, but not here, for the world to see.

“Actually, I was just purchasing a fridge.” She waved her arm in the direction of the store. She kept her tone light and even, “I’ve moved out of Lori and Dan’s and into my own place this morning.”

He was staring at her now. She’d not called his parents, Lori and Dan, since she was 15. It had always been mum and dad.

“You leased something here in town?” Gabe queried somewhat disbelievingly, likely thought he would have heard about it.

“No, I actually own a house here in town,” She clarified just for him. “bought it a while back, not that it’s any of your business.”

That shocked him completely, he couldn’t even hide the fact he was shocked from her. Watched as he took a step back and stared at her, opened his mouth to say something, but then didn’t seem to be able to formulate any words at all.

Cinda stood watching him, she had rendered him completely speechless, never thought she would see that day. Raised an eyebrow at him, oh how that must annoy him, smiled to herself, her here in his town for the long haul, obviously he’d never thought she would do that. “So, if that’s all, officer. I’ll be on my way.”

Gabe just nodded and headed back to his car without saying a single word. He’d been in the wrong on every account today and she’d made sure he knew it.