I’d told Ty to tell him that he should come over but he still hadn’t shown.
My eye had turned a lovely purple and the swelling had gone down I could open it a little, which helped. I could bare more weight on my leg now too, although it still hurt to walk. My side was covered with dark purple bruises, along with my neck and my voice still croaky.
Luke had been around every day checking up on me, but each time I had managed to avoid him. I didn’t want to be the center of attention, I wanted them to forget what had happened.
I wanted to forget what had happened.
I didn’t want Max to have any control over me anymore.
“Mama?”
I startled at Eli’s voice; I’d gone inside my head again, that had happened a lot over the last couple of days.
“Yes sweetie?”
“I finished,” he said with a giant grin and a milk mustache.
“Come on then” I placed my now cold coffee down and pushed off my seat gritting my teeth I tried my best to hold the groan in.
Jumping down off the chair and placed his small hand inside mine. “Can I choose my clothes today mama?”
I gasped when I went to push open the door and it swung toward me. My eyes widening when I saw that it was Ty.
I’d barely seen him. Not for his lack of trying, he’d come to check on me and Eli making sure that I was coping okay and that we had everything we needed. I’d caught him watching us a few times but I didn’t say anything. I just needed time so that I could figure my own head out. I had this need to be by Ty, I’d never felt anything like it before and I knew that it was a bad thing.
I couldn’t rely on Ty, it wasn’t fair on him to take all of this on he had his own life and didn’t need all of the baggage that I came with.
He had this pull on me though and I didn’t know how much longer I could resist.
“Ty!” Eli shouted and let go of my hand.
“Hey bud,” he held his hand up for a high five and Eli jumped up to slap it.
“Hey.” Ty said when he looked at me.
His eyes full of questions, those questions were getting louder. I knew that it was natural for someone like Ty to want to know the ins and outs but I couldn’t tell him everything.
“Hey.” I whispered back.
We stood there with Eli between us. Neither of us saying anything out loud, but so many things being said with our eyes. I tried my best to not show him how much pain I was in as he watched me, but the bruise on my face didn’t help. His whole body would tense every time he looked at me.
A small voice inside said that he was angry with me for bringing this to him. However much I tried to shut that voice up, it always came back.
“Mama?”
Eli’s voice brought me out of the trance and I grabbed his hand to shuffle past Ty without another word or looking back at him. Whenever he was around I had this inexplicable need to be near him. The itch I felt to touch him was becoming too much.
I shouldn’t be thinking like this.
Not after what I’ve just escaped from, but I couldn’t get him out of my head. I hadn’t been able to since the first day that I met him.
I shook my head and tried my best to concentrate on the task at hand, getting up the stairs.
It had gotten easier each time I did it, but it still didn’t stop my leg from burning or the throbbing in my ribs.
It took us twice as long to get ready and once I was back down the stairs and pushing my feet into my chucks I felt like I could sleep for a week.
Eli was beside me on the couch as I caught my breath, he jumped up when Ty came down the stairs, his boots banging on each step.