Hideaway Hill (16 page)

Chapter 11

V
eronica stepped forward with a quizzical look.

“
What’s going on? Did you
find Arthur?”

Looking at Blake, who sat between his
parents, and Miller who stood behind them, she could see stress
written on all of their faces. Blake leaned further forward with
his hands dangling out past his knees. She noticed Blake clearly
wanted to get up, but seemed to be wedged between his parents.

“
No, they haven’t found
Arthur yet. Veronica, where were you? You had us worried. We
weren’t sure if, if Arthur had come after you.”

That thought had never crossed her mind. She
understood now why they all looked so anxious. Stepping further
into the room, Veronica held out the package in her hands. It was
the reason she left. That’s what she was trying to tell Blake as he
left in a huff earlier.

“
I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying
to scare any of you. I went to go get this.”

Blake hesitated at first, but he reached out
to take the envelope.

“
What is it?”

“
They’re pictures of
Blair.”

Blake glanced from the envelope in his hands
back at Veronica, and she realized she hadn’t told him the name of
their daughter before now.

“
They’re pictures of our
daughter. I named her Blair Ann Klark-Darwood. I figured you were
going to have company after our talk, and I wanted you to see
them.”

She gestured to the photos Blake was now
removing from the package, and moved around to the back of the
couch so she could look over his shoulder. She wondered if it was
Miller’s first time hearing about Blair. He had a bewildered stare
on his face as she came to stand next to him.

“
I guess deep down, my
intuition told me these pictures couldn’t be trusted anywhere that
Arthur could find them. I’m glad I stored them in a P. O. Box;
otherwise, I would have lost these too in the fire.”

She shuddered at the thought of losing the
very last thing she owned—something she thought to be more precious
than everything else. Leaning forward, she pointed at the picture
Blake held in his shaking hand.

“
This is the first picture
my mom took. A few hours had gone by before I was alert enough to
see her, but as you can see, she was awake.”

Veronica smiled as Blake stroke the tiny
face on the paper.

“
She had your eyes, just as
bright as a midsummer day.” Veronica waited for Blake to slide to
the next picture before going on, “This picture was also taken by
my mom. Those are my dad’s hands though. I wasn’t strong enough to
hold Blair. I remember as he brought her close to my face, I could
feel how soft her skin felt against mine.”

Closing her eyes, Veronica brought her hand
up to her face, and touched the exact spot where Blair’s silky
cheek had rested on hers.

There were only a few pictures from their
stay in the hospital, but Veronica provided a narrative for each
one. By the time they went through all the pictures, only Miller’s
and her eyes remained dry. She sensed Miller was having trouble
keeping composed as well. Excusing himself, he said he wanted to
check the backyard to make sure there were no signs of Arthur.

Veronica always wondered if this day would
come—the day that she could share the photos with Blake and his
family. Moving to perch on the coffee table in front of the Darwood
family, Veronica was relieved to see that they didn’t seem mad at
her for not telling them before now about Blair. As she sat, Carol
reached for her hand. With a light squeeze of their joining hands,
Veronica gave Carol a small smile.

“
I always wanted Blair laid
to rest here in Surpatch. Most of our families are here, but I
didn’t think it would be right since I never said anything to
Blake. I hate to think that she is all alone there.”

Carol patted Veronica’s arm with her free
hand before wiping a tear away.

“
What about your parents,
aren’t they buried in the same cemetery?”

Biting her lower lip before speaking,
Veronica had tried not to think about it. The instant she realized
it was her house on fire, she thought of her parents. Their bodies
were mangled beyond recognition. She didn’t feel it was right to
have them buried, so she had them cremated and their urns sat on a
shelf in her little makeshift library.

“
No, I-their bodies…The
urns were in the house. They, along with everything else are gone
now.”

At that very moment,
Veronica hated Arthur more than anything in the world.
How could he have done this to me?
Yes, she never told him about her history with
Blake or the fact that they had a daughter together, but that was
all over and done with before she met him. She was trying to
overcome her loss when she met him. Just like her, he had things in
his past that he never spoke about, and she respected that.
Why hadn’t he trusted me? Why did he take
everything I had left?
Closing her eyes,
she brought her hands to her face. She thought moving back to
Surpatch was the answer, yet since the first night things had gone
downhill. Feeling Carol shift from the couch to be near her, she
leaned against Carol as Blake’s mother wrapped her arms around
Veronica. This whole time, Blake hadn’t said a word. He still held
the pictures in his hands, but his eyes were on Veronica. Richard
also was quiet. Standing, he silently walked out the room in the
direction Miller went a few minutes before. With her eyes closed,
Veronica was able to tune out all the outside noises. Her head,
which was still pounding, seemed to be the only noise she could
concentrate on. The banging drum reverberating behind her eyes,
reminded her of the destructive path Arthur left in his wake, more
than the fact that she had a pulsating relentless
headache.

When Miller and Richard came back into the
living room, Veronica lifted her head from her hands. Both men
appeared to have recovered. Walking over to his wife, Richard gave
her a kind smile.

“
I think we should give
Blake and Veronica some alone time. Miller said he’s leaving too.
He wants to find that bastard before dark.”

Nodding, Miller walked over to Veronica and
knelt down.

“
Hey, sweetie, I know it’s
been a long day, but I promise you, I won’t rest until I find him.
I’m bringing Martin back over to give Curtis a break, and I’m going
to head back out to see if Stentson is out there.”

Looking over his shoulder he said, “Blake,
call my cell phone if you need anything.”

Miller patted Veronica on the knee before
standing to stroll towards the door. Blake’s parents followed.
Walking out behind Miller, Richard stopped and said, “Call us too,
if you need anything. We’re only two minutes away.”

Once everyone left, Veronica was afraid to
look Blake in the eyes. He hadn’t said anything since she handed
him the pictures. She was suddenly aware of the throbbing sensation
that pulsed in her arm. With everything that happened in the last
few hours, her broken arm had not been on top of her list. She
pulled her arm into her lap, and rubbed the outside of the cast.
Seeing her do that, Blake got up and walked out of the room without
saying anything. It seemed like he was headed for the kitchen. She
heard him moving things around in there, but she wasn’t sure if he
was fixing something to eat for himself or if it was just a reason
to get out of the same room with her. Deciding not to upset him
anymore, she got up and started to walk upstairs.

“
Don’t you want to eat? My
mother brought left over breakfast. I know it’s not as good
reheated, but you should probably take something for your arm.
How’s your head?”

Blake placed a plate of eggs, bacon, and
waffles on the coffee table. He also set down the bottle of meds
Dr. Simms gave her next to the food. Blake then sat back in the
seat he vacated and patted the cushion next to him.

“
I ate at my parent’s
house. Come sit.”

His demeanor was welcoming, and his voice
was calm, but she still worried he was about to launch into a rage
the moment she sat down next to him.

“
Thanks, Blake, but you
know I don’t like taking pain pills.”

“
I know, but it’ll help. If
you don’t want to take them, that’s fine. At least come eat
something. When’s the last time you ate?”

Thinking about his question, she knew he was
right. It had been a while since she ate anything, and the food,
reheated or not, did smell good. Coming to sit next to him, she
slowly began to eat. She didn’t want to look at him, even though
she sensed he was staring at her. Instead, she relaxed and focused
on the food. Eventually, she felt Blake relax next to her. She had
almost finished eating before Blake spoke.

“
How did all of this
happen? How did we end up like this?”

Veronica put down the piece of bacon, and
turned to look at him.

“
I’m not sure, Blake. I’ve
asked myself that question a few times, and I haven’t been able to
come up with a logical answer for it yet.”

Shaking his head, Blake dropped his eyes to
the leftover food on her plate.

“
You must hate me. This is
all my fault. I could have stopped all of this.”

Hearing him say that made Veronica feel
awful. She didn’t tell him about Blair because she wanted him to
feel the pain that she had carried around for all these years. No,
she told him because she knew he needed to know.

“
Blake, none of it is your
fault. It’s life. It happened. For some reason that we will never
understand, it happened. There’s no way you or I could have guessed
what our future had in store for us.”

She placed the fingers of her broken arm on
his leg, which drew his attention back to her face.

“
And I could never hate
you. No matter what happened between us, I could never dream of
hating you. You gave me Blair, even if it was for just a moment in
time. I still had the chance of a lifetime, and it was all because
of you. For that reason, and that reason alone, I have always, and
will until my last breath, hold a special place for you in my
heart.”

Before she could comprehend
what Blake was doing, he moved forward and kissed her. She had
barely gotten the words out before she felt his firm lips on hers.
Although she was startled by the kiss, it didn’t stop her from
kissing him back. Her gaze found his blue eyes, and she saw a
spark—a glimmer that she hadn’t seen in such a long time. Blake
broke away first, and jumped to his feet, swiftly lifting her into
his arms. She tried to hide the wince from being jolted up so
quickly, but she wasn’t sure if he noticed. As he began to move
towards the stairs, Veronica’s heartbeat quicken. Their eyes hadn’t
left each others. It was like in the hospital when he knelt down
next to her in the bed. Making their way down the hallway, Blake
leaned forward and kissed her again. As he entered his bedroom,
Blake in a slower motion than he lifted her from the couch, laid
her on the bed. Veronica’s body shook.
Am
I really ready for this?
She could see it
in Blake’s eyes, the look on his face told her where this was
heading. Blake rested his knee on the bed and Veronica put her hand
up.

“
Blake, I need a shower at
least.”

Everything was happening quickly. One minute
she is telling him her life story, and the next he was kissing her.
She wasn’t sure if she could or wanted to stop what was about to
happen, but she knew she could prolong it to make sure she was
ready. Even though she smelled like smoke, the hospital, and who
knew what else, it would not be a turn off for Blake. With that
look in his eye, she knew she needed a few minutes to herself.
Having halted when she put her hand up, Blake stayed in that spot
as if she told him to freeze. But the moment she began to slide off
the bed, he was by her side. They walked into the master bathroom,
and Blake turned on the shower. After adjusting the water, Blake
turned to her, and without speaking, began to remove her shirt.
Veronica knew then that she wasn’t going to get him out the
bathroom. He was too focused. Once her shirt came off, he helped
her step out of her hospital pants. They didn’t come off as easily
this time. She noticed earlier there was a drawstring which enabled
her to keep the pants on her hips. Next, she thought he was going
to help her into the shower, but instead he started to remove his
shirt. As his shirt dropped to the floor with a soft thump, she
couldn’t help but stare at his well sculpted body. Every one of his
muscles was tense. She could see the fine lines marking and
defining each muscle. She watched as his hands went for his pants.
Her eyes widen, yet followed while Blake unbuttoned and unzipped
his pants. The jeans slid down Blake’s legs leaving him in his
boxers and socks. Veronica’s heart began to pound even louder in
her ears. Blake didn’t seem to notice Veronica having a slight
heart attack while he removed his remaining articles of clothes.
Veronica tried her best to look at other things in the bathroom,
still somehow her eyes kept falling back on Blake. Completely
undressed, Blake reached his hand out for Veronica’s. She hesitated
a second too long, so Blake took a step forward and kissed her
again. With their hands joined, Blake tugged lightly, drawing her
towards the shower. As they climbed into the shower, Veronica tried
to explain that she needed something to cover her cast so it
wouldn’t get wet, but Blake didn’t seem to comprehend. She
eventually gave up, she held the arm outside of the shower in hopes
of not getting it wet.