Left Behind (12 page)

When I woke up, my head was pounding. I kept my eyes closed and just laid there for a minute until I remembered what had happened. I shot up and looked around, getting light-headed from moving so fast. All of the guys were there and immediately at the side of the bed I was in, which was Tory’s bed, asking if I was alright. I couldn’t answer them. All of my concentration was on Tory, making sure he was ok ay and that there were no new marks on his body. There was no telling what Blain would do to him, but I didn’t see anything different. Looking at the monitors, I saw all of his vital signs were stable. His eyes were closed again making it seem like he was sleeping.

I finally turned my attention to Toby and Jordan who were the closest to me.
‘
Did you fin d him? What did he do to Tory?’
I signed anxiously.

“What are you talking about, Cupcake?” Troy asked. “Nobody was here accept for you.”

I started crying
. ‘
I saw a vase of roses. His eyes were open and I thought he was dead at first until I looked at the monitor, but then I saw the roses.
He was here. He’ll hurt Tory…’

Toby took me in his arms, stopping my hands from moving, and sat beside me on the bed. “I’m sorry, Pea. The roses were from our ranch foreman. We hired him a few months before we shipped out. I forgot to tell everyone that roses are not allowed here, there’s been so much going on. I promise that nobody was in here.” He turned my face so I was looking at him. “You are safe here. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

I leaned back a little
so I could move my hands to sign
. ‘
I thought he was dead. I thought Blain had done something .’
I shook my head and tried to stem the tears and calm down.
‘
Why were his eyes open? His head had moved. How di d that happen? Did he wake up?’

“We honestly don’t know, Pea. I asked the nurse, and she came and checked him over, but everything was fine. She said sometime s people in comas have muscle spasms, but she’d never heard of it causing their eyes to open.” He told me.

“Let’s just hope it means he’s trying to wake up.” James said. He had come over to hold my hand while Toby had tried to calm me.

‘
What time
is it? Are all of you hungry?’
I asked them, wiping my face.
When they all nodded and told me it was a little past two, that I had slept the day away, we all headed to the kitchen where I made grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup.

I spent the rest of the day with Toby and Troy in the study, using my keyboard to talk so Tory could hear my voice. I was still hoping it would make some kind of difference, and was happy when the first time I typed a sentence for it to speak to the boys, Tory’s heart fluttered on the monitor. It boosted the dwindled hope I had had for me being able to help him in some way. I was ecstatic that he had actually responded to my voice coming from the keyboard.

The rest of the week went like t
hat, and on Friday, Toby a n d Troy decided to get me out of the house. We went on another horseback ride of our properties. I was scared and nervous because of what had happened last time. I felt like someone was watching our every move, but that stopped after the first hour or so.

James and Jordan had been going to the office every day to work, but James wasn’t feeling well that day, and had decided to stay in bed. Jordan said he would just watch TV
in the study with Tory. I wouldn’t leave with the trips until I had taken care of James and sat through the physical therapy session for Tory that he had daily to keep his muscles from becoming atrophied. They told me it would help get him up and around sooner when he woke up.

We went to the loft for a while and played some pool, but when I started beating both of them; they wanted to change to the air hockey. They knew they could beat me at that. They were so immature sometimes, it was funny. They had me laughing and smiling all afternoon. When we left the loft, instead of going back to the house, they took me to the creek.

“So, do you wanna go frogging?” Troy asked?

My eyes shot wide and I shook my head. No way was I going to touch a frog. The trips talked me into doing a lot of things with them when we were younger, but that’s one thing I always refused to do.

‘I’ll get warts!’
I signed emphatically as I backed away.

Toby laughed, and already having a frog in his hands, started coming towards me. “That’s just an old wives tale, Pea. I did this all the time growing up, and I don’t have any warts.”

I still
shook my head, laughing now. ‘
That’
s because you are one big wart.’
I said. I turned to run, but I hadn’t been paying attention to Troy. As soon as I turned I was caught up in his arms, and he was carrying me back over to Toby.

Toby came at me slowly with an evil smile on his face, and the frog raised in his hand. “Come on and kiss it, Pea. It’ll give you seven years good luck.”

I just kept shaking my head. I couldn’t talk to him because of the hold Troy had on me, my arms were pinned to my sides. I struggled to get my arms free so I could hide my face, but I couldn’t. I was laughing so hard, tears were streaming down my face. I lifted my legs to try to hold him back, but he just grabbed them into one arm, while he used the other hand to put the frog down my shirt. I opened my mouth in a scream that didn’t come out. Some things are just instinctive, especially to girls, and screaming when a frog is placed down your shirt is one of them.

Troy put me down as soon as the frog was in my shirt, and I started hopping around trying to get my shirt out of my jeans to let the frog drop out of the bottom. When I had trouble getting it, I just ripped it down the buttons and slung it off my arms. I heard the trips laughing the whole time, Toby having fallen to the ground from laughing so hard.
That’s when I saw the frog that had dropped to the ground, not moving. I took a minute to catch my breath, and then bent down to see what had happened to it. As much as I hated frogs, I didn’t mean to kill it. When I looked at it closer, I noticed the inked in eyes. They had done that with one of those fake frogs made to look real. I shot up, turning to them and just signed ‘run’ before I took off after them. I caught up to Toby first and jumped on his back sending us both to the ground. He managed to turn over and grab my hands before I got his secret spot.

Each of the triplets had certain spots where they were ticklish. None of them had them in the same places, but I had learned over the years where to attack each one. After a minute, I jerked my hands out of his, and asked.
‘You planned this didn’t you?’

Toby laughed holding his hands up in surrender, “I swear, we just found that at the loft.” Then he pointed to Troy. “It was his fault! I just did what he told me to do!
”

I shook my head at him in mock disappointment.

‘That was a bad lie, Toby.’
I signed.
‘
I might have believed it if it wasn’t you who had the frog in hand. Tha t pointed out the guilty party.’
And I attacked him, tickling him until he was as breathless as I had been and was begging for mercy. I leaned back up , ‘
You’re lucky I’m the good one.
I couldn’t beg you for mercy.’
I signed.

He chuckled, and then his eyes drifted down and he brought his hands up to trace the words that had been carved into my skin. I realized that I had actually forgotten about my scars. I went to put the arms of my sh irt back on, but felt hands sto p me from the back.

Troy started tracing my back. “Sweet Jesus.” He whispered. “Don’t hide from us, Cupcake. You have nothing to be ashamed of. All of this,” he said running his fingers lightly over my back, which was nothing but scars from all of the whippings, “Doesn’t change who you are, or how we see you.”

Those words meant so much to me, especially coming from them. Toby sat up, me still straddling him, and ran his finger down my face before kissing me softly. All of the touching and the fingers running over my skin, made me feel things I hadn’t felt in years. I hadn’t felt like this since before they left. I felt Troy’s lips on my back, and stiffened, but I relaxed as Toby ran his tongue along the seam of my mouth, asking entrance. I granted it, tangling my tongue with his. It felt strange to have two sets of lips on me, but it felt so right at the same time.
To know that two of the men I was in love with, loved me back was an amazing feeling, but I still felt like something was missing. Or I guess I should say someone.

I stood up, moving away from Toby and Troy, putting my shirt back on the best I could with all of the buttons missing. I looked out over t he creek and into woods. Was I a slut? I had never heard of a relationship like this except in a romance novel. This didn’t happen in the real world. And then for me to feel like this with two men and still wanting the third one to join us…Was something wrong with me? I heard the boys come up behind me.

“We’re sorry, Pea. We both got carried away in the moment.” Toby said.

Troy turned me around and lifted my chin to look in my eyes. “What’s going on, baby?” He asked.

I told them what I had been thinking. All of it. I knew that if we were going to try this, we had to be completely open and honest with each other.

“You are NOT a slut, and I don’t want you
to
say that again.” Toby said. “A relationship like the one we are going to have is unorthodox, but we love each other. Love can not be wrong in any form .”

“And you are right. It doesn’t feel complete, and it won’t until Tory wakes up, but just know that we do love you, Marti.” Troy added.

“With all of our hearts.” Toby finished.

‘I love both of you, too’
I signed, and kissed them both softly.

We went back to our horses and headed back to the hou
se. That whole day had just re affirmed why I loved them as I did. They could make me feel better, no matter what was going on around us. I had actually forgotten my troubles and had fun. It had been so long since I had felt that care-free, and it was because of them. We had spent the day playing around like we used to when we were teenager s. The only thing missing was Tor y. I couldn’t wait for him to wake up. Then, my family would be complete again.

‘
Do you remember the day
you took me to the Catawba Dam?’
I was sitting in a chair beside Tory’s bed using my keyboard to talk to him , like I had every day for the past three weeks, and going over some of the memories I had with just him and me. I had been going over them in my head a lot , wishing he would wake up so we could make more memories together .
‘
We went out there right after you cooked me a breakfast of scalded grits and your famous rubbery eggs. Everyone knows you can’t cook, except for you, but I ate it gladly because you had taken the time to cook for me. You never were one to do anything, you and your lazy butt, always saying it was too much work, even if was just to pass the remote to someone.
We all love you anyways though.’
I corrected myself. If he could hear me, I didn’t want him to think I was complaining.
‘
Anyway, you took me to the woods, and I didn’t know what we were doing. You had me walking in circles, laughing at me when I finally figured out we had passed the same tree four times. You loved playing tricks on everyone, and believe it or not, I miss your little tricks.
’

‘
After, what? An hour? We finally broke through the trees to the dam. It was a beautiful concrete waterfall with about six different outlets. You had set everything up before hand with fishing poles, bait and beer. I was only fourteen, and you were already a bad influence on me, trying to get me drunk. We fished and danced to the music on the radio you brought.’

My eyes were starting to well up, remembering that day. It was one of the most amazing days for me.
A day of several firsts .
‘
That was the first time I had danced with anyone. It was my first trip to the river, and it was the first time anyone not family had kissed me. I remember at the end of the day right before we started packing up, you asked me to kiss you. I was so shocked I was speechless. I already was half in love with you boys, and I didn’t know if that meant you felt the same way or not, but you broke my heart, though I tried not to show it. When I didn’t answer you, you begged me, saying that you had a date and needed to practice. At the time I believed you, but I kissed you anyway. I figured I would rather have you as just a friend, then not to have you at all. It was one of the best, most memorable kisses I’ve ever had. Then, I realized that you wouldn’t have kissed me if you were going out with someone else, and that’s when it heated up.
’

“Believe me, I remember, Princess.” A dry and croaky voice said from the bed.

I had been sitting in the chair, on two legs, with my feet propped on the side of the bed, and I had been in my own world while I had been typing, so I hadn’t noticed him moving. When I saw his beautiful golden brown eyes looking at me, I tried to jump up; falling back wards in the chair in the process.