Book 1: Chapter 14
No. I will explain everything during the ride. Can you drive me to the clinic?
“Absolutely” He walked around to the back of me and began untying the gown. I took it off and placed it in the trashcan. Rosa was walking towards the two of us with a fresh cup of coffee in her hands. She stopped just before she went into the room.
“Thanks for coming,” she said sheepishly.
“Of course. Let me know if there is anything else I can do” She gave me a quick nod of her head and then went back to be with Carter.
We got in Kyle’s truck and started heading towards the clinic. I knew he must be dying to know what was going on so I just started from the beginning “There has been an anti–abortion activist group that has hounded us since the day we opened our doors to the clinic. They would stand outside the clinic nearly every day and protest. At first, they were rather peaceful, holding signs, but rarely speaking to any of us or our patients. Gradually. they became more and more vocal harassing us, our employees and our patients. We would receive threats, but they never came to fruition until today Carter picked up a package that was left by the front door and it exploded.”
“Oh my god, how bad?”
“Bad enough. He is alive, but he will have a long recovery. Most of the burns are on his arms and chest.
“Oh man, that sucks”
1 know. I hate what Carter did to me, but I would never want him hurt. And I no longer agree with abortion, but I also do not agree with attempted murder. Carter believes that those women need help and he wants to be there to help them, but I can no longer do it in good conscience. He does what he needs to do and I do what I need to do. We should all live and let live, not hurt those who do not agree with what we believe. That is just asinine”
agree, but this world is filled with unreasonable, radical people and that is why we have to always be watching over our shoulders.”
We pulled up to the clinic and there were cop cars everywhere you looked, but as expected, no protesters. Did the cops make them leave or did they not show up knowing what the day would bring?
Kyle waited for me in the truck while I went in to take care of everything. I had to tell the cops who I was and show photo 1.0. just to get in the door, of what was left of it. The glass door was shattered and there was black soot everywhere. I was escorted wherever I needed to go to make sure that ! cid not disturb the crime scene
Jeanie was already there at her desk making phone calls to all patients that had scheduled appointments in the near future. An officer was also standing by her watching her every move. I could tell she had been crying by the black lines running down her face. When she saw me, she hung up the phone and sprinted to me and gave me the biggest hug ever “Aubrey, is he okay?”
“He will be. He is in a lot of pain right now. Can you contact all the employees and let them know we will be closed for a while?”
“Already done”
“Good. Jeanie, be careful. I don’t think they will do anything else, but you can never be too sure.”
1 know My husband is coming to pick me up soon,”
“Okay, good“I touched her on the arm in a gesture of reassurance and then went to my old office and printed out a sign that said the clinic would be closed until further notice: Nothing had changed in my office so I can only assume that Carter had yet to hire anybody to replace me. I placed the sign in a plastic sleeve and sealed it to protect it from the weather and then grabbed a roll of scotch tape and carried both the sign and the tape to the front.
“Jeanie, I am leaving now. Take care of yourself.”
7 will you do the same”
I wanted to tape the sign to the front door but that was not an option so I taped it to the window that was adjacent to the front door and surprisingly remained unbroken. Hopefully the sign would be visible enough, but I was sure that by looking at the building any half–intelligent person could tell that we would be closed for business. I would have to make a phone call to a contractor and have the door boarded up as soon as the cops were finally done investigating
After I was sure that I had done everything necessary, I jumped into Kyle’s truck and we headed back to his house. While we were on the way I called Angelique to let her know I was okay I did not call her last night when I decided to stay over at Kyle’s and even though I was a grown woman, I was still a guest in her home and needed to let her know where I was, I should have done it last night, but it was the farthest thing from my mind.
When I reached her, she obviously gave me a hard time about spending the night with Kyle and then said that she wanted all the juicy details later, She also asked about Carter because apparently the bomb was the lead news story 1 told her what had happened and that I would be home a little later. When we got to Kyle’s house, we both sat on the couch. We had been going at full speed since I received the phone call this morning and we just needed to relax for a minute. Kyle put his arm around me and I relaxed into him reating my head on his chest. It felt nice to be in his arms. It felt very
natural
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We did not talk, just sat there in silence and that is all we needed. It was enough just to be together, we did not need to fill all the empty p words. We probably sat there for half an hour or so before I took the initiative to get up and start cleaning the kitchen
“You do not have to do that I can get it
Nope, I helped make the mess, I can help clean it up” I told him.
Fine, you rinse and I will stick them in the dishwasher”
“Sounds like a plan to me
I started rinsing off all the dishes and scrubbing those that had stuck on gunk then handing them to Kyle. We finished quickly and regretfully I really needed to get to Angelique’s. I needed to make some calls and I really wanted to take a shower
“Kyle, as much as I hate to. I really need to go.”
figured as much. I will get my keys and drive you home”
“Thank you” I got on my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss. He grabbed me around the waist, bent down and followed my kiss up with a much longer one. If he kept kissing me like that, I was never going to make it home. He released me, looked me in the eyes and said, “Bree, I love you”
“I love you too. Beefcake.”
He dropped me off at Angelique’s promising to call me later. I walked in to find Ang sitting on the couch watching the news. “I have not been able to turn it off,” she said as I sat down beside her. They already have a suspect in custody. I hope he goes away for a long time.”
“Me too and I am very glad he was not a good bomb maker or Carter would not be alive right now.”
“Me too. I may have kicked him in the grapes when we found him cheating, but I sure do not want him dead.”
“Yeah, me either.“We continued watching the news coverage and they showed a picture of the suspect. It was a familiar face. He was definitely a protester that I had seen many times. He was always one of the more vocal ones. What I would do to get my hands on him and show him how I felt about what he did to someone I care about, but I will be patient and let the judicial system do its job.
I am exhausted and I really want to take a bath,”
“Go ahead; you can fill me in on your night at Kyle’s later”
“Will do.” I slowly rose from the couch feeling the weight of the day trying to pull me back down. I felt drained, stress tends to do that to me. I made my way to my room, stripped myself of my clothing and walked to the bathroom to take a seat in the most relaxing place in the house, the huge bathtub.
an the water and when the tub was nearly full, I jumped in. The stress started to leave my body as the water enveloped me.
I soaked for a while and then climbed out, wrapped myself in a towel and lay down on the bed. As I lay there, I finally had a moment to think about last night’s activities. It was so sweet of Kyle to make a special dinner for me. He was a very thoughtful person; he never ceased to amaze me. I smiled as I thought about the entire night. I was truly happy, I had not felt like this in a long time and I liked it very much.
My eyes were getting heavy when my phone startled me.
“Hello”
“Bree, did I wake you?”
“No. I was just relaxing”
“Oh, good. Are you doing okay?”
“Yeah Kyle thanks for last night. It was amazing, all of it”
“Anytime, Bree. I enjoyed it as well, he chuckled. I was sure he was talking about the after dinner rendezvous and not the dinner itself. “You sound tired. I will let you go so you can sleep”
“Thanks, I am sorry I would rather stay up and talk to you, but I am afraid that I will fall asleep and you will just be listening to me breathing.”
“It’s okay Call me tomorrow, okay?”
will Goodnight, Kyle”
“Goodnight, Bree”
I hung up the phone and exhaustion finally won the battle as i fell asleep immediately. My mind was so tired that I did not even dream that night.
