Trip threw back his head, and laughter spilled out as the plane lifted from the ground. “She’s into you, man. She’ll be waiting for your return. When you get home, talk to her and tell her how you feel. Don’t leave it to chance.”
How should he bring it up? She hadn’t ever been in a relationship, and it wouldn’t be fair for her to go from the cult she lived into a full-time relationship with him. He couldn’t do that to her. She deserved to learn to be herself. She needed time, but he wasn’t sure how to give her that time.
18
Flora hadn’t slept much the last few days. She worried about her family learning where she’d gone. She didn’t want her father to know she’d fled to San Diego. If he found out where she was, he might show up here. Then everything would be over for her. The woman helping her get her documents told her that her father wouldn’t find out, but she didn’t trust her.
She needed to keep busy, so she made her bed and had just stepped into the kitchen when she heard someone at the door. Her first instinct was to freeze, then she turned to run out the back when the door swung open.
“Flora, you’re awake.”
Q’s voice washed over her, and she turned to see him standing in the doorway, looking better than ever. Before she could even think about what she was doing, she’d closed the distance and pulled him into a hug.
Her throat closed with emotions as he pulled her close. She held on tight, never wanting to let go. Tears filled her eyes and spilled over. She’d never felt this many emotions at once and it was overwhelming.
He leaned back and met her gaze. “You didn’t run off.”
She shook her head. “Never.”
His lips brushed over hers, sending electric shocks through her. “It’s good to see you. I missed you.”
“I missed you, too. I’ve never missed anyone like I missed you. I was worried that if I texted you, it would disturb you.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t have my personal cell on me when I’m on a mission. You can call or text at any time. I won’t get it until I get home.”
“I’ve been texting with the women to learn how to text. It’s interesting. You don’t have to format it for a formal letter or anything. And people know who it is as long as they know your number. They taught me how to save contact information and everything. Also, Clove and Ellis set me up to watch videos on the computer. I’ve been learning so much.”
His eyebrows rose. “Oh, really. What videos?”
“Mostly stuff that Clove lets Neo watch. The science ones are interesting, but the history ones are what I’m most interested in.”
“I’m hungry. Do you want breakfast?”
She nodded. “I was about to make an egg.”
“Awesome. We can eat breakfast together. I’ll need a nap later, but I want to spend time with you today.”
“Oh, later, I need you to talk to the person at social services. They want to know where you were camping. They said they were going to try to find the community where I grew up. Ellis took me to start the process.”
He stopped and turned toward her, his lips down in a frown. “How does that make you feel?”
She shrugged. “Not great. I fear they will come after me.”
“They aren’t sharing where you live, right?”
“They said they wouldn’t, but I can’t trust that my father won’t come hunt me down.”
Q’s lips quirked up to the side. “We’ll figure it out. We want them to understand they can’t share where you live. Hopefully, they won’t fight us on that.”
“She didn’t believe me at first. I had to tell her a lot about how I was raised. She kept saying it was unbelievable and that she couldn’t believe anyone lived like that. It took a lot of convincing to get across that I was raised to think everyone was dead and we were alone in a post-apocalyptic world. Which I did watch two apocalypse movies.”
“Oh really, which ones?”
“The Day After Tomorrow, andShaun of the Dead.”
Q chuckled. “Really? What did you think about them?”
“Ellis and Remi watched them with me, so when I got scared, they were there to hold my hand. They gave me a lesson in fiction. Did you know that there are people who actually walked on the moon, but there are movies about aliens and space travel that are fiction?”
