This time she shakes my hand to make me look into her blue eyes, “Youwillfind her, I know it.”
***
Hard and fast shaking of my shoulder pulls me out of the light sleep I slipped into and I open my eyes to see my father standing over me. After our talk last night, Marley made me go in and I must have fallen asleep in the chair in the den.
“Wake up, Mason, we found her.” He turns from me and walks from the room.
Flinging the throw off me that Marley must have put over me in the night, I jump up and follow him, “Where, how?” My voice is raspy from sleep, and I cough into my fist.
Dad’s throwing his coat on, and he lifts mine from the hook in the entryway and throws it at me, “Opal called, she’s at the Day Center. She says Sloane’s hurting too much to get up and get breakfast.”
“Fuck me,” I growl and put my hat on my head as I pull my keys out of my pocket and run to my truck.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
SLOANE
THE DULLpain in my leg and hand wakes me up throughout the night, and no matter how hard I try to relax, I can’t stay asleep. When the lights come on, people quickly get up from their cots and move to the doors like a wave.
The smell of eggs and bacon hangs heavy in the air and my mouth starts to water, unsticking my tongue from the roof of my mouth.
Attempting to slide my leg to the edge of the cot only sends sharp pains up my thigh so I decide to lay still for another minute. Even with the big plastic brace they put on my leg, it still hurts when I use those muscles.
I don’t know how long I lie there before I hear a familiar voice, “Sloane, honey, is that you?”
Opening my eyes, I see Opal bending over my head, she’s upside down, but her warm voice opens the floodgates, andthe tears start to stream over my temples. She walks around my cot to sit next to me and pulls me into her arms, she rocks me as I cry into her shoulder.
“It’s okay, honey. Get it out.” She gently pulls my hair from my face and strokes my head like my mom would have, which makes me cry even harder.
After several minutes, she says, “Honey, why are you here? Mr. Harlow will be angry that you are not in your warm bed at the ranch.”
Opal’s warmth melts the walls I spent most of the night building in my anger and heartbreak and I spill everything. I start at the day my brother sold me and when I get to the part about Mason leaving me at the hospital, I’m sobbing again.
“Oh, honey, I’ve known Mason Harlow since right after his mama died, and I know that boy didn’t leave you there.” She puts her hands on my shoulders and moves so that she can look into my eyes, “I’d bet two dozen donuts he went out and took care of those men that hurt you.”
Oh.
I sniff and pull my eyebrows down, “But the nurses, they said he couldn’t wait to leave. He didn’t leave a note or a message or anything. I thought maybe he thought I was too dangerous for his family or he’s just not ready to be a father.”
It’s her turn to pull her eyebrows down and her voice is sharp, “Honey, you are family. I know the Harlow family like the back of my hand and if you’re carrying his child, you’re already considered part of the family by all of them, and I know they’re looking for you.”
My chin starts to wobble, and more tears run down my cheeks. I feel like a damn ping pong ball, one day I’m not wanted and the next I am.
She pulls me into a hug again, “It’s okay, honey, let’s get you some breakfast and you’ll feel better with some food on your stomach. Don’t forget you’re eating for two now.”
Opal may be slim, but everything about her is warm and soft and I let her hold me against her shoulder. I never got to meet my grandparents before they died, and I imagine this is what it would feel like to hug one of them. “Opal? Why are you here?”
She keeps rocking me like I’m a child with a skinned knee, “I volunteer here a few days a week, it’s something to do when the grandkids are in school, and my daughter needs the house quiet so she can work.
I don’t say anything, and she slides her hand down the back of my head and pats my back, “Come on, let’s go get you some breakfast.”
My voice is muffled in her now wet shirt, “Can I just stay here for a little longer? My leg hurts too much to move.”
She grabs an unused pillow from the empty cot next to me and puts it on top of the pillow I tried to sleep on last night before helping me lay back down, “You stay here, and I’ll get you a plate.”
It takes her nearly thirty minutes to come back to me, and even though the bacon looks like it’s been microwaved, the toast is cold, and the eggs look rubbery, I don’t care. I’m too hungry to care.
It takes me about five minutes to clean my plate. She was right, I do feel better with something on my stomach. I look around for Opal, but there’s no one to be seen in the room. I set the plate on the floor and start to slowly move my legs over the edge so I can go pee.
