“Why don’t you give him some space for a little while? I think he may need some time todecompress.”
The exhaustion hit her hard and fast. Suddenly her feet weighed a thousand pounds each and her eyelids felt equally as heavy. She was tired, and so was Faith. The roller coaster of emotions King was putting her through would wear out anyone. If she got some sleep, she’d be better prepared to facehim.
She felt vulnerable, like she could cry at any moment, and she could only imagine how King must be feeling. “I think me and Faith are going to take anap.”
“I don’t think you would call it a nap this time in themorning.”
“You’re right, we’re going tobed.”
Faith waved goodbye over Laura’s shoulder. “Diggs.”
Laura stroked a hand down her hair. “Good job. Very good.” She’d needed to occupy her mind as much as Faith’s on the way home, so they practiced saying everyone’s names in the car. Faith’s speech was picking back up at a rate of speed that left her amazed. She was so smart, so open andenthusiastic.
Climbing the stairs drained what remaining energy Laura had. She got Faith ready for bed and then slipped in right behind her, allowing sleep to take her. When she woke around noon, she felt refreshed. Faith was still asleep, Laura woke her too. Her sleep schedule had already been thrown off by last night’s visit to the hospital; she wanted to get her back on track. “Hungry?”
Faith rubbed her eyes and sat up, then pointed at her cochlear implant processor on the night stand. “Hear.”
Laura grabbed the small device and quickly put it on Faith’s ear, checking to make sure everything was on and functioning and then said, “Can you hearme?”
Faith simultaneously signed and said, “Yes.”
Laura sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you hungry?” She made sure to speak slowly and clearly, allowing Faith’s brain time to process her words. She also made sure Faith could clearly see her face so that she could read the movement of herlips.
“Yes, I’m hungry,” Faith said her words, not perfect but understandable. Her first speech pathologist had said Faith’s speech would take some time to normalize since she’d been fully without her hearing through those crucial speech development years at the beginning of her life. But through those months of intensive speech therapy and with Laura working with her at home, they’d made quick improvements. Being without her implant for the past couple of weeks seemed to have had very little impact. Thankgoodness.
“Brush your teeth and change clothes and we’ll go downstairs,” Laurasaid.
As Faith got herself ready, Laura quickly dressed, trying to pick out something that looked decent onher.
If she ran into King she wanted to be looking her best. She smoothed a hand down her blouse and then slid on some sandals with her jeans. She did a quick check in the mirror, confirmed the shirt and jeans accentuated her curves enough and then took Faith down to thekitchen.
Diggs and Audra were in there eating lunch together, and Reaper was digging through the cabinets. He pulled out an armful then, chips and a can of…formula?
“Hi,” Laura offered, shying away from the very large Reaper and moving in the direction of Diggs andAudra.
Diggs patted the seat next to him and Faith hopped onto it without hesitating. “How’s our patient thisafternoon?”
“I’m good,” Faithsaid.
Audra beamed at her. “How wonderful. Can Isee?”
Faith exuberantly yanked back her hair and pointed to her new processor. “I canhear.”
“Faith, what do you want to eat?” Lauraasked.
“Does she like chicken nuggets?” Reaper said, his gravelly tone drawing everyone’s attention. He sat the chips and formula on thecounter.
Laura forced herself not to worry about him, it was not his fault that he was so scarred that his voice was so deep andrough.
“Yes! With ketchup.” Faith turned around and now clutched the back of her chair, watching Reaper expectantly without a hint of fear on herface.
The microwave behind him dinged and he reached in and pulled out a huge plate of steaming nuggets. He crossed to the refrigerator, extracted the ketchup and an extra plate and set both on the table in front of Faith. “Digin.”
Faith looked up at Laura. “All ofit?”
Laura smiled and shook her head. “Let’s start with three or four, okay? Mr. Reaper needs to eattoo.”
She moved to stand behind Faith, putting a little bit more distance between her and Reaper, hoping he would take his portion of food back to the other side of the kitchen. Reaper grabbed the formula and exited the kitchen. Laura sucked in some air. “Was that babyformula?”
