“Okay,” she whispers into my chest. “I love you, Skye. Thank you for saving me.”
I rub a soothing hand up and down Claud’s back. “Angel? What happened?”
She tightens her hold around my neck and begins to cry again. “This is all my fault.”
“What is Claud? Talk to me, please. Daddy is getting nervous.”
“I was playing fetch with Skye.” She sniffles and wipes her runny nose on my shirt. “And I accidentally threw her ball near where the fence is broken.”
This still doesn’t explain why she’s so shaken up, and Skye is covered in blood.
“Then what.”
“She couldn’t find the ball, so I was helping her when all of a sudden, I looked up, and a huge buck was standing there staring at me. It was so scary. That’s when I screamed for you, I think I scared the deer, so it started running toward me. I started screaming more, and Skye saved me and attacked the deer to stop it.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Three weeks ago, I told our maintenance guy that the fence needed to be fixed. The second I’m back in the city, he will be hearing from me, and he’ll be lucky if he has a job anymore.
This situation could have been worse for Claud had Skye not been there to protect her, and I can only hope that Skye is okay.
She might not live in our house, but she is Claud’s pride and joy, and it will devastate her if she doesn’t pull through.
I walk us back into the house and bring Claud to the couch to put her down, but she starts screaming, furiously shaking her head. “No. No, I want to stay with you.”
“Okay. Calm down, angel. You can stay with me as long as you want.”
She tightens her grip around me. “I want to go home today, Daddy. Can we, when we know Skye is all right?”
I blow out a breath. “Okay, angel. We can go home. I need to grab my phone upstairs. Can I put you down, or do you want me to carry you there and back?”
She thinks about it momentarily. “You can put me down if you promise to come right back.”
“Of course, Claud. We can watch a movie after until we hear from Uncle Nate or Uncle Leo.” I kiss her forehead, then run upstairs to grab my phone.
I call Juliette, and it goes straight to voicemail. On my way downstairs, I try two more times. Nothing.
Then I text Matteo for Becks’s number.
Again nothing.
What the actual fuck is going on? I need to be one hundred percent present for Claud right now, and I won’t be able to do that if I don’t get a hold of Juliette.
“Dad! It’s been more than a minute.”
I suck in a deep breath and wonder if I’ll ever get a break in life.
Then I text Jules to see how she’s feeling and head back to my precious girl.
Juliette
“Come on, Jules lay down. You need to sleep,” Becks begs me. “You’re exhausted, and you need to elevate your leg.”
Luckily, there was no real damage to my leg, only bad luck the way I fell. Now it’s mostly swollen and sore.
“What if he calls while I’m sleeping? I don’t want to miss it.” I’ve been waiting for Harrison but haven’t heard back.
We played phone tag earlier, and then it completely stopped. I thought he’d be knocking on my door like a madman soon after.
Yet…nothing.
