Page 30 of Don’t Open Your Eyes

She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I know. Thank you. You’ve been such a good friend. Between my mom and now this, I feel like I’m always running to you with my problems.”

He didn’t say anything. And she felt something pass between them—or at least something coming from him—that made her think he thought of her as more than a friend. She hoped she wasn’t taking advantage of him. She was in love with Randy and didn’t want to give James the wrong idea. “I probably should have talked to Randy first. Please don’t tell him I came to you. I love him so much, but we’ve only been together a few months. I would never want him to feel like I was trying to trap him, as old-fashioned as that sounds.”

“You have my word. I won’t say anything to him. But you should talk to him as soon as possible. You shouldn’t have to shoulder this alone.”

“I know. I’ll talk to him tonight.”

“I’ll make myself scarce, try to grab an extra shift, so you two can be alone.”

“Are you sure? I hate to keep you out of your own house.”

“It’s no problem. I can always use the extra dough.”

“You’re a doll. Thank you.”

Annabelle hugged James and left feeling marginally better. He was right. Randy was a good guy, and he was the one who’d encouraged her to throw caution to the wind that night. Just because she was the woman didn’t make this her fault. But then again, regardless of the fault, she was the one who had to deal with the consequences. She thought of her mother’s words. Could this child be the best thing that had ever happened to her?

Annabelle

They were finishing dinner when Olivia let it slip that Annabelle had picked her up from school early.

“Mommy took me for ice cream instead of gymnastics. And these two men got in a big fight. I almost got knocked from my chair!”

James turned to look at Annabelle, his eyes narrowed.

“What? Why wasn’t she at gymnastics?”

“Hey, that’s no fair!” Scarlett piped in.

“I wanted to do something special with Olivia today. No big deal. Scarlett, I’ll do the same for you.”

James gave her a puzzled look. “So you left work early? I don’t understand.”

She sighed. “Can we change the subject?” She gave him a look. “We’ll discuss it later.”

After both girls had left the table, she put a hand on his arm before he could get up. “I didn’t want to say this in front of Scarlett and Olivia. I picked her up early because I was afraid she was going to get hurt at practice.”

“Why?”

She bit her lip. “I know you think this is all in my head, but I’m telling you that I’m dreaming things before they happen.”

“Annabelle, not this again. I think—”

“Hear me out. I dreamt about the pickup truck accident. It’s the reason I made sure you and Scarlett didn’t leave until after 7:05 that night.”

His mouth dropped open. “Annabelle, this is too much. Why wouldn’t you have just told me that? Are you sure you didn’t dream it afterward? I can’t believe you wouldn’t have said something if you had.”

Frustration made her want to scream. “I didn’t tell you because you wouldn’t have believed me! You would have ignored me and left, and it would have been you in that accident.” She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to compose herself. “Look, there’s more.” She relayed everything that had happened at her office today, and how the events had mirrored her dream. “I thought if I could make sure Olivia didn’t go to practice, I could prevent her from breaking her arm, like I prevented you and Scarlett being in an accident.”

“What did Olivia mean about men fighting?”

She told him about the incident.

“If you hadn’t gotten to her in time, she could have been hurt then. Don’t you see, you could have made it worse. You can’t go around behaving this way. A knee-jerk reaction to these dreams.”

She felt the heat rise to her face. “What about the accident you could have been in the other night?”

“I don’t know, Annabelle. I still think you must have dreamt about it afterward, but even so, I mean maybe it was a fluke. What I do know is that this is not the way to live. It’s not possible to predict the future, and you can’t live in fear of these dreams coming true. Olivia would have been fine if you’d left her at school. And the last thing I want is for our children to develop an anxiety disorder because you’re allowing your subconscious to torment you.”