Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

M ia searched through the bathroom cabinet for some sort of cure for indigestion. The few bites she had at dinner of Sibby's spicy chili almost did her in. It wasn't something she'd ever eaten before, and she was grateful for the plain rice and cornbread that had been served alongside it. She moved the Advil to one side and found a bottle of pink antacids. She opened it and chewed two of them slowly, hoping they would do the trick. Then she went back down the kitchen to work on preparing the dough for dinner rolls; she'd bake them off tomorrow before the big meal.

She was in the pantry, pulling out the ingredients she needed when she heard Kyle talking to his sister Millie. She froze in place.

"I really like her, Kyle," Millie said. "But you and I know that when the pieces of a story don't add up, either someone is lying or…"

"Millie, I hear you. But I know that Mia doesn't remember anything. I've been living with her for a while now and…"

"Kyle. You're just about to get your life back. I'm worried for you, brother. Do you really need more trouble? Sibby told me that you're you're being handed back your badge and gun on the first."

"It's too late, Millie. I don't care about my badge and gun as much as I care about what happens to Mia. She ran from something, from somewhere, and it must have been bad. I have a gut feeling about her and I'm going with my instincts on this. Once we get the DNA test back it will at least put the biggest question to rest. Daisy is Mia's daughter. She's not lying about that. I believe that she's telling the truth about not remembering anything of her past."

"Okay. If you do, I'm with you. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"And I love you for that," he said.

"I'm going up. It's been a long day, and you know that Sibby will put us all to work tomorrow," Millie said.

"I'm sure of it. See you in the morning," Kyle replied.

When Mia heard Millie's footsteps retreating, she stepped out of the pantry still holding a bag of flour. She saw Kyle's eyes widen when he saw her there.

"I'm sorry to have overheard your conversation," she said softly. "I didn't know what to do."

He reached for her and took the flour out of her hands. "I can only hope that you now understand that I'm a man of my word. Tell me. What else do you need to make these rolls? The sooner we're done, the faster we can go upstairs and get into bed."

Mia could feel the heat rise from her toes to her face. "Right. Well, this might take a minute. I'm not baking them tonight, but I thought I'd prepare the dough and leave everything in the downstairs refrigerator. That way, we only need to pull out the trays and bake them off tomorrow right before dinner." She began to pull bowls out of the cabinet. "Can you please take out the food processor?" she asked him.

"Sure," he replied, walking back into the pantry. From inside he asked, "which blade?"

"Not the shredder. Just the normal one."

He came back into the kitchen with the equipment, put it on the counter and plugged it in to the outlet. "Thanks," she said.

"What's next?" he asked.

She was already busy mixing three tablespoons of the flour in a bowl with a packet of instant yeast and a pinch of sugar. She mixed it together with some lukewarm water from the tap and then covered it all with a kitchen towel. "That needs to rise for twenty minutes." She set the timer on the microwave and said, "The instant yeast saves a lot of time."

"If you say so," he said.

She stepped over to the food processor and measured in some more flour, salt and sugar. Then she took the butter out of the refrigerator and cut it into small pieces. She dumped that into the processor as well. Finally, she hit the "on" switch and watched the mixture swirl around in the bowl until it was all combined. Once the timer went off, she lifted the towel and combined the now risen flour and yeast with the mixture in the food processor, adding eggs and some cream until the dough came together. Shutting off the machine, she expertly portioned the buttery concoction into rounded balls, placing each one on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Then she grabbed two more clean kitchen towels from a drawer and covered the trays and their contents.

"These need to rise for three hours." She picked up his phone and set yet another timer. "I'll come back down later and put them in the fridge."

"I can do that," he said.

"We can fight over that when the phone chimes. For now, let me clean this up."

Kyle walked the dirty utensils and bowls over to the sink and as she washed, he dried everything they'd used and put it all away. Mia looked around one last time and satisfied that they'd tidied up enough so that Sibby would be appeased, she said, "Okay. Let's go upstairs."

"You don't need to ask me twice," he smirked, grabbing her hand and pulling her along to the staircase.

The house was mostly quiet; as they walked along the upstairs hallway, Mia could see light spilling out from under Millie's door and heard the soft laugh track of a sitcom coming from someone else's television. But the children were all asleep and she was pretty sure that Kyle's parents were as well. It had been a long and emotional day. While she knew that she'd have to get up to put those rolls away, she did want to get the chance to close her eyes for a little bit first.

It was as though Kyle had read her mind. Once inside his bedroom, he let her use the bathroom first and again offered to get up when the timer went off. "You get some rest," he said. "I really don't mind helping out."

"We'll see," she said. "How about whoever hears the alarm first wins?"

"Okay. I'm going to wash up. You get into bed. I'll be there soon."

She nodded her head and watched him disappear behind the bathroom door. She pulled off her clothing, grabbed a thin sweatshirt and a pair of sleep shorts and crawled under the blanket. I'll just close my eyes for a minute, she thought. Then when Kyle comes back, we'll have a proper cuddle before sleep.

A proper cuddle? she repeated in her mind. That phrase sounds familiar and foreign all at the same time. How odd. In that moment exhaustion overtook her, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Mia woke with a start and immediately glanced over to make sure that Kyle was in bed with her. He was there, softly breathing, looking as peaceful as Daisy looked at night. She felt tremendous relief. The clock read 1:59am and she realized that she had exactly one minute before his phone timer went off. She quickly got out of bed and walked around the mattress to his side to turn it off. No need for them both to be awake. She reached for the pair of thick, wooly socks that she'd left on the dresser, put them on and very carefully opened the bedroom door so that he stayed asleep. Knowing that she was the only one awake, she didn't put on her robe; she'd be quick and back in bed soon enough. Once in the hallway, she made her way to the stairs and stealthily climbed down to the kitchen. There was no need to put on a light; the moon was not quite full but still shone brightly in the sky casting the room with a golden glow. A peek out the window proved that the stars were too numerous to count. With a sigh, Mia pulled the towels off the rolls and was pleased to see that they had risen to be fluffy, buttery pillows. Each would bake nicely before dinner and the basket would be overflowing with yeasty goodness.

She concentrated instead on not dropping anything on her way to store the prepared rolls and very carefully navigated her way into the bowels of the house. The boiler kicked on as she reached the landing and she jumped at the sound and almost dropped the trays, but luckily, she remained calm enough to accomplish her task. She pried the refrigerator door open with her foot and slipped the trays inside. The light from the appliance glowed and she thought for a moment that she saw a shadowy movement across a corner window of the basement.

She was disoriented to where she stood in relation to what was outside that window and suddenly her heart thudded rapidly in her chest, and she almost forgot to remove the bags of cinnamon breakfast buns she'd made the week before from the freezer before she turned to go back upstairs. With the refrigerator door closed, the basement was plunged into darkness and while her eyes adjusted rapidly, she still had the odd sense that something wasn't right. She didn't want to think about it; she ran up the wooden steps and shut the door behind her. She dropped the cinnamon rolls on the counter knowing that they'd defrost in time for breakfast and could only think about being back in the safety of Kyle's bed when she saw them.

Headlights. There was a car on the driveway.

Mia very quietly crept along the walls of the kitchen, staying out of sight of prying eyes and pressed herself against the cool plaster, hoping to remain invisible. Fear shot up her spine, freezing her in place. She could see out through the panels of glass that sat on either side of the front door. There was a man sitting in the car, but he didn't step outside. It appeared as if he was on his phone, angrily discussing something with whomever was on the other side of that call. His hand gestures were animated, and he kept shaking his head in disagreement with what he was hearing. She couldn't make out the details of his features; they were hidden in the recesses of the hooded sweatshirt he wore. Something about his broad shoulders seemed familiar, but she shook away that thought, knowing that there was no chance she knew this person. She watched as he ended the call by throwing his phone onto the empty seat next to him before putting the car in reverse and backing out into the street. Then the car slowly drove away. She tried her best to see the license plate, but it was too dark outside to make out the numbers.

Once she was sure that he was gone, Mia felt her knees give way and crumble beneath the weight of her body. She didn't know what to do next. Part of her wanted to grab Daisy out of her crib, dress her in her warmest clothing and take the keys to Kyle's truck and drive away. She was putting these good people in danger and that was unfair. They didn't deserve to potentially get hurt because of her and her problems. A bigger part of her wanted to wake Kyle up and tell him what she saw, but she knew he'd then rouse his brothers and go looking for this mysterious car and she didn't want that to happen, either. In the end, once her body stopped shaking, she crawled over to the staircase and slowly pulled herself up the steps, only standing when she was a safe distance down the upstairs hallway at a point when she knew she wouldn't fall again. Then she walked on shaky feet to Kyle's room and got back into the bed.

She was cold, so cold. It was tempting to press her body against his warm one, but she didn't want to startle him. Instead, she wrapped the blanket tightly around herself, lay back against the pillows and waited for the sun to rise. An intruder would give Conor and Tim yet another reason to question her presence in their home. She had the feeling that she hadn't fully gained their trust and had no real idea of how to do that considering she still couldn't remember much about her life before this moment. She felt so scared, even though she knew that she wasn't alone, that Kyle's warmth and strength was lying right there beside her, but she almost wished she were. That way, the collateral damage would be much more limited to a party of one. Just her.