Taken by Dee Henderson

Author:Dee Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042040, FIC027020, FIC042060
ISBN: 9781441266125
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-04-27T22:00:00+00:00

Matthew was working on his laptop at the kitchen table when Shannon appeared a little after four p.m. Her tears had ended, and it looked like she’d slept. “Hungry?” he asked, trying to assess her mood. It was hours after an emotional explosion, and for his daughter this had always been the most fragile time.

“A bit.” She pulled out a chair at the table.

He lifted his mug of coffee. “I’ve had breakfast in place of an early dinner and saved some for you, if that suits.”

“Sure.”

He walked over to the stove, plated bacon and scrambled eggs, added fried potatoes he’d kept warm. “It tastes better than it looks,” he told her as he put the plate in front of her.

She half smiled. “I’m always good with fried potatoes.” She ate in silence, and he didn’t try to introduce a topic.

He wasn’t sure how Shannon regrouped—whether it was pushing aside the issue and moving forward with other activities while she processed it, or if she needed the opposite—to circle back around and talk it through before she could move on. He had a feeling, though, that explosions in her world during the last eleven years hadn’t been followed with conversations. Just to survive she would have learned to bury the matter and move on, because she had no choice.

Shannon finished the meal and took the plate to the dishwasher, came back with a refill to her glass of milk. She rested her head on her crossed arms.

He could see she was physically blitzed. Mentally, emotionally . . . it was still hard to read her, though. The thing he most feared was that she had made the decision to walk away from Chicago, from all the pain and tragedy she was facing. That she’d possibly cracked in a way he couldn’t help repair. “Do you regret returning home?” he asked quietly.

She raised her head to look at him. “No. Jeffery needed to know I was okay.”

She sat up, propped an elbow on the table, rested her chin on her palm. “I need paper maps I can mark up, a national one and state maps for the lower forty-eight. Could you arrange that?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to go shower, wash my hair. Maybe later tonight I’ll paint my nails.”

He smiled. “Want me to find you a bunch of colors so you can rainbow your toenails while you’re at it?”

She looked at him with a small smile. “Becky?”

He nodded. “I’m an expert on nail polish now. She needed those bits of fun.”

“I’m fine with my present raspberry pink.” She pushed back her chair. “Feel free to do whatever you want tonight. You don’t need to stay around here. I’m not leaving this place. I’ve got some work to do to get ready for the conversation with Paul tomorrow.”

She hadn’t changed her mind about talking with Paul. “Anything I can help with?”

“Just the maps.”

“I’ll make a call and get them sent over.” He nodded to the laptop. “Some of this is business from home, some is follow-up with Theo and Paul.

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