I carried Justin to bed with me and held his little body close as he whimpered the entire night.
Dawson sat up in bed. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry, Justin,” I called over and over.
“Riley,” Dawson said, softly, four times before I hysterically sat up in bed.
“Shhhh,” he said, pulling me back into his arms.
“You’re okay, you’re right here with me,” he whispered to my hair. He pulled me tight, wishing I would tell him what I had lived through, or anything that told him why I was like I was.
“Who’s Justin?” he asked, kissing the back of my head.
“My little brother,” I answered, sadly with a heavy heart.
“Where is he?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“How old is Justin,” Dawson asked, trying to keep me talking.
“He was only five the last time that I saw him, but he is twelve now.”
“Why haven’t you been able to see him?”
“Children services took him away,” I replied, gloomily.
“In West Virginia?”
I sat up and looked at him.
“I didn’t say anything about West Virginia,” I demanded.
“You said it in your sleep. Come here. I am not your enemy, Ry.”
I lay back down, and was glad that he stopped with the questions.
What else did I say?
We dozed off for the third time that night. I was sound asleep when Dawson woke me by kissing my sleeping lips. I always slept the best in the morning. My nights seemed to be full of demons that kept me awake until the exhaustion took over early in the morning.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said, and I had to smile. Him calling me beautiful had an entirely different meaning behind it than when I heard it from Drew. When Drew gave me compliments it was always in the bedroom, usually when he was close to shooting his load.
“You mean I didn’t scare you away last night?” I asked as he kissed my lips again.
“Not a chance,” he smiled.
***
Things were going extremely well. I couldn’t
believe that my new life was working out. I may have just pulled off the biggest disappearing act in history. Dawson continued to come around, and we spent a lot of time together. He spent the night on several occasions, but neither of us tried to go that next step. He did a lot of comforting during my long nights when he was there, and tried to get me to talk to him. I didn’t, and didn’t plan on ever revealing my dark skeletons to him or anyone else.
Summer Fest was extremely busy at the shop. I was happy that we were closing at four rather than six, and were planning to join in the festivities. Lauren was singing on stage, and she and Levi were D-Jing for the street fair later that evening.
Dawson stopped by in uniform around three. I thought that he seemed preoccupied but assumed that he had probably had a pretty busy day himself with all of the commotion going on in town. He told me that he was going to go home and change, and he would meet me back there.
I told him I was going home to get a shower and change as well, and I would just find him in the streets somewhere.
I wore a long skirt and tank-top with psychedelic sandals that I had ordered from one of our suppliers. I wore my hair down for once and was excited to spend the evening with Dawson, Lauren, Star, Joel, and even Levi.
Dawson was already there and wearing khaki shorts with a nice red shirt and brown leather flip-flops.
He stood from the picnic table and kissed my cheek.
“You look very pretty,” he offered, causing me to smile. He always made me smile.
I was in such a happy mood and laughed at Starlight being the center of attention, dancing in the street all by herself. She had tried to get any and every one to go with her, and when nobody would, she went alone. It was only a matter of time before more and more people had joined her, all waiting for someone to do it first. Lauren and Levi were hilarious on stage and argued back and forth about funny issues. I was laughing at them talking about how Lauren steals his food at work when I looked across the table to Dawson. He was staring intently at me with a serious expression.
“Are you okay? You have been kind of out of it all day,” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Do you want to dance?” he asked.
I smiled and gave him a peculiar look.
“I am not sure I can dance to this music,” I admitted. I could dance. I loved my dance classes in Las Vegas. I just didn’t think that Ballroom Dancing would correspond with the country music.
“You need to dance the waltz or something?” he teased.
“Something like that,” I laughed.
I wondered what he was doing when he walked up to Levi and whispered in his ear. Levi smiled and nodded his head. Dawson came back with a smile and took my hand.
“What are you doing, sheriff?” I asked, taking his hand.
He didn’t reply, and Levi came across the speakers, saying he had a request for some ballroom dancing. Some song called the Tennessee Waltz started playing, and I laughed.