Lost and Found (21 page)

This made me think of Derek and how we had had our 13th
wedding anniversary two weeks before the accident.
Neither one of us believed in divorce, and we had always
talked about how we would travel after he retired and spend
time with our grandkids, like my parents had with ours.
I guess Carmen could sense that I was thinking about Derek,
because she leaned over and started patting my hand.

"How many years were you and your husband married?
Did you have any children?" I forgot that I hadn't told her
about the kids, but it seems that the more I talk about the
accident, the easier it is to talk about them.

"We were married 13 years and yes, we had 3 kids;
Jordan, Jeremiah, and Jenna. They were all killed in the
same car accident a year and a half ago." She immediately
came around the bar and gave me a motherly hug.

"Oh honey, I wondered if you had had any kids together,
but you never mentioned any. Bless your heart! I'm so
sorry."

I refused to cry in front of her, but it felt good to be held in her arms and it really made me miss my mother and made
me realize that I hadn't talked to her or Dad since last week.

I could tell that Cash had walked into the room, by the smell
of his cologne hitting me all of a sudden. He looked
uncomfortable at what he walked into, like he had
interrupted something.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt anything?" He turned to leave and
Carmen pulled away from our embrace.

"No, Mr. Kingston, everything is fine. The kids should be
here any minute, and dinner is about ready. Olivia and I were
just having some girl talk."

She gave me a reassuring look and I wiped a tear that
escaped, before I looked over at Cash and smiled, letting him
know that everything was alright. It was then that I heard
giggling and laughing coming from the foyer, letting us
know that the kids were back.

He got the biggest grin on his face, waiting for them to walk
in. Gideon was the first one in the room and he looked at
me and his dad, and ran up to him as fast as he could,
jumping into his arms. Cash was ready for him, as he
leaped up into the air.
Eden runs in and sees me and yells, "Owibia!" and jumps
into my arms and hugs the life out of me.

I see an older, attractive woman standing at the top step
with the same deep blue eyes as Cash and the same long jet
black hair, with a little bit of silver mixed in. I knew
immediately that it was Cash's mother and she was taking everything in, with a smile on her face and tears on her face.

"Well, I must say, when the children told me that things
had changed around here, I had my doubts, but just
witnessing what I'm seeing with my own eyes, I am happy
to see that they were right."

Cash put Gideon down and came over to me and took Eden
from my arms, while Gideon gave me a hug and Cash
walked over to his mother.

"Yes Mother, things have changed around here. I still have a lot to make up for, but I'm not running away from my problems again."

He looked over at me and gave me a look after he said that,
and I wasn't sure if he was talking about just himself or
both of us. H
is mother leaned over, gave him a hug,
looked at me, started walking towards me, and extended
her hand out to me.

"Hello, I'm Cash's mother, Amelia. I hear you are the reason
for this glorious family reunion and that you personally
took out the trash. Literally! If you need anything, anything at all, you just give me a call and it’s yours!"

In that instant, she pulled her hand out of mine, pulled
me to her, and hugged me. I looked over her head at Cash
and Eden, and they were both grinning back at me and
Gideon was giggling.

"It’s very nice to meet you, Amelia, and no need to thank
me. It was my pleasure." She grins at me and I can tell that
she and I are going to get along very well.

"I'm throwing Eden a birthday party a week from Saturday
at my house, and I'm inviting you to her party. She went on
and on about how much she loves her Owibia and I know
she would love to have you." She looks over at Cash, with a
nervous look on her face. "You too, Son. If it's not too
soon for you. I don't want to rush you, if you're not ready."

We both looked at him and I knew what was going through
his mother's mind, since he's never celebrated any of Eden's
birthday parties with them choosing to celebrate them
privately instead. He looked back at us with a solemn look, but looked at Eden and grinned from ear to ear.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world, Mother. I'll be there. No
more running away for me." He gives his mother a side hug
and kisses her cheek. "Is everyone ready to eat?" He
grinned back at his mother, as he put Eden down and
everyone started walking towards the kitchen table.

I turned around and looked at Cash, and I didn't miss the
look of dread on his face, as he walked behind me. He tried
to hide it really quick and half grinned at me, but he knew I
still saw it. Oh, I pray that he doesn't relapse and go on
another bender, and miss his daughter's birthday. He's come
too far these last few days, for that to happen.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I get woken up from a dream about the accident. Rising up in my bed, I still hear crying. Immediately I get out
of bed to run to Jenna and I realize where I'm at. Jenna isn't
here. I'm must be losing my mind.

I hear crying again and realize its Eden, because she's
yelling for me. I walk into her bedroom and the lamp is on,
and she's sitting in the middle of her bed looking at the
blankets.

"I'm sorry, Owibia. I didn't mean to. I tried to go to the
bathroom, but I couldn't. I don't feel so good, Owibia."

She's holding her belly, and I look at her blankets and I see
vomit everywhere. I immediately felt her forehead and I
could tell she has a fever.

"Oh honey, it’s okay. Let’s get you out of bed and change
your clothes, maybe a bath too."

I'm more worried about how high her fever is, because her
little cheeks are red as well. I could always tell just by
looking at them if my kids had fevers, by their rosy cheeks
and it always seemed the redder the cheeks, the higher the
fever.

After I get her dressed, I run into the bathroom linen closet
to find a thermometer and some ibuprofen for her fever. I
pick her up and have put her on the bathroom counter, when
Cash walks in and sees what's going on.

"What's going on? Eden honey, are you sick?" She starts
crying again and nods her head, and her bottom lip starts
quivering.

He immediately goes to her and picks her up and
cradles her in his arms.

"Yes, Daddy. I don't feel good. My bewwy hurts." He
immediately feels her forehead and I see the look of panic
on his face.

"Oh my God, Olivia! She's burning up!"

I walk over to them and put the thermometer in her ear and
yep, just what I thought. 104 temperature. I showed him and he
had a helpless look on his face. I turn around to start
running some bath water.

"What are you doing? We don't have time for a bath. We
need to get her to the hospital!"

I want to start laughing, because I understand where he's
coming from with his panic, but I also know that she will be
okay, and that we just need to get her temperature down. I
go up to him and take her out of his arms to give her some
medicine, and start undressing her.

"Cash, she's going to be fine. Yes, her fever is high, but
that's what the medicine is for and I'm going to sit her in the
bath for a few minutes, to try and cool her body temperature
and to help get her fever down.

"Are you even sure you know what you're doing? I think
we should call her doctor first."

This pisses me off. Did he forget that I used to be a mother? Or was he more worried about getting into my
pants than listening to what I've already told him about my
life? He could tell immediately that I was pissed, because
his face softened.

"Yes, Cash! I know exactly what I'm doing! Remember?
I did have 3 children and they did get sick from time to
time, and I DID EXACTLY what I'm doing now!"

"I'm sorry, Liv. I wasn't thinking. It's just,. this is the first
time that I've ever dealt with anything like this. I'm truly
sorry."

He looked completely ashamed of himself, so I just nodded
my head and grabbed a wash rag to rub over Eden's burning
body. I remember that he had called me Liv. It's amazing how I'm Olivia one minute and Liv the next.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" This is his way of an
apology, because his eyebrows are raised and he's smiling
that half smile that makes my heart drop every time.

"Well, you can finish with Eden and get her dressed, or you
can change her bedding, because she threw up all over it."

I'm actually shocked that he even asked, because Derek
always refused to help me with the kids when they got sick.
He always said it was my job to take care of them.

"It looks like you have everything under control in here, so
I'll go change her bedding real quick."

He walked out and I kept looking at the doorway in
absolute shock. I figured he would have chosen to take
care of Eden, because of all of the vomit, but he acted like it
didn't even bother him at all.

I pull the drain on the tub, pick Eden up, and wrap her in
a big towel. The poor little thing is shivering when I get her
out.

"I'm so cold, Owibia, and my bewwy hurts bad."

I look at her and she's absolutely green. I immediately pull
the lid off of the toilet and turned her
around, and she emptied her stomach. When she was
through,
I wiped her little mouth and started getting her dressed.

"Oh sweetie, it's going to be a rough couple of days, but we are going to get you through this and you'll be fine. Okay,
baby?"

She nods her head, while I pick her up and carry her back to
her bedroom. I check her temperature with the thermometer
again and it's already gone down two degrees, so that was a good thing.

Cash already had her bed ready and we both put her back into bed, and before her head even hit the pillow, she was
asleep. She looked so sweet laying there, but I knew we
were in for a rough 24 to 48 hours.

"So what do we do now?" He's standing over her bed and
reaching down to feel her forehead.

I knew I wouldn't stay mad at him for long, because he
looked so cute when he was worried. I immediately wanted
to hug him to reassure him that his little girl would be
alright, but I resisted. I just smiled at him instead.

"I've got this, Cash. You can go back to bed. It's going to be
a rough couple of days, but as long as I keep her hydrated and her fever down, she'll be okay. I'm going to go ahead
and sleep in here with her for when she wakes up again."

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere either."

He walks out and comes back into the bedroom with a
blanket and sits down in the rocking chair that's in the
corner of the bedroom.

"What are you doing, Cash? You have to work tomorrow.
You're not going to get any sleep in that rocking chair.
Come on, go to bed. I can handle this. Anyway, it's what
you pay me to do, remember?" Does he not think I'm capable of taking care of his children, or is he just being stubborn?