Read Online Tainted Love: contemporary womens fiction love story and family saga (Behind Closed Doors Book 1) by Erin Cawood - Free Book Online

what I’d find there. Some combination of you mangled with a car.
    “Darryl!” I yelled again as I burst through the front line. I felt sweet relief. You were crouched by the rear of that blue sedan. You were perfectly fine. My heart started beating again. That’s when I saw the red flames. They were underneath the car’s back wheel.
    “Oh, God.” There was no blood thumping through my eardrums. There was nothing else in the world at all. Just those red flames and that car tire. I think that’s when I sunk to the ground. “Oh, God, no.” It wasn’t happening. My baby. Caleb. My little man. “No.”
    “It’s really uncomfortable D, but I’m really okay.”
    His voice was sweet music to my ears. I just sat back on my heels for a second and took a deep breath. He was awake, he was talking, and he said he was okay.
    “I know, buddy,” you said, “but it’s just until the EMT gets here. They need to say you’re okay, and then you can get up.”
    The bike’s front wheel was under one wheel but the rest of the bike lay untouched underneath the vehicle and Caleb’s legs were still straddled around the frame. I sent prayers of thanks to the man above, because considering the street and how lucky Caleb had been, someone had performed one hell of a miracle.
    “Hey, little man.” My voice was shaking as I crawled towards you. “Darryl, can you update Georgia and call Cal?” You nodded and went to move. “Then come back.” You met my eyes. I think you knew Caleb wanted you there. “Little man, I need to check your heart rate, okay?” Caleb nodded. I reached for his wrist and found his pulse, then looked at the seconds on my watch. I trembled inside and my own heart rate hadn’t stopped racing and I had to recount twice. “I think it’s okay.” I couldn’t be sure. My head was second guessing what I recalled from a lifetime ago. “Do you hurt anywhere?”
    “I think I grazed my knee.”
    “Oh.” That couldn’t be all. He was virtually trapped under a car! “Can you live with that?” I asked as you returned to my side. “Or do we need to chop it off?”
    He giggled and shook his head. The laughter came to an abrupt stop. He looked at his tee. “Is that blood?”
    I stared at the dark mark on his white t-shirt. It didn’t look like blood to me.
    “No, buddy,” you said. “It’s oil.”
    “What’s it doing on my shirt?”
    I’m so glad you were there. My eyes were too focused on finding where it had come from to reply. But your attention was only on keeping Caleb calm. You simply said, “Didn’t your Mom and Dad tell you? You’re a robot.”
    “Wicked!”
     

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Fifteen
     
    When I think back, that summer was really eventful. What with your friend Scott taking off without looking where he was going and causing an oncoming car to swerve, taking out Caleb’s rear wheel and sweeping Caleb, bike and all beneath the car, it seemed that was just the start.
    And then we had all the drama with Georgia and her first romance! Cal was not happy she had a boyfriend — well; he wasn’t really a boyfriend, was he? But she’d discovered what boys were for, and Cal was not happy his baby girl was growing up. She’d just started junior high, and she’d picked up a love of bloody and dangerous contact sports. Cal was the one who took her to watch women’s ice hockey. He only had himself to blame.
    And there you were, D, fooling around at the beginning of the summer recess, being irresponsible, and making me punish you like I’d never punished you before. I had to ferry you around all summer long because you weren’t responsible enough to own your own car.
    And then there was the pool and...you know, I don’t think we slowed down at all that summer.
    I’d certainly not given the baby thing much thought. Yes, it had been a few years and I don’t think either of us expected it to take so long for the “accident” to happen. We hadn’t even had a scare. My body was like