Save My Soul (22 page)

I looked over at the table beside my
bed. I had a change of clean clothes and shoes there. I was betting
Rhyan had brought them for me so we could leave as soon as
possible.

"You would be betting
right. Now come on, let's get out of here."

I pulled away from my mother and got
out of bed. "I have to go, guys." The rest of my friends and family
had woken up, and they were all looking at me like I was crazy as I
grabbed my clothes and headed for the bathroom. Kobhye walked in
behind me. I expected as much.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?"
she said.

I quickly got out of the
hospital gown and began to put my clothes on. Rhyan had chosen
clothes for comfort.
"Thank you,
Rhyan."

He snickered.
"You're welcome, now either tell her, or leave;
we don't have any time to waste. Adam's lake house is a three hour
drive."

Shit! My Land Rover had to
be totaled. "
Yeah, it is, borrow
Kobhye's."

"I need your truck." I said as I tied
my shoe.

"Oh no," she shook her head. "You
aren't leaving here without me. There is some major shit going on
with you, and I'm not letting you out of my sight. So, if you want
my truck, you're going to have to take me with you."

I stared at her for a moment. She was
my best friend and had been since the sixth grade. I had never kept
anything from her, including Aven. We'd only had two fights, and
neither of them was caused by her not believing or trusting in me.
Maybe she would believe me now as well. "Would you believe anything
I told you if I swore it were true?"

"You know I would," she
replied.

"Good, then come on. You're about to
get an earful." We walked out of the bathroom and turned to leave.
Aven was blocking the door, so I stopped and scowled at
him.

"Where are you going?"

I couldn't tell Aven; he wouldn't
understand. "I need to be somewhere."

My dad spoke up. "You've almost died
twice now, Kendra. The only place you need to be is in that
bed."

"Look, I don't expect any of you to
understand, but I have to go; I have to." I pleaded with
them.

I walked over to my dad. "Daddy, I
have to go. Please understand."

He met my eyes. "Help me understand,
Kendra."

I sighed and my eyes misted over. "I'm
in love, Daddy, and if I don't get to him now, I'll lose him
forever." It was the truth, and it surprised me at how easy it was
to admit that I was in love.

He looked at my mom then I turned to
her. She nodded with tears in her eyes. "Let her go, Robert. I want
grandchildren."

"Haley has two children, Diane. You
already have grandchildren," he said.

She shook her head. "Not from Kendra."
My mother was getting angry with him, and she never got mad about
anything.

He seemed to realize that too, but he
glanced at Aven. I looked over at him too. He had a pissed off look
on his face, but he shrugged at my father then looked away from us.
My dad looked back at me and nodded as he took my hands in his. "If
this boy hurts you or gets you killed, I will personally knock his
head off his shoulders." My dad was tall and muscular from years of
hard labor, so I believed him. It surprised me that he was talking
to me like I was sixteen and about to go on my first date
though.

I nodded, and he let me go. I turned
around. Aven was still blocking the door with his arms crossed over
his chest. He shook his head. "You aren't leaving without
me."

"Fine. You can come, but if you start
calling me crazy, I'll slam on the brakes and kick your ass out.
It's a three hour drive. You feel like walking?" I crossed my arms,
imitating him.

He looked nervous, like he hadn't
expected me to just let him come along. He must have thought I
would give in and stay because he said so. He sighed in defeat and
moved out of my way. I guess he realized we'd just spend the entire
trip arguing with each other. I walked out of the room and left him
standing there.

We made it to the ground floor and the
same receptionist was sitting behind the desk when I walked up. She
looked up in horror. I nodded, and she handed me the form I needed
without taking her eyes off of me. I signed and dated it, then
handed it back to her before heading to the parking lot. Kobhye
followed me, trying to keep up with my long strides. I stopped on
the drivers' side and looked at her. She rolled her eyes and tossed
me the keys. "Keep it under eighty will ya? You seem to be a little
accident prone this week."

She got in and I was pulling out of
the garage before she even got buckled-up. I was trying to figure
out how to start the whole conversation when I heard the pop. I
rolled my eyes. I guess I could start there.

"Holy, Shit!" Kobhye screamed and I
drove on, waiting patiently for her hysterics to calm. "Kendra,
tell me what the fuck is going on!"

"Kobhye, meet Rhyan…my guardian
angel." She had thought Rhyan was Adam's best friend; boy was she
about to find out otherwise. Rhyan was sitting in the backseat of
the crew cab truck smiling at her with his fingers laced together
behind his head. I guess he thought this would be the best way to
handle this.

When she didn't look like she was
going to faint anymore, I started at the beginning with Saturday
when I had died and made the deal with Adam's guardian angel. Then
I told her everything in between about Mason/Murry and Adam not
believing me about the soulmate thing, and how he'd left me. I told
her about also loving Rhyan, and Murry letting Adam watch me and
Rhyan getting all hot and heavy with each other, and then about
Murry putting Adam in the cave. She'd been along for the ride, but
she hadn't been aware of the why. I told her that I would die for
real on Friday if I couldn't get Adam to trust me and believe in
God.

She took in a deep breath, then let it
out slowly and looked at me. "You do know this is some really
fucked up shit, right?"

I nodded. "Rhyan, where are we
going?"

"North to the lake," he
said.

I was confident he would give me more
detailed directions when we got closer to the lake.

Kobhye looked at me. "So, I guess this
means that Rhyan is off limits too, huh?"

I laughed. "Yeah, I guess you don't
get any of the men I've met this week." Then I had a thought. "Aven
is available."

She rolled her eyes and shook her
head. "That will so never happen," she said, and I
laughed.

We headed north to the lake and only
stopped once to pee. Rhyan gave that typical male eye-roll that
guys do when a girl needs to make a pit-stop on a trip. Whatever. I
needed to pee; I'd been in a hospital bed for twenty-eight
hours.

I grabbed a package of peanuts and a
coke while I was in the store. I knew Kobhye would roll her eyes.
She always thought it was gross that I put my peanuts in my coke. I
got behind the wheel and opened the package. I looked at her and
she shook her head then looked out the window. I could see her roll
her eyes in the reflection. I smiled then drank a little of the
coke before adding my peanuts.

I got back on the highway and looked
at the clock on the radio. It was a little after eleven, and we
were making great time. We only had about fifteen miles to go
before we got to the first of the camping areas. It was still hot,
and there was a little more than three weeks of summer vacation
left for the kiddos, so I assumed the lake would be one big party
spot.

I drank my salty coke and chewed on
the peanuts. I'd been trying to decide what to say to Adam when we
got to his house the whole damn trip, and I'd come up with
nothing.

"Make a left turn in a quarter mile,"
Rhyan said. It surprised me. I was expecting to drive another ten
miles then have to drive through town before Rhyan had to start
giving me directions. I saw the paved road and turned left onto
it.

"How much further?" Kobhye asked. I
think she was just as anxious as I was. She hadn't offered any
advice on how to get Adam back, but then again, we'd never tried to
hang on to men; we were usually trying to get rid of
them.

"The lake stretches this far out from
town; they just built the town closer to the dam. Adam's lake house
is about a mile straight ahead. His is the only house on this
road."

Kobhye turned and looked at him. "You
seem to know him pretty well."

He shrugged. "When I tapped into his
brain to find him in the cave, I got his memories as well." He was
silent for a moment then said, "There aren't many good
ones."

I looked in my rear view
mirror at him.
"Am I a fool for doing
this?"

He looked at me and shook
his head.
"He's the fool. I would give
anything to be your soulmate. Anything."

That made me feel good, but it didn't
make me anymore confident about the task in front of me, literally
in front of me. Adam's lake house came into view and my jaw
dropped. How the hell could he afford all of this and the apartment
in the city? I knew the answer. He worked all the time and he got
paid very well.

I parked behind a blue mustang that
was parked behind his car in the circular drive. I cut the engine
to Kobhye's truck. She looked at me and I shrugged. "The Shelby is
his, but I don't have a clue who drives the other one."

We both turned and looked at Rhyan. He
leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling of the cab, as
though he didn't want to tell me.

The motion lights lit up on the front
of the big house. I glanced at them then looked back at Rhyan.
"Tell me who's in there with him."

He chewed on his lower lip for a
moment. If he stalled much longer, I was going to find out anyway,
because Adam and who-ever-else were going to walk out to greet us.
He met my eyes, and there was desperation in them. "I figured they
would fight, and she would leave before we got here. I didn't know
they would make up…and be having sex right now." He shook his head.
"I'm so sorry. I don't know how to fix this or I would."

I was stunned. "Sherri," I said, and
pressed my lips together. I made it a statement rather than a
question, because I already knew.

He nodded and I got out of the truck.
I heard two other doors open to the truck, then they closed. I
didn't know what I was going to do, but I had to interfere. He was
my soulmate, not hers.

I walked up on the front porch and
paused only a moment before ringing the doorbell. I looked back at
Kobhye and Rhyan then the door opened to Sherri standing there in
nothing but Adam's button-up shirt. I averted my gaze from hers and
cleared my throat. Blood was racing through my veins and I was
visibly shaking. I was mad. I was really, really mad, but it wasn't
her fault. She'd been with him before I even came into the picture.
I was actually stepping on her toes, but he was mine. He was meant
to be mine.

I cleared my throat again, and forced
myself to look at her. "May I speak with Adam?" She gave me a dirty
look then glanced at Kobhye and Rhyan. Evidently she didn't think
we were here to have a big orgy with Adam because she let us all
in.

"He's getting dressed. You can make
yourselves comfortable in the living room," she said.

My eyes shot to
Rhyan.
"She did that shit on purpose,
didn't she?"

He nodded.
"She's jealous of you. She doesn't catch Adam's
attention the way you do, and she knows it."

That made me feel better, but it
didn't change the fact that I just walked into the house of the man
I loved to find he'd just finished having sex with another
woman.

"He's coming,"
Rhyan said as he sat down on the
couch.

"Can't we tell him that
you and Kobhye are together, and what Mason showed him was all made
up; that it wasn't real?"
I said
pleadingly.

He looked at me.
"You want to lie to him?"

"I wouldn't exactly be
breaking one of the Ten Commandments,"
I
said, then crossed my arms over my chest.

"No, but would you be able
to sleep beside him at night knowing that he believed a lie you
told him?"

My shoulders slumped in defeat. He had
me there. My conscience always ate at me until I told the truth. I
actually lost sleep over little white lies.

I heard footsteps coming toward us,
and I looked up just in time to meet Adam's eyes. He was upset, but
other than that, he looked fine, really fine. My heart gave a
little flutter and I pressed my lips together. What was I supposed
to say to him?

"Ask him if Murry hurt him.
He'll remember that he didn't believe you."

"You look all right. I guess Murry
didn't hurt you too bad," I said in a shaky voice. It was obvious I
was nervous, but I couldn't help it.

"Why are you here, and who told you
where my lake house was located?" he said. He didn't come any
further into the room. He just stood there and scowled at
me.