In Dark Woods (Signal Bend Series #4.5) Read Free Page B

and she thought.
    She felt like she’d left at least half of herself back in Isaac’s room, but he was stronger, a little—enough that they were planning to release him out of the ICU and into what she and Isaac had taken to calling “gen pop” in the next day or two. He was strong enough that he’d threatened to have her barred from his room if she didn’t go home for the night. He’d been relying heavily on her presence since he’d woken up almost two weeks ago, so she took it as a good sign, even as it hurt her feelings a little.
    She’d refused to sleep away from him, but she had agreed to go home, spend some time with Gia somewhere other than a hospital waiting room, get a decent shower. She’d also pack a bag for him of things to keep his mind busy. He needed to keep his mind busy. When it wasn’t, it spiraled instantly into despair.
    A man like Isaac, confined to a bed for the rest of his life? She could not imagine the horror he must be feeling. She could see some of it, in the dark mood that overtook him more every day, with every sensory evaluation he didn’t pass, every pinprick he didn’t feel. She could see it in his eyes in the moments after waking, when consciousness returned.
    He’d told her he rode in his dreams.
    Her heart broke fresh every day. Gia needed her; Isaac needed her. Gia screamed and clutched for her every time Shannon took her away, back to Signal Bend. And Isaac needed her near to keep the black deep from overtaking him, to give him focus away from the state of his body, of his future. His heart rate sped up, making the machines sing, every time she stepped out of the room. He didn’t say anything, didn’t reveal his anxiety intentionally, but the heart monitor spoke for him. That he would panic like that just to lose sight of her—that he was capable at all of panic like that—was almost more worrisome than the rest of it.
    Until today. Today he’d sent her away. She was taking it as a good sign. She hoped that it was.
    As reluctant as she was to leave him, even for a few hours, there was a part of her that was looking forward to being back in their house. Shannon and Show had been living in it for almost a month, taking care of Gia, and the animals, and giving their daughter as much of a normal life as possible. Everybody seemed to have stepped up to help them however they could. The whole town had closed ranks around Isaac and Lilli.
    She was humbled, and she was anxious. She’d been relying on people in ways that she never had before, and she didn’t see an end to it. She would not leave Isaac alone to drown in his despair. Gia would forget these weeks of parental neglect. Isaac would never forget these weeks. Neither would Lilli.
    When she came into the house, Shannon was walking Gia into the living room. Gia saw her and shouted “Mamma!” and did her unsteady little toddle run until Lilli could swoop her up.
    “Hey, cara , can Mamma get a kiss?” Gia puckered up tight and squinched her eyes shut, and Lilli planted a kiss on those pursed little lips.
     
    ~oOo~
     
    It was dark and after official visiting hours when Lilli got back to Isaac’s room. He was staring at a television rigged over his bed. He was still being kept flat on his back, though he’d been released from that horrible iron maiden of a contraption even before he’d come out of the coma. Now he was encased in some kind of plastic and vinyl gizmo. They’d removed the top part, mostly freeing his neck, a couple of days ago, but that was the part he could move, and she hadn’t understood why all the precautions around the rest of him, the body over which he had no control. But they didn’t want him to be moved, either. If there was a chance that the neural connections might reform, they had to be left undisturbed to do so.
    The sight of him at first astonished her. She had not noticed how much he’d changed. He was so much smaller. She’d known he’d lost weight, but sitting with him all day ,