Love Lengths

Chapter Twenty

Maggie

The next few days passed uneventfully; I stayed with Kyle at his house, sleeping mostly. He'd phoned school and squared it with the head as long as we came to discuss with him once we were back. I had no idea where I would start.

Paul had dropped in again last night and handed Kyle a pile of work from the week for both of us. He'd stayed for dinner that Kyle had prepared and crashed on the settee for an hour after a few drinks. Kyle had woken him to drive him home but, other than that, neither of us had left the house. He'd only left them because I encouraged it; he hadn't wanted to leave me.

Saturday was here and I'd spent the better part of four days in his bed; after the first night he'd slept in the room, just on the floor or the chair with a blanket and a pillow. I couldn't help but feel awful that his room had been taken over by me. I decided it was time to go home.

"I think it's probably time I went home, Kyle. I can't avoid it forever, I need to make it mine again." I couldn't look at him. I knew he'd been worried about his mum; she'd been gone a week now and he'd still heard nothing from her. His face looked rough, his beard had started to grow and his face was gravelly to the touch; he was sleeping, but not much. When he did I woke with him talking in his dreams, terrified of someone hurting 'her', I could only assume it was me.

"I don't want you to leave," he protested. I sat up in bed and patted the bed next to me, asking him to sit, he did so and put his arm around me, pulling us both back to lying down.

"I need to start getting things sorted. We're going to have to go back to school at some point, Monday seems like the best option. The longer we put it off the harder it will be." I shrugged my shoulders as he sighed and nodded his head in agreement. "I know you're worried about your mum; if we get moving now then we can get started looking for her. Do you know her usual favourites for drinking?" He'd shot up as I said that, a shocked smile plastered across his face.

"Do you mean it, love?" The excitement plain to see, I nodded with tears in my eyes; his amber eyes glowed with his excitement and he jumped out of bed, pecking my forehead as he did.

We'd talked a lot over the course of the last few days; he told me all about how his dad had been a cop and was killed in a shooting; he was off duty at the time but had gone into the shop with Kyle and tried to diffuse a situation with an armed robber. They'd only gone in for milk, and Kyle was left without a father, all because he'd been brave enough to stand up and help.

Kyle told me how he'd been injured in the shooting as well; he had a scar across his left peck where a shot had been fired into a drinks cooler and the glass had shattered, a shard slicing across his chest. He'd taken his top off to cool down on the walk to the store; it had been the height of summer, a scorching day in August.

Kyle had tried to save his dad, he'd put pressure on the wound that seeped blood coming from his chest; he'd ridden in the ambulance with him, refusing to have his own wounds seen to until his dad was in the safety or the hospital and had begun being seen.

"It was too late," he'd whimpered, "there was nothing I could do to help him. I know that, but I just can't shake the guilt." I had, for the first time, circled my arms around him and pulled him into me; I let him cry against me and whispered into him.

"It's okay, my love, you did all you could." I knew he'd never accept it, but I couldn't let him wallow and not say anything in support of him. I'd let him cry it out and he changed the subject to his mum, telling all about how she'd lost herself to alcohol and partying in grief; in a way he'd lost both parents. His mum had never been the same again.

She'd left this time last week without so much as a goodbye, and he'd heard nothing. Kyle was grieving all over again; he was fighting every instinct that told him to phone the police because he knew she'd gone to drink, of her own accord, and this wasn't the first time; sure it was the longest time she'd spent away but not the first time. They wouldn't even take him seriously, he didn't think.

I'd tried to encourage him to phone them anyway, he'd brushed it off every time and kissed me to keep me quiet. I was getting used to his spontaneity with kisses, but I don't think I could ever get used to how they make me feel; weak at the knees and like my head was spinning with nothing hut him. He always started gently, waiting for my silent permission to go further. We'd still only kissed, but I'd progressed to sitting on his lap; we're a lot closer now than I would have expected after knowing someone for only a few days but I suppose I couldn't expect anything else of a Seer and her fated mate.