Tobias: Book One of the Cantrell Brothers Series

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Playing with his golden dog tag attached to the thin, leather rope, Tobias looked down at the necklace once again, his stomach clenching with impatience as he glanced at his phone one more time. 4:55. Five more minutes until he could go back home to where Jane was waiting.

He knew what it would look like as soon as he got home, but he didn't care. Her eyes would be red, her face a sickly pale, and her entire body looking frail and weak as he coaxed her out of bed for some fresh air. She hadn't been getting nearly enough of that lately, while he on the other hand had been getting way too much.

The weather that was blowing gusts of small ice into his face was a great reminder of that fact. Once again, he was chilled to the bone as he and his later shift crew finished up the final touches of the concrete building. Soon enough, his phone beeped, signaling the end of his shift, and Tobias quickly clocked out before driving home.

The roads were slippery, and he found himself having to sharply turn the truck's faded steering wheel more than once on the pathetic excuse for pavement. Windshield wipers spearing through the snowy downfall intently, the truck finally made it into its safe haven.

After walking back into the kitchen, he poured himself a generous amount of orange juice and reveled in the way its scent practically cleared up his clogged sinuses. But the clearing up of his nostrils didn't help with the fact that it was deathly calm within his house. Even Rex was nowhere to be found as Tobias walked through the halls.

“Jane?” he whispered, knocking lightly on his bedroom's door before turning the knob and walking inside the dark room.

Her beautiful face deep in slumber was turned towards him, long eyelashes resting delicately against her cheekbones. Like it had been the past couple of days, her face was extremely pale and looking gaunt once again from not eating well. With her legs tangled up in the thin sheets, Jane looked as if she had just been fighting a terrible nightmare.

His heart reached out to her, and he automatically crawled in next to her frail form and cuddled Jane closer to his chest until her head was resting comfortably against him. In the next instant, she shot out of bed, smacking the glass of orange juice out of his hand, its bright contents sinking into the wooden floorboards.

“It's alright, Jane." He brought her sweaty body back against him and began stroking her back. “Everything's just fine.”

He didn't know how many times he had said those words the last couple of days. The alarmed, scared look in her brown orbs had been almost too much to bear as they went in and out of Dr. Froid's therapeutic room. The therapist had literally probed into Tobias's mind with every question that was asked – so much so that Tobias had felt violated on the ride home.

If he felt that awful after each appointment, he couldn't even begin to imagine how Jane felt. She hadn't said much the last couple of days, only curling up into his side at night and playing with the necklace he had given her – the very same necklace she was fiddling around with now.

“So,” he began, feeling a little awkward around Jane for what was the very first time, “what'd you all do today?”

“Not much,” she replied, her eyes looking normal for once. "Just watched some movies and stuff. Thank you for helping me with this, Tobias.”

“Of course." He kissed her lightly on the mouth and quickly lifted her out of bed. “But first, we need to go back to the Clinic to see Dr. Froid.”

Her petite nose wrinkled in disgust at the mentioning of Dr. Froid, and Tobias chuckled in response as he shed his soaking wet jeans and looked for a drier, more comfortable pair. Although his boxer-briefs were a little damp, the heat of Jane's gaze quickly had his blood boiling, and he was surprised at having not caught fire.