Bloodline [h.s.]

twenty-eight.*

BRIDGET GALLAGHER

A lot can happen in two weeks. My life was changing faster than I could comprehend. I continued to avoid my parents like potholes in the road. Once in awhile, when they were out, I would sneak back home to pick up a few things and spend some time with Dylan and Connor. All the trust I used to have in my father was lost after learning what he's done and how little regard he had for human life. This is why I brought Jacob with me every time I went home.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

"Yes, but you don't have to come with me. I know you're behind on work because of me." I said as I grabbed my purse.

"Are you comfortable going on your own?" He cocked his eyebrow.

"No, but I am starting to feel like I'm a burden. I shouldn't be afraid to go back to my own home. I'm being crazy." I muttered, feeling shy about it. He came up from behind me, spinning me around to face him.

"It's not crazy. You have every reason to be cautious with your family. Nothing I do with you is a burden. Unless you don't want me there, I'm coming." He said softly.

Jacob installed a new security system in his house to make me feel safer, so he punched in a pass code to activate it before he locked the front door.

When I got to the house, Dylan and Connor were finishing up some homework in the kitchen. Both the boys seemed a little less high energy without Megan. They were used to chasing her around the house with nerf guns and her getting them back later for it. They missed having her home, so did I. Her absence was loud as it screamed to be felt.

The moment Megan's eyes opened after surgery, the fear compressing my airway began to dissolve. She had a long recovery ahead, and the possibility of organ rejection still loomed. However, I chose to believe that was not going to happen. She was okay. That was more than I expected to get once she was taken to the operating room. She was alive, and she was happy. I could breathe again.

After they finished their homework, Jacob proposed a game of football in the backyard. I decided to let him figure out for himself that when the boys hear football, they only knew it as American football. I couldn't contain my laughter as they tackled him to the ground.

"I thought we were playing football, not wrestling!" Jacob said, holding up the soccer ball.

"We are playing football!" Dylan laughed before Jacob took a knee to the chest from Connor.

Then, a look of realisation appeared on his face that could only be described as, "Shit, I should have said soccer."

He quickly got his bearings as he stood up, lifting
the boys out of him over each of his shoulders. I had forgotten how strong he is.

After a long, gruelling soccer game, I jogged back to the kitchen to get a water for Jacob and juice boxes for the boys. Other than the house staff, it had seemed like no one was home, which is why my stomach practically fell out of my body when I shut the refrigerator door to see my dad standing there.

"I thought you were still at w-work." I stammered as I backed away from him without even noticing I dropped the juice boxes.

"The boys mentioned you've been coming by after they get back from school, so I thought I'd come home early to see you." He explained. My heart rate climbed with each step closer he took. "I miss having you home, Bridget."