To Keep Her Safe is All I Know

Chapter 26

Chris wakes up at about nine the next morning to the sound of Melanie's phone vibrating. He looks at the night stand and sees that it's a message from Sadie's uncle, Jason, asking when he should bring Sadie back home. Chris didn't want to wake Melanie up, so he grabs the phone and answers.     

"Hey, it's Chris. Melanie is asleep but I'm here so you can bring Sadie over whenever."

Jason responded a moment later saying that he'd bring Sadie back within a half hour. Chris looks over at Melanie as memories from the night before came rushing back to him. He and Melanie were together...He and Melanie were together. It was scary, but it was also really exciting. He couldn't wait to see where this would go.     

Chris knew that Melanie had probably had an exhausting week, so he decided he'd let her sleep. Chris kisses her forehead, then gets out of bed and heads downstairs. He feeds Fred, then puts him on the chain and lets him outside. Chris also gets a pot of coffee going and waits for Sadie to come back. He still wasn't quite sure what he would say to Sadie when he saw her. He knew he had some explaining to do. Firstly, he'd have to make sure Sadie knew that he wasn't upset with her. What would he say about himself and Melanie though? He supposed he would wait until Melanie woke up and he would discuss that with her before they said anything to Sadie.     

Chris' then suddenly remembers a very significant thing that had happened last night. He didn't entirely propose, but...Where were they going to go with that? Chris didn't entirely know...but he did have an idea.     

Jason arrived and knocked on the door. Chris answers and Jason greets him with a smile.

"Hey, man. Good to know you and Melanie worked things out. I didn't even tell Sadie you were here 'cause I figured it'd be a good surprise."

Sadie then walks up with her bag, then her mouth falls open and she drops her things before darting to Chris.

"Chris!"

Chris picks Sadie up and holds her close to him, relieved that she wasn't upset with him.

Jason smiles, "I'll leave you guys to it then."

"Bye, Uncle Jason." Sadie says.

"Bye, kiddo. See you later." Jason says before walking off. 

Chris brings Sadie and her things inside and shuts the door.

"Where's my mom?" Sadie asks.

"She's asleep. We were, um, up late last night."

"Did you stay over?"

"Yeah, we had a lot to talk about."

"What did you talk about?"

"We'll talk about that when your mom gets up. Right now, I wanna talk to you."

x

Melanie wakes up around 9:45. She blinks herself awake a couple of times, then gets up and heads downstairs. She figured Chris was down there. However, as she got closer downstairs, she could hear music playing. She smiled as she got downstairs and found Chris and Sadie having a sing-along session to music playing from Chris' phone.    

"IIIII AAAAMMM IIINN MIIIIIISERYYYYYY THERE AAAIIN'T NOOOOBODY WHOO CAN COOOMFORT MEE. WHYYYYYY WOOON'T YOU AAAANSWER MEEEEEE? THE SIIILENCE IS SLOOOOWLY KIIIIILING MEEE." They sang along.

Chris then sees Melanie at the top of the stairs and stands. Sadie then turns around and spots Melanie too, then smiles and runs up to her.

"Hi, Mommy!"