Maid For Beckett Catching The Baseball Legend’s Heart novel Chapter 96

-Andi-

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I walked on autopilot back into my bed. The locks were secured; I checked them three times: the main door, back door, and windows. The only ones I haven’t checked were Mom’s room. I was growing paranoid, but can anyone blame me? I’m swallowing the fact that I really saw my father at the back of our house and even accepting that fact takes a ton of shit of courage.

Dawn bleeds into the gaps of the curtain in my room too quickly than it should. My body felt weird everywhere, as if it weren’t mine and I’m just some stranger in someone else’s bed.

I rolled onto my back with a groan. The knife I carried with me to my room last night catches the morning sunlight, gleaming like a warning that something bad will happen. My father will make a move, I know it and I have to be prepared.

I noticed everything when I stepped out of my room. The muffled shower sound from Caleb’s room, the air that passes hrough the open door of Mom’s room straight from the window, the ticking of the wall clock in the hallway, and the sizzle of Mom’s cooking in the kitchen. The coffee maker purred; it mingled with Mom’s slow hum as she plated our breakfast on he table.

She noticed me watching, and she immediately frowned. “Are you okay?”

t must be written in bold neon letters on my face that I had the worst night of my life since I was fifteen. But I smoothen ny expression and nodded at her. “I’m still getting used to the night classes.”

Pity coasted over her face. “Come have a seat. I made your favorite.”

She did in fact make my favorite waffles. She made it from scratch and she added fruit on my plate. “Thanks, Mom,” I headed for the coffeemaker, but she blocked my way.

‘Sit. I’ll get your coffee,” she said.

Mom, I can do that,” I chuckled, confused.

‘No, sit. This is all I can do for you, you’ve been taking care of our family. Now let me take care of you,” she said, her voice becoming soft and jaded, and I hated how she sounded.

It was her voice when she took care of him before. As if she didn’t do anything good in this world and she was nothing without him, that isn’t like us. I’m not him. She didn’t need to serve me, so I stood up and gently took the carafe from her.

“Mom, it’s fine. We are family, we take care of each other,” I explained to her. This was my cue that telling her about what happened last night was something I couldn’t do. She didn’t know he was really at the supermarket He shouldn’t get near her again, and I will do everything I can to stop that from happening

That day, I had brought a CCTV and had it installed in our home. I told Mom it was for the paparazzi in case they try to come near our home again, but it didn’t look that I convinced her.

Every night, I had been waiting for him to come to our home again, checking the locks three times every night likes security addict. The front door, back door, windows, and even my car

I make sure everything is untouched. That it was the same as I left it

I knew he would come back and I would be ready. One week later, when I step outside to throw the trash, the morning su feels obscene–too bright, too normal for the horror that crawled back into my life last week. I scan the perimeter of the yard, the fence, the space behind the house, just like every time I was outside

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10:55 am

Chapter 96

That’s when I see it. A cigarette butt, crushed into the soil near the side fence.

vodchats

My stomach drops. My father smoked. It turned his yellow teeth and his lungs into a smoking vent. This was just cigarette butts, but I know it was him. He was here again, watching us, and when I checked the CCTV recording on my phone, I saw him looking straight into the camera.

Every day since I spoke with him passes in fragments. I flinch when a car slows near the gate. I jump when the doorbell rings. I force myself to smile at everyone, Siobhan, Beckett, Mo,m and Caleb, trying to pretend my world hasn’t tilted off its axis.

-Beckett-

She thinks I don’t notice it, that she hides it too well, but I had been watching Andi too closely to know that whatever it was that spooked her the other night haunted her.

She pretended everything was okay; she was good at it, too, but I’ve learned her tells.

She laughs half a second too late, and she keeps scanning the room like she’s counting exits and everyone in it all the time. Then her body stiffens whenever a sound comes from outside, whether on the estate or in their home, especially in their home.

She responds to my kisses and my touch, but it wasn’t like before. It’s like a part of her was missing or hiding. She doesn’t lean into me like she usually does, and I don’t think she meant it intentionally.

Something happened, but I don’t push her for answers, not yet, at least.

I have dinner at their house almost every night. It was a nice change from dining alone at the estate. I joke with Caleb. I listen to Andi’s mom talk about the garden. I play my part, because whatever this is, Andi isn’t ready to name it.

But I notice a few changes every night. The knife she keeps within reach on the counter. The way she locks the door twice. The way her eyes dart to the window when headlights pass the house.

And when I couldn’t just stand by when I knew something was up, I asked her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. The nighttime makes her a little guarded, stiffer, and more strained “Just tired,” she says, and I know she’s lying. “School’s been… a lot.”

It was a white lie. I know she has a lot on her plate, but that wasn’t the reason she keeps the knives within her sight all the

time.

I was about to fire another question, pressing on the matter, when she turned to me with those big, wild eyes. “I’m okay. Beckett…”

I raised an eyebrow. She sounded like she was telling herself she was okay more than informing me “If you’re okay, you don’t have to convince me like that.”

She pursed her lips and straightened her shoulders. We were in the living room, sitting on the couch and the light coming from the television bounced off her face.

“Kiss me,” she demanded with a pout.

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10:55 am

Chapter 96

I chuckled. “What?”

She grabbed my hand; her palms were warm on my skin. “Kiss me. Make me forget… I want to forget.”

‘Forget?‘ What was it that she was trying to run away from? But I see this as a chance to make her open up to me, so I said instead. “I’m free tomorrow. Why don’t we go out of town, just you and me?”

She nibbled her lip, her mind going a mile an hour again.

“Don’t think…” I said, cupping her face. “I will make you forget, and this is me doing what you want.”

She didn’t think about her answer and just nodded at me, and I gave her the kiss that she was demanding.

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