She wasn’t as fragile as she looked. Yes, she was small and slim, but she had discovered that she received less attention from the various men they had stayed with that way and there had never been enough food to eat. When there was, she ate sparingly, so as not to look greedy.
Her dad had always yelled at her not to take advantage of the people they were staying with, even though he had taken advantage of everyone they ever knew.
Tammy lay there thinking, tears rolling down her face for all her losses and trying to figure out what she had done wrong and why Tyler, too, had left her.
She was just starting to drift off to sleep when the door opened. Tyler strode in, smiling, “Okay, baby, all done, let’s go back to bed now,” he said as he lifted her and carried her back to his room.
Chapter Six
Tammy snuggled into Tyler’s chest, smiling, and felt a tear slide down her face.
Seeing the tear, Tyler sat on the side of the bed with her in his lap. “Why are you crying, baby?” he asked softly.
“I’m just so happy you came back for me. I thought you didn’t want me.”
“Why would you think that, baby? I will always want you,” he answered, leaning down to brush her lips with his.
“I just thought…oh never mind, everything’s okay now,” Tammy answered, wrapping her hands around his head and holding him to her.
Tyler wanted to ask more, but felt this wasn’t the time. He turned on the bed and laid them both down. Then he pulled Tammy to him and pulled a blanket over them. They would rest a while, and then he would get her up and feed her.
* * * *
After Tammy fell asleep, Tyler went to check messages and see if there was any new information from Dillon. Checking messages, there was nothing new, so he called the man.
“Hey, bro, what’s up?” he asked, casual in his good mood.
“Wow, man, you sound happy. The girl good?” Dillon asked.
“Better than you know, man. What did you find?”
Dillon went on to explain that he was still working on tracking down Tammy’s father and that he had no new information to report.
Tyler thanked him and sat to read the reports Dillon had sent him, he hadn’t really done more than review them.
After a couple hours he went to check on Tammy. She needed to get up and eat. He wanted to look at her back again and make sure the bandages were still in place. Then he was going to try and help her with her memory and see if they could figure out what had happened to her.
Sitting on the side of the bed, he moved the hair out of her face, and trailed his lips across her forehead, “Hey, sleepyhead, time to wake up,” he said softly.
Tammy stirred and stretched. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked, yawning.
“A couple hours, and I have dinner ready, so come and eat,” Tyler told her, helping her sit up.
“Okay, I need to find some clothes.” She smiled.
Tyler turned her and looked at her back. “Looks good,” he said and walked to his closet, grabbing a shirt.
“Here wear this, you don’t need anything else, it’s just us.”
“Oh, okay.” Tammy thought about protesting, but really couldn’t come up with a good reason.
They ate dinner and Tyler cleaned the kitchen. Taking her by the hand, he led her to the living room and sat on the couch, pulling her into his lap.
“I want to try something, honey. I want to do an exercise that I think will help you with your memory. Are you willing to try?” he asked her, wrapping one hand around her waist and pulling her to sit sideways on his lap.
“I guess,” she answered. Oh shit, what did she do now? Should she tell him she had her memory back, or should she go along with his game and pretend to have things come back while they were talking? Could she pull this off so that he didn’t suspect anything? This was probably the best way to “get her memory back” and not have him be suspicious. She decided to go for it.
“Okay, I want you to relax and close your eyes.” Tyler told her, using a remote to darken the room until there was very little light. Once the room was dark and the only noise was the sound of their breath, Tyler told her in a calm soothing voice, “Now Tammy, I want you to slowly count backwards from one hundred, thinking only of your counting, with nothing else on your mind.”