The Lies That Save Us (The Broken Heart Series) by JL Redington Page A

words.  They made no sense, but every once in a while I would hear these familiar phrases.  Cayman, it’s like he’s trying to tell me something.  It’s a message he knew only I would understand.  But just listen to it.  There’s no rhyme or reason to any of it.”
    They spent several hours pouring over the recording until they couldn’t listen anymore. 
    “We’ve gotta get some sleep, Alexa.  Let’s put this away until tomorrow and we’ll try listening again on our way out to the spot you and your dad last picnicked.  Okay?  Can you let it go for the night?  Do you need me to take it so you’ll get some sleep?”
    “No.”  It came out a little more forceful than she’d planned.
    “Okay, okay,” said Cayman, holding his hands up, “just trying to help.  Make sure you get some sleep, though, okay?”
    “Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
    Alexa was standing up and wandering back to her room, the voice on the recorder droning on and on.  She was mumbling something to herself, oblivious to the young man she just left on the couch.
    As he watched her walk away in her father’s dress shirt he sighed.
    “Time for another one of those cold showers.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
    Alexa finally nodded off to sleep still listening to the sound of her father’s voice.  The transition from wakefulness to full sleep was interspersed with sounds from the recording, and words directly from her father, like he was standing right next to her.  She woke in the morning confused and disoriented.
    Cayman knocked and Alexa rolled over and moaned, “Come in.”
    She lay on the bed, covered by only a sheet.  The sheet did an amazing job of outlining the shape of her perfect body.  Her hair was a mass of curls and sheen covering her pillow.  She was beautiful, even having just awakened.
    He cleared his throat and tried to sound like a man in full control of his body.
    “So, I, uh, took the liberty of going shopping for some breakfast foods and…”
    He was carrying a tray of that amazing coffee she remembered from their first encounter in her kitchen back in Startup.  She pushed herself to an upright position, instantly ready for coffee, a sleepy but pleased grin spreading across her face.  Cayman placed the tray (actually a cookie sheet because that was all he could find) in her lap.  She smiled at the plate of wonderfulness before her; eggs, bacon, hash browns and sausage, all perfectly cooked and waiting to be devoured.  She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she smelled the food and then realized she was famished.  She ate with abandon.
    “Now I know why you always attacked your food at the diner.  You must have been as hungry as I am today, only for you it was every day.”
    Cayman reddened as he sat beside her.
    “Actually, I have a confession to make.  That dark haired guy that cooks for you?”
    “Thomas?”
    “Yeah, Thomas.  He actually can’t cook, at all.”
    “Really?  Why did you keep ordering breakfast there?”
    “You’re really going to ask me that?  Really? I ate there because of you, of course.  And if you’ll think back, I used an awful lot of Tabasco.”
    Alexa started laughing. 
    “And why, then, did you eat like you hadn’t eaten in months?”
    “Because the faster I put it down, the sooner it was gone.  And the Tabasco didn’t really help all that much, but it helped enough.”
    Alexa was really laughing by this time.  She thought about how she’d made fun of him for eating like a heathen every time Tahleah brought his name up.  Now she finds out he was eating like that to spare her feelings!  The whole thing was so comical she could hardly hold the cookie sheet on her lap.
    “Okay, fine, laugh it up.  I was sacrificing my cholesterol for you, you know.”
    “I know, I know.  I’m sorry.  It’s just so funny!  If you only knew all the cruel things I said about your eating habits, and now I find out you were choking down every