Finding Safety

A Look

Ch 4

Travis pov

"Let's do this. Come sit next to me and take my phone and type in your parents number. Let me talk to them and then you can. I want them to know that you are safe."

She nods her head cautiously scooting right next to me when she types in the number, handing it back to me. Soon the phone rings and a woman answers in a panic.

"Cassie baby please tell me this is you!"

"Hello ma'am my name is Travis Anderson and I own Anderson ranch here in Twin Falls Oklahoma. Your daughter Cassie is here and wanted to let you know she's ok so I will put her on."

I hand the phone over and she quickly grabs the phone talking to her mom. She is sobbing while they talk back and forth and I just slowly wrap my arm around her. She stiffens immediately and slowly leans into my chest talking to her mom when I start to feel her relax. They talk for a few minutes when she hands me the phone. I look at the screen and see the call is still going so I put it up to my ear.

"Hello, this is Travis again."

"Hello son this is Harry her father, Mary is her mother, and we are glad to know she is safe. Please we don't know what happened between her and Jacob because she wouldn't ever tell us. We knew he wasn't good for her but we couldn't stop her. If you need anything just let us know."

"I will Sir, and you have my number so anytime you want to check in on her you can call me. I will get her a new phone and she will be able to give you that number later."

We talk for a few more minutes when I hang up and set the phone in my lap. I look over and see her still leaning into me fidgeting with her fingers. I don't want to move but know we need to get her some groceries. So I move my arm and she quickly sits up flinching and moving away to the door. She stares at me when I just smile, grabbing my hat and putting it on when I open my door to get out.

"Cassie let's go in and get the stuff you need."

She nods and goes to get out the passenger side when I motion for her to just get out my side. She nods her head sliding over and when she goes to slide down I grab her by the waist and lower her down to the ground. She stands there looking towards the store while I just look down at her taking everything in. I just smile, backing up and letting her by while I shut the door. I grab a basket and when I enter I look around to see where she went. I spin around to see her walking right behind me and she instantly freezes closing her eyes mumbling. I just stand there quietly until she slowly opens her eyes to look around.

"You don't have to walk behind me, you can walk in front of me and the basket."

She just looks up at me confused, and now I am confused. What did this guy do to her to make her think that she's nothing. I see her slowly move around me to the basket and put her hand on it to hold on like she's a child.

"You know you don't have to hold the basket right?"

I see her instantly cover her face crying when I slowly walk up to her pushing the basket out of the way. I just stood there, and slowly put my arm around her. She flinches and stiffens up immediately but soon relaxes against me. We take a few minutes until she has calmed back down when I release her and just look down at her head. She doesn't even look at me but just nods when she walks back up to the basket to put her hand. When I instantly said 'No' she pulled her hand back and stuck them in her pocket.

"What kind of food do you like?"

She just shrugs her shoulders. Ok so this is going to be a little harder than I thought.

"Cassie, what kind of food do you eat? Salads? Ramen? Ice cream? What? What did you eat before here?"

"Whatever was given to me to eat? I wasn't allowed to make that choice."

I just stared at her when she turned to look towards me, but she didn't look at me. I mean her face did but her eyes were elsewhere.

"Look at me Cassie with your eyes."

She snaps her eyes to me and can see the panic and fear in them. I just look at her when she quickly diverts them away.

"No Cassie, keep looking at me!"

She snaps them back and can see her pleading for me to not do this. I slowly move my hand to her face when I see her flinch and close her eyes. I lean over to whisper in her ear.

"I'm not him nor am I going to make the decision on what you eat. If you want ramen, let's get it. If you want pancakes, get it. If you want ice cream, get it. Whatever you want to eat."

I lean back removing my hand and can see her start to relax when she opens her eyes looking directly at me with tears slowly making their way down her face. I slowly reach up to wipe them away while she just stares at me. I can see her fighting with herself to keep her eyes open and to see me for who I am. I stepped back and waited for her to look around the aisle to see what she wanted. She would slowly reach for something and hesitate so I would get it for her. We finally started getting into a rhythm where she would point at what she wanted, and I would throw it in the cart.

Before long we had a shopping cart full of stuff and made our way up to checkout. When the clerk was ringing it up I can see her start to panic when the total gets higher and higher. She would start to rethink and look to me to make sure it was ok. I would just nod my head and could see she was getting uncomfortable about it. Before long the total came up and she was starting to panic. I paid the bill and pushed the cart out towards the truck. She slowly followed, still unsure about what just happened.

It takes some time loading everything up into the truck, and I watch her slowly climb into the passenger side. Once done I put the basket back and climb up into the drivers side when I see her crying.

"Cassie, what's wrong?"

"You bought too much! I shouldn't have that much!"

"Cassie, you need food for your apartment and basic stuff which we got. It's ok, believe me it's ok!"

Before she can say anything I just back out of the spot and head back towards the ranch. We will unload her stuff and get her situated for the night. When we pull into the ranch I drive up by her apartment parking so we can unload all the groceries. I start helping her put them away so it will go quickly. When I turn to leave I hear a thank you from behind me and I turn to see her looking at the wall. I walk up to her and see her start to tremble.

"Don't say it to my back, say it to my face and look at me when you do It."

I see her look straight at me when she says it again. I smile and slowly place my hand on her face. I can see in her eyes fear and I don't want her to fear me. I lean over whispering 'You're welcome' and kiss her cheek. I lean back when she looks at me wide eyed. I just smile and leave the apartment shutting the door behind me facepalming myself. I shouldn't have kissed her.