"Vanessa!" Hazel screams chasing the dog around the living room.
I grit my teeth and shove my face into the sofa with a cushion covering my ears.
"Hazel!" I hear Daniel shout over her screaming which stops instantly followed by a thud.
I look over the sofa to find Daniel in front of the glass doors that lead to the backyard. Hazel and Vanessa are running around amongst the water sprinklers. I sigh and sit up before the headache catches up with me and I lean my head against the back of the sofa.
"Another headache?" He asks, sitting down next to me. I nod in reply.
"You should've just let them out." He sighs. "They need some fresh air."
I groan and lie down with my head on his lap. "They're going to be all muddy when they come in."
"But that's not it, is it?" He asks. We lapse into silence for a moment before I shift so that I can look up at him. "I'm scared. For Hazel, for you, for everything."
"Emma, it was an accident. You're safe, Hazel's safe, I'm right here, everything is alright." He massages my forehead, easing the pain.
"Okay." I whisper, not entirely sure if I am okay.
Daniel stops the stroking my forehead, "Come on. Let's get you something to eat."
"Coffee?" I ask.
"Coffee it is." He agrees, getting up and offering me his hand.
We go to the kitchen and Daniel makes us both cups of coffee. As I'm taking the first sip his phone starts to ring. He picks it up from the counter and checks the I.D. He's eyes widen for a second before his gaze flickers towards me and then back towards the phone. I frown at him about to ask who it is but he answers the call.
"Mrs. Kensinger! Hi!" He greets my mother cheerily but she presumably screams something back at him because, one, I hear her scream through the phone and two, it's so loud that Daniel pulls the phone away from his ear.
"Oww." He mouths at me and I shake my head as I laugh quietly.
He listens to her say something, then says, "Emma's okay. She's back home. In fact, she's right here. Do you want to talk to her?"
My heart sinks at this.
"Here." He says, holding his phone out to me and then mouths, 'sorry' because he knows I haven't wanted to talk to my family about the accident.
"Hi mom." I say, holding the phone up to my ear and taking a sip of my coffee.
"Are you okay?!" She sound hysterical.
"I'm fine." I answer.
"Of course you are! You were in a car accident that knocked you unconscious for a whole day! What is it with my children and road accidents?" She sighs, frustrated.
"I'm alright, mom. I'm not hurt. They just kept me in the hospital to make sure everything was alright and it is. Don't worry about me."
"I will worry all I want to! I'm your mother!" She huffs.
"Look, I don't want to talk about it. It happened, I'm okay and that's all that matters."
I hear her sigh on the other end, then she asks something surprising. "Why can't you keep within the speed limit?"
"I..." I'm speechless for a second before I recover. "I was in a hurry to get home."
"And a load of good that did to everyone." She sounds angry and I'm starting to get flustered as well, so I say, "Mom, I need to go check on Hazel. I'll talk to you later."
"Take care of yourself!" She manages to throw in before we say goodbye and I end the call. I set the phone on the counter before turning to Daniel for an explanation.
"What did you tell her?"
"You were over speeding and lost control of the car." He mumbles, clearly ashamed to not have asked me before telling my mom this.
"Hey!" I say, walking around the counter and taking his face in my hands. "I'm not angry at you. I understand you want to keep this as quite as possible while you look into it. But..."
"What?" He asks, looking at me with a concerned look.
I sigh. "But you could've come up with something better. Everyone knows that I never over speed."
I grin at him as he shakes his head, starting to laugh. "My apologies, Mrs. Aaron."
"Apology accepted, Mr. Aaron." I flip my hair over my shoulder and walk back to the other side of the kitchen island where my coffee is.
I'm about to take another sip when Hazel's voice from the doorway makes me turn around. I sigh at the sight of a muddy Hazel with Vanessa by her side.
"I'll wash Vanessa, you take Hazel. Deal?" Daniel asks from behind me.
"You're the one who let them out!" I point out but after a moment I add. "I needed the quite though. Okay, fine. Hazel, let's go take a bath!"
"Yay!" She squeals running ahead of me.