Accepting His Love

Accepting His Love: Chapter Thirteen

Abigail could hear Derek pacing the ground from inside her wagon, but she was too much of a coward to go outside and actually talk to him. Some strong woman I am, she thought with a scoff and a roll of her eyes. Her tears had dried up for almost a day now and she was slowly, but surely, coming back to her senses.

Her heart still hurt every time she thought about Coraline and Derek kissing and although she tried hard not to acknowledge that maybe she had been jealous, she had realized that Coraline had been playing with her, in some sick and twisted manner. The scene where she had walked in on them had been too perfectly arranged and at the moment, Abigail had reacted impulsively to what she was seeing, not really stopping to think things out clearly.

Now, as she listened to Derek outside, she knew that she should get out there and apologize to him-more importantly, for slapping him. She was sure it had hurt. She'd put every ounce of anger that she'd felt towards the situation into that slap, and the sound that had followed had reverberated sharply in the air. Even the back of her hand had stung from how hard she had swung her hand out.

Ever since Coraline left, Derek had taken to standing outside and verbally pleading for her to come out and talk to him. Sometime earlier, during her stay in the wagon, she heard Derek call out that sooner or later she'd have to come out. He was absolutely right, because she really, really, really needed to pee. Badly.

If she didn't get outside to relieve herself anytime soon, then she was going to burst. Not only was her stomach pleading for release, but her legs were also cramped. Although she could stand up, she couldn't walk around properly with all of the boxes and barrels in the wagon and therefore, had confined herself to a corner with her knees curled beneath her. At the moment, it felt like a million pins and needles were pricking her legs. She stretched out her legs across the length of the wagon, and the pins and needles started to fade as she massaged and rubbed at her calves.

She needed to get outside, to feel the ground beneath her feet and to see the sky. But, she was going to stick it out. Foolish, yes, but she still wasn't ready to face Derek, and she knew that he was still out there. She could hear him.

She crawled to her bedroll and pulled the covers up and over her head. Closing her eyes, she sent a silent prayer that when she opened them again, either she'd wake up from the nightmare of her life, or that Derek would be gone somewhere else because, she really, really, really needed to pee.

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To her joy, when she woke up about three hours later into the afternoon, and peeked out the side of her wagon, Derek was nowhere to be seen. His camp supplies, which he had so stubbornly set up outside in plain sight, were still there, but as she looked to the left and right, there was not a sign of Derek anywhere.

Not being one to waste the chance that presented itself, she hurriedly scrambled to her feet and stepped outside. Her legs wobbled a bit and her vision swam in circles, but after a few seconds of blinking in the sunlight and taking deep breaths, she regained her bearings and went to relieve herself. Gravity had taken its toll and the urge to do her business had become even greater.

After she had finished doing what she had to do, she briskly walked and half ran to make it back to the wagon before Derek came back from wherever he was. However, by the time she got closer to the wagon, she saw that she was too late. She stopped short in her tracks when she saw that Derek was already there, standing with his back against her wagon and hands stuffed into the pockets of his denim pants.

When he heard her footsteps, he whirled around and Abigail felt her heart constrict as she looked into his steely blue eyes for the first time in almost two days. They looked at her so unbearably pitiful, that she had to use every ounce of will power she had not to go over and try to soothe his pain.