“I don’t like these,” he said petulantly.
“It’ll help.”
He sighed and grabbed the pills, popped them in his mouth, then washed them down with half the glass of water.
“Get some rest. I’ll come check on you in a while.” I went to the door and turned off the light.
“Matt?”
“Hmm?”
“Could you…?”
“What do you need?”
His voice was so soft, I had to strain to hear him. “Could you maybe stay a bit and read to me?”
There was no way a grown man had just asked me to read to him. I knew I must have misheard.
“Do you mind? Just for a little while. I… I don’t really want to be alone.”
Flicking the switch again, I turned the light back on. I smiled at him but noticed how pale he’d gotten. That fall must have taken a lot more out of him than he let on. “Sure. What do you want me to read?”
“Death Comes to Allerton?”
The innocent expression didn’t fool me for a minute. “You just want to hear your own book.”
“No, that’s not it. I like the sound of your voice. I don’t care what you read. I just want to hear you read it to me.”
He gave me a small smile, and my heart pumped harder. I went to the other room and picked up the copy of the book he’d given me. When I got back to the bedroom, I pulled over a chair and sat next to him. He giggled like a little kid and scrunched down under the covers.
“My name is Donald Tremaine. Former soldier. Former cop. Currently a private detective, investigating the brutal death of Scott Tyler, a twenty-one-year-old man whose body was found cut up and placed into small bags, then dumped on the side of the highway….”
Before I got to the end of the first chapter, Charlie was asleep. I closed the book and returned it to its place on the bookshelf. I went back into the bedroom to ensure he was covered. I stood there for a moment, gazing at him. The warmth that flooded through me had me smiling. This had been the right decision, I was certain. I turned and put my hand up to switch the light off.
“Where are you going?” a sleepy voice asked.
“I’ll be out there if you need me.”
He crooked a finger. “I need you to come back here. Please?”
Thinking he might be in pain, I went to the bed and squatted down. “What’s up?”
“Can you lie down with me? Just until I fall asleep?”
The hesitancy in his voice was so out of character for him, and it left me confused. “Charlie, is something wrong?”
He nodded as his eyes closed. “I don’t like being alone in the bed. I want you to sleep with me. When you’re not where I can see you, I miss you so much, it hurts.”
I jumped up and stepped away from the bed. So many thoughts whirled around that I couldn’t sort them out. I retreated to the living room and touched everything I owned, needing to find balance in my mind, but all I could hear were Charlie’s words. I pulled out my phone and dialed Clay.
“Was starting to think since your new friend was staying there, you’d forgotten about me.”
“I—He….” I swallowed hard.
“Charlie? What did he do?” Even though he was younger than me, Clay sounded very much like an angry big brother now.
“He wanted me to get in bed with him.”
