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“Wanna go take a few casts?” he asked.
I chewed my lip. I was nursing a bit of a snit.
His eyes sparkled as he looked at me.
“Temper tantrum’s over, baby girl.”
My snit evaporated.
We fished and had a campfire. We found some pie irons in the boathouse so I made campfire pizza pockets in them and then giant smores.
***
“No!”
That was Tommy shouting in the middle of the night.
I leaned over and fumbled in the dark until I got the light on.
He was pinned to the bed, covered in sweat, as if some invisible force held him down. His neck muscles were bulging as his head was off to the right, a look of pain on his face. His head swung left, as if he’d been hit. His fists were clenched, arms tight with the muscles bunching as if he were restrained and fighting against bonds.
“Tommy?” I called out, rubbing my eyes.
He jackknifed straight up and was on his feet on the bed, looking bewildered, looking ready to do battle. I looked up at him from the little corner at the bottom of the bed where I’d scampered to.
He stared at me a second, nostrils flaring, eyes wide, chest rising and falling. He was getting his bearings.
“Baby?” I whispered. “You okay?”
His breathing slowed. “Yeah.”
He got down off the bed and headed to the bathroom. I fixed the bedding, which was mostly off, and turned out the light.
He was heading out of the room.
“Where you goin’?”
“Hit the bag a bit. Sleep, baby.” He turned around, leaned over to kiss me and then he was gone.
I blinked in the dark for a bit, chewing the inside of my cheek.
The next afternoon, I overheard him on the phone.
“Naw, Zack. It’s not that I think I need a head shrink… doin’ it for Tia. She’s on my ass a bit. You’re confident this guy’s trustworthy?”
He was in a big room by the stairs on the second floor that he’d put his laptop in, to serve as his office.
I kept going down the stairs, feeling immense relief. But that was short-lived, because for Tommy to be willing to talk to someone, he had to be in pretty bad mental shape. He wasn’t the sort of guy to go around spewing his feelings.
He found me in the kitchen a few minutes later.
“You heard that?”
I gave him a tight smile. “Just a sentence or two.”
He pulled me into his arms. “The last thing I need is to hurt you when I’m in the middle of a dream. Seein’ you last night, curled into a ball at the bottom of the bed brought back memories I didn’t like.”
I tilted my head in confusion.
