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“That man who did this to you…” his thumb grazes my cheek, where it’s bruised. “You said his name was Maximilian?”
“I…have no idea what you’re talking about. Who on earth is Maximillian?”
“Sweetheart, it’s okay. You’re not in trouble. You’re safe,” he placates.
“I know.” I curl my fingers into his palm, trustingly. “I’m always safe when I’m with you.”
We lapse into awkward quiet. Why is this awkward? What’s with the tension? Boyd smiles a weak smile at me.
“Summer, I know you’ve been through a god-awful lot, but I need you to try to focus for me. Think. How could those men have found you, baby?”
“My love, I appreciate your concern, but what the fuck are you talking about? What men?”
He drags a hand down his features, tiredly sighing. “I guess I just have to ask, because those deputies out there are certainly going to…Summer. Did you set the house on fire?”
“No!” I rear my head back. “Why would I do that? I love our house!”
“The Keepers…” Boyd leans over his thighs, lowering his voice as if in secret. “Do you remember telling me about how you escaped from that place you were in, you called it the Lights?”
The excuse me, what?
I stare at him blankly. This must be a dream. His, or mine, I haven’t figured that out yet. Why is he looking at me like that? What is he saying to me right now? Was Boyd injured in the house fire? Is there head trauma?
Was it my head?
“How did you get here, baby girl?” He touches my face gingerly again. “How do you explain the bruises?”
“I smacked my face on a wood beam. Remember I told you? I was camping with some friends and wandered off, per normal, and of course I got lost. I found this ramshackle little cabin and you know me, I’m so curious I had to see inside. There wasn’t any light though, and I lost my bearings and tripped and fell. Splintered wood and rusty nails really did a number on me. Scratching me all to smithereens.” I breathe out a laugh. That was a total face-palm moment. And no one was even around to give me shit for it. “Stupid huh? But then I found your lodge! Just in time for the fireworks show! You remember, I said I made a wish in the fountain and watched those kiddos chase lightning bugs?”
“No.” He just shakes his head. “No. You—you had on a dress. You didn’t look like you were from around here. You sounded…different.”
“I’m not from around here, silly. I’m from the South.” I giggle, unsure why I’m feeling edgy, nervous. “Tell me more about this dress?” I ask.
“It was this…I don’t know, Renaissance-looking frock. I would show it to you, but it was destroyed. In the fire.” He worries his lip. “Summer.”
“Yeah, Boyd?”
“What are your friends’ names?”
“I…” I feel my eyebrows pinch together. “I can’t remember right now. Guess I’m still just really tired.”
“And your parents?” he asks, sounding desperate, relentless. “Your sister? You said they were in a car accident, a long time ago. They were dead and that’s when you went into the woods—”
“Dead? No.” I shake my head, almost violently. “No. No one in my family is dead. They live in Atoka, Oklahoma.”
Boyd stares at me vacuously for a long, long time. Dread sinks low in my stomach.
“They’re…alive, right?”
“I-I dunno,” Boyd answers, regretfully. His heavy head falls into his hands. I watch his shoulders heave, up down, up down. Is he…sobbing?
Minutes pass. Eventually his weary, watery eyes search my face.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you, baby,” he says, crawling into the bed with me and drawing me to him. He holds me close against his chest. “But I meant every word I said earlier. I love you. God I love you so much.” His voice splinters. He squeezes me, almost roughly. “I told you I’d keep you safe. And I always will. I’ll do anything for my Summer.”
Confusion swirls, making an absolute mess of the synapses in my head. My body feels fractured and weak.
But one thing is clear, Boyd’s words sit right as they enter my heart. And they sit right as they tumble from my own lips. “I love you, too, honey.”
