“And we’ll be glad to have you. I’ll let you get back to your Saturday. You enjoy the rest of your weekend.”
“You too, Chief. Thanks.”
Chapter 9
THERE WASonly so much weekend to go around, and Ollie wanted to spend as much of it as he could with his kid… but he also had responsibilities.
Which was why, after he stuck his head into the pole barn to check things out, he walked back into the house and said, “Hey, Theo, want to help me cut the grass?”
Theo looked up from the pinball machine and made a face. “Why would I want to help cut the grass?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Ollie said, pretending to hedge. “I just thought because it’s a riding mower, you might like to learn to drive. But if you’d rather not—”
The pinball machine was left in the dust. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.Butyou can never do it without me there, and you’ll have to sit on my lap and do what I tell you. Okay?”
“Can we go cut the grass right now?”
Riding around on Ty’s lawn mower with Theo in his lap reminded him of doing this with his dad when he was a kid, back when they lived in their rambling farmhouse in New York State. That seemed so long ago now, but when Ollie asked if Theo wanted to steer, Theo’s eyes lit up and brought those feelings right back.
Ollie’s parents hadn’t doneeverythingwrong. There were good times too.
The rest of the day passed in a pleasant haze. The sun was shining, but it was still cool in that early spring way. In the games room, the greenhouse effect made for the perfect atmosphere for reclining on the couch with one of the paperbacks from Ty’s mom’s bookshelf while Ty and Theo did their homework together at the poker table.
Okay, so Theo was doing homework and Ty was lesson planning. It was nice. Ollie kept looking up from his book to find Theo coloring in his map as Ty researched how not to traumatize grade-schoolers while teaching them first aid, or whatever.
Then, after dinner, Ollie made good on his movie-on-the-floor promise. But he was still thirty-two years old, so he pulled a couch cushion onto the floor to sit on and leaned back against the sofa. They made a bag of microwave popcorn and introduced Ty toMoneyball, and even if Theo fell asleep on Ollie’s shoulder in the last ten minutes and his ass went numb, it was still the nicest Saturday night he’d had in a long time.
When the movie ended, Ty turned off the TV while Ollie picked up Theo to put him to bed. Sure, he could wake him up and make him go brush his teeth, but he hadn’t gotten to do this when Theo was little—pick him up, tuck him into bed already asleep. Soon he’d be too big to carry or too old to let Ollie get away with it. One night without brushing his teeth wouldn’t give him cavities.
He turned out the lights and went back to the living room to help Ty clean up the popcorn kernels that had spilled on the floor.
“Thanks for tonight,” he said just as Ty raised his head and said, “Thank you.”
Their eyes locked for a moment, and Ollie found himself matching Ty’s sheepish grin. “I really needed this,” Ty said. “Just, I don’t know, a night in with a friend doing something…funseems like the wrong word for a movie and popcorn on the floor. Silly?”
“No, I get it,” Ollie assured him. “My kid loved it, for one thing, and that’s pretty much always going to be enough for me, but you’re right. It was nice.Normal, maybe? Although,” he added, rubbing his tailbone, “if we’re going to make a habit of it, I want thicker cushions.”
Ty laughed. “Or I could get a media console so we can sit on the actual couch.” He scooped up a stray napkin and tossed it in the bowl with the unpopped kernels. “Theo’s a really great kid. You’re lucky.”
“Luckier than you know.” Ollie paused as he searched for the right words. “Theo’s been through a lot for an eight-year-old. He’s already beaten cancer and lost his mom. And he’s…. He fought me on going to school the first three days, because he doesn’t like being apart from me. And he hated latchkey. He’s afraid I’ll die and he won’t have anyone, but he’s also… not afraid to meet new people. It’s just, I think he thinks I can’t die if he doesn’t have any other grown-ups to take care of him. He’s been resisting getting to know my parents, and it’s driving them nuts.” He paused. “But he likes you. That sounds kind of dumb, and believe me, I’m not trying to put anything on you, but it’s a relief, you know? It may take time, but hecanform attachments with other adults.”
Or whatever lightning-in-a-bottle combination he’d found with Ty.
They brought the dishes into the kitchen, and Ty loaded them into the dishwasher. “I wonder if it’s, like, an identification thing?” He glanced over and lifted a shoulder. “That first day we met, I was not exactly projectingI am a responsible adult. And I did just lose my dad.”
“I don’t know what it is,” Ollie said. “I’m just grateful. And with the baseball? He’s actually been excited to go to school because there’s practice after.” Any little bit of guilt Ollie could take off his chest for missing so many milestones in his kid’s life, for not dropping everything to homeschool him to make up for it, helped. “So thank you.”
Ty ducked his head and blushed when he smiled, like he wasn’t used to being appreciated. Ollie couldn’t understand how that was true since he literally saved people’s lives for a living. Maybe he was naturally modest. “Uh, you’re welcome. I’m glad I could help.”
After a day like that, Ollie figured he’d have no trouble falling asleep, even if he didn’t have Theo wheezing in the same room with him to send him off to dreamland. And he was right; lots of fresh air and the weak spring sunshine, some normal household chores, and about three times as much social interaction as he was used to, and he was out like a light the minute his head hit the pillow.
Ollie had loved flying from the moment he’d first stepped foot on an aircraft. When the ground fell away beneath him and the sky stretched out above and in front and around him, he felt weightless, buoyant. All his problems—his parents, his lack of direction in life, loneliness, indecision—those were earthly concerns that couldn’t touch him up here.
Which was pretty weird considering he’d been shot at while flying, but not everything had to make sense.
So when the dusk-bruised sky of Afghanistan filled his field of vision and he felt the helicopter controls under his hands, Ollie thought,This will be a good dream.He hadn’t been able to fly since he separated from the service. It was maybe the only thing he regretted about leaving. Dreaming about it wasn’t the same, but if this was all he could get, he’d happily soak in every moment.
