Ollie said, “When is owl mating season?”
“Uh. I think it depends on the kind of owl.”
Well, yes, probably. “Can you tell what kind of owls they are?”
“No?”
They watched for a moment longer; then Ollie ventured, “We had a nesting pair of barn owls living on our property when we lived in New York.”
Neither of them took their eyes away from the tree. “Yeah?”
He nodded. “I was thirteen, so I thought it was pretty cool. But my sisters, uh, well, we kept finding their leftovers. Little headless rodents, shrews and mice and voles or whatever. I guess the brains are their favorite part? And then baby bunny season rolled around….”
The owls silently fluffed each other.
After a moment Ty said, “Do you think turning on the outside lights will be enough to scare them away?”
“They might at least decide to nest farther away from the house, which is good enough for me.” Teenage Ollie had thought the decapitated animals were kind of neat, in a gruesomely fascinating way. Adult Ollie didn’t want to look at them or clean them up or, crucially, answer any of Theo’s questions about the decapitated baby bunny afterlife.
It certainly ruffled some feathers when Ty flicked on the lights that illuminated the garden. Ollie caught a flash of buff-and-brown feathers, and then the birds were gone, leaving the night eerily silent.
“I should get a motion sensor installed, maybe. Or a remote control.” Ty yawned and turned away from the window. Then he did a double take when he saw Ollie, now illuminated in the overglow of the flood lights. “Jeez, aren’t you freezing?”
Ollie looked down. The adrenaline had worn off, and his fear sweat was cooling on his body, so yeah, actually. He’d gone to bed in a thin pair of pajama pants, and his nipples were trying to secede. “Now that you mention it.”
He thought he detected the hint of a flush on Ty’s cheeks, but that probably came from having been caught noticing your roommate’s nipples were about to fall off. Ty didn’t get awkward about it. “I should probably get back to bed. Oh—but, uh, wait up for a minute? There’s a throw blanket on the couch if you want to, like, not die of hypothermia.”
Bemused, Ollie wrapped himself up like a burrito and sat on the sofa, tucking his feet in so they wouldn’t get cold. True to his word, Ty was gone only a few minutes. When he returned, he was carrying a couple of ancient plastic radio-looking things.
He held them up triumphantly. “Found these when I was binge cleaning the other day. Baby monitor.”
Ty passed them over like he was bestowing a gift. Ollie untangled his arms to take them. “Uh… thanks?”
Seeing Ollie didn’t quite understand, Ty said, “Okay, so, you said hearing Theo breathe helps when you wake up at night. But now he’s got his own room, and that’s great, but what about you, right? So—baby monitor. It’s, like, thirty years old, obviously, but it still works. Just put the transmitter in Theo’s room and the receiver in yours. You can keep it turned off until you need it. And since they’re like ancient technology, they actually plug into the wall. No batteries.”
Ollie wet his lips, suddenly without words.I met you a week ago.But it didn’t have anything to do with Ollie, not really. He could see that. This was how Ty treated people. He looked out for them. He was a caregiver. How else had he ended up a paramedic?
“Thank you,” he said when his voice returned to him. He didn’t want to wake Theo tonight with the baby monitor, but knowing he’d have it in the future helped. He already knew he’d be sleeping better in the future. “Wish I’d thought of this.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t have either if I hadn’t found the thing.” Ty gave him a bashful smile. “Anyway, I’m gonna see if I can’t convince my body to go back to sleep. Night, Ollie.”
“Night, Ty.”
“DO I HAVEto come?” Theo asked the next day, dragging his feet as Ollie helped him choose a brunch outfit that didn’t look like he’d spent three hours playing baseball in it.
Ollie probably should have done laundry yesterday.
“’Fraid so, bud.” There—that sweater was decent. Ollie offered it and received a disgusted look in return.
Possibly he should also take his kid clothes shopping.
“Anyway, why do you want to stay home?” Theo had been glued to Ollie’s hip for the past six months. “You don’t want to spend time with your dad?” Okay, so he kind of figured this was more avoiding the grandparents, but it had to happen sometime. Ollie was not above playing the guilt card.
Theo made a very dramatic eight-year-old noise. “No, that’s just—you said Grandma and Grandpa are coming, and I—you don’t like them.”
Wait, what?
Ollie paused with his hands on a long-sleeve Nats shirt. “Theo, why would you say that?”
