“Sorry. I don’t mean to do that. I just…I…”
“You’ve been doing it all your life. I get it. I was always the fuck-up. But I don’t give a shit what people think of me, Archer. That’s all you. It’s your hang-ups now. If you don’t like me the way I am… if you can’t accept who I am…then what are we even doing?”
What indeed?
He sucked in a deep breath but before he could say anything, Isaac stood. What he’d been about to say, he wasn’t certain. It wasn’t like him to be short on words, but Isaac had short-circuited his brain.
“Gonna see if there’s another bathroom to take a shower.” He moved to the other doors, opening one. “Bedroom.” He opened the next one. “Bathroom.”
“Do you think we should be going through her stuff?” Archer worried.
Isaac just sent him a look. “I ain’t going through her panty drawers. I’m just seeing what’s behind these doors.”
Archer rolled his eyes and grabbed their bags, setting them in what was obviously the spare bedroom. As he came out, he saw Isaac was still standing in the doorway to the other room.
“Huh,” his brother said.
“What is it? Don’t tell me she has a torture chamber?”
Her questions when she’d first met him still amused him. The thought of her asking someone else, a stranger who might harm her wiped that amusement away. Why was she living in the middle of nowhere on her own? Isaac stepped inside, letting him move into his place. He looked around the small room. There was a desk with a laptop on it sitting in front of the lone window. Papers were strewn across the desk and then down along the floor. Seemed it wasn’t just the living area that was subjected to whirlwind Caley.
Then he turned to look at the rest of the room. Surprise hit him. He spotted a huge, oversized bean bag in one corner of the room. Next to the bean bag was a bookshelf, filled with a mixture of adult and children’s books. But it was the other corner that really surprised him.
There were train tracks set up and at different places along the track were small buildings and people made of wood. He moved closer. The detail was amazing. Everything looked like it had been created by hand. Unable to resist, he picked up one house and turned it over.
Made for Caley, with love, Daddy.
“Could be her real father made it,” Isaac said, looking over his shoulder.
He guessed it wasn’t any of their business who made it. And lots of adults had train sets. But there was something about this set. Something special. Made for a little girl with love from her daddy.
“I’m gonna go have a shower. Can you find some firewood?”
“Sure.” But this had given him some food for thought. Maybe Isaac would never forgive him for Evelyn. But perhaps he could find someone to replace her in his frosted-up heart. A Little who was in obvious need of someone to take care of her.
6
When Caley stepped back out into the living room, she was surprised to find that the fire was roaring, and the living room was mostly tidied up. Dr. Cranky turned from where he was folding clothes at the table. There were piles of clothes set out. As well as an assortment of other things.
“Hey, you found my flashlight. Awesome.” She picked it up. “Been looking for this.”
“It was under a jacket. A jacket that you should have worn when you came to get us.”
“Do you always scold people you don’t know?”
“Only when they do foolish things.”
She sighed and pulled the old, plaid robe around her. It had been Dave’s, so it hung off her. But like so many things of his, she’d been unable to get rid of it. Having it close made her feel less alone. If she kept his stuff here, then she could pretend that one day he would walk through that door and everything would be all right.
“Thanks for tidying up. You didn’t have to.”
He just gave her a look with those piercing blue eyes of his. “Nearly tripped on a pair of shoes and grazed the other side of my head.”
She blushed, even though she was certain he was exaggerating. She looked up at his forehead which had a bandage on it. “How is it? Are you sure it doesn’t need stitches? Are you having blurry vision? Dizziness? Nausea?”
“You a doctor in another life?”
“Ahh, no.” She looked away. Right. He was the doctor, not her. “Where’s Archer?”