I pulled his hand up to my lips for a quick kiss. “I know you don’t, baby. And no, it’s not strange. I don’t want to leave him here, either. But he’s an adult and there isn’t much we can do.”
Ford linked his fingers with mine. “I know.”
I released his hand long enough to get the engine started and put the truck in gear. “But you know what we do have,” I said as I got the truck moving and then picked up his hand in mine.
“What?” he asked.
“About five hours to figure out a plan to get Theo to Pelican Bay for a ‘visit.’”
Ford smiled his big, beautiful smile that came from deep within him. “We do,” he agreed.
“And you know what else we have if we can’t come up with something?” I asked.
He looked at me for a long moment in confusion, then nodded his head.
“Walter,” we both said at the exact same time.
“We’ll bring him home where he belongs, Ford.”
“With his family,” Ford said.
I grinned. “With his family,” I agreed.
Between me, Ford, a scheming old man, a sweet teenager, the mysterious but determined Nurse Linc, and a certain little diva of a dog who was more than happy to be surrounded by men, Theo didn’t stand a chance.
Not one chance.
Epilogue
Ford
One Month Later
“Fuck, I’m nervous. Maybe we should have told him,” I said.
“We didn’t want to get his hopes up, remember?” Cam reminded me as he put his hand on the inside of my knee. We were sitting on the porch steps waiting for Riley, Walter, and Linc – or Nurse Ratchet, as Walter was still calling him – to return from their walk.
Though the crusty old man was calling the young nurse the nickname with a hell of a lot more warmth these days. And Linc was still taking it in stride, along with the pranks that Riley and Walter would occasionally play on him. Not to be outdone, Linc had gotten some pranks in of his own. Just this morning, Riley had discovered a few seconds too late what happened when a prankster covered one’s toilet seat with plastic wrap. Cam and I had been in the process of making love when the teenager had started screaming like a banshee. By the time Cam and I had thrown our pants on and he’d grabbed his gun, Walter had started yelling so many curse words that Newt’s ears probably would have fallen off. We’d all ended up meeting in the front foyer only to hear a chuckle from above. Linc had been leaning over the staircase railing, a box of plastic wrap in his hand. He’d laughed all the way back to his room.
“Just remember, we’re good at this planning shit,” Cam said. “We got Theo to agree to come up for a visit this summer, didn’t we?”
I leaned against Cam’s body. I loved how strong he made me feel.
“Yeah,” I said.
Theo and I had talked on the phone more and more in the weeks since we’d seen him in Minneapolis, but I was the one who had to initiate the calls. I didn’t feel like he was avoiding me or didn’t want to talk to me… I just got the impression that he wasn’t used to interacting with people. He’d always had a certain social awkwardness about him when we’d been kids, but he’d been different around me. Admittedly, I wanted that back. I wanted the old Theo back. Part of it was pure selfishness because I still felt guilty for what I’d done to him, but I also just really wanted my friend to be okay. It didn’t happen often, but every once in a while he’d say something that was all old Theo and I’d wonder if there was a way we could have that comradery again. I didn’t feel even an ounce of attraction for Theo and had gotten the impression that he didn’t feel that way about me, either. But I truly believed the bonds of friendship we’d formed when we’d been fourteen still existed.
I just needed to figure out how to make him see that.
Bringing him to Pelican Bay would hopefully be the place to start.
I heard an engine rumbling up the driveway and tensed. But the car that came around the curve was a familiar one. My stomach dropped out at the sight of my mother sitting stiffly in the passenger seat.
I hadn’t talked to her since the day I’d walked in on Jimmy beating the shit out of her. I’d wanted to kill Jimmy… had felt like I was actually going to… but something had stopped me. Something inside of me had acted as a stopper of sorts. I’d always thought that if I hit Jimmy back all those times he’d hurt me, I wouldn’t have been able to control my rage.