“It’s late,” Nicole finally said.
I nodded but felt a slight sense of dread, too. Was she going to send me away? It was nearly midnight after all.
“Dad usually gets up around six, and I don’t really want to have him walk in here and see you before I have a chance to talk to him, so I’m going to set the alarm for five, okay?”
“Yeah, that’s good,” I agreed. “It’s not like I brought a change of clothes or anything.”
I tried to laugh it off.
“Well, remember that for next time,” Nicole replied.
“Next time?” I felt my heart rise into my throat, and I swallowed before speaking again. “You mean…I could come back?”
Her fingers flipped my hair off my neck.
“Anytime you need to,” she said quietly.
One of her fingers began tracing back and forth over my jaw, and I felt my eyes start to close. I felt tingly and warm, as if I were nearly asleep already. Nicole’s hand left my skin, leaving it cold, and I opened my eyes again. I watched her lean over and adjust the alarm before she reached back to me and tucked a bit of hair behind my ear. She seemed to focus on the strands as she wove her fingers through them.
“I need a haircut,” I said, and I smiled a little.
“I like it this way,” she said.
Okay…no haircut then. I was good with that.
Nicole settled back against the pillow, and I did the same. I opened my hand so my palm lay flat against her back. She wrapped her hand around my hair at the back of my head and stilled. She blinked a few times, her eyelids getting heavy.
“Nicole?”
“Hmm?” She didn’t open her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Thomas,” she said with her eyes still closed, but the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. “Go to sleep now.”
I closed my eyes and watched the day go by, making sure to stop for that precious thirty seconds a few times before my mind settled and dropped into unconsciousness. At some point in the night, I woke up again. Nicole was still lying on her side, facing me, with one of her legs tossed over mine. I felt warm, comfortable, and…
…safe.
Here—in her house, in her bed, with her—I felt as if nothing could touch me. It felt as if he couldn’t touch me as long as I was within her arms. I tried to remember the last time I felt this way, and all I could recall were quick flashes of times with my mother. Those times when we sat at the piano and she would sing while I poked at the keys she pointed to on the keyboard…those were like this.
I drifted back off again.
Nicole’s alarm awakened me early enough to get home and complete my daily run before Dad even woke up. As far as I could tell, he had no idea I had left the house at all. I showered and shaved quickly before jumping in my car and driving back over to Nicole’s house.
I had actually gotten a decent night’s sleep, which didn’t happen often. I usually needed a good-sized cup of black coffee before I was really awake in the morning but not this day.
I felt good.
Nicole rolled her eyes at the gesture but still waited for me to go around the car and open the door for her once we got to school. I kept my arm around her shoulders as we walked in, only letting go of her briefly when we stopped at each of our lockers.
Hers still made me cringe. I hadn’t done anything about it yet.
Nicole was a little nervous as we walked through the halls, but no one said anything, and the sheer number of people outright staring at us dwindled. I left her at her first class just as the bell was ringing but not before I leaned in and gave her a very quick kiss on the side of her mouth.
“See you soon.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her as I walked off, unable to stop myself from smiling as I saw her look back at me before she went inside the classroom. I saw Ben on my way to my first class, and we got lunch all worked out between one hallway and the next. By the time I led Nicole into the lunchroom, Ben and Maria were already sitting at one of the round tables, waiting for us.
“What’s this?” Nicole asked under her breath as I took her to the already occupied table.
“Ben’s on the team,” I said with a shrug. “Maria’s his girl, and she’s usually at practices. I thought you guys could sit together or something.”
“So, what? You’re choosing my friends for me?” Nicole snapped at me. When I looked at her, her eyes were narrowed.
“No,” I said. I paused in the middle of the lunchroom to try to figure out what the fuck she was talking about. “I just figured you’d like her, and she’s usually there…”
“And that’s not choosing my friends in what way?”
“What the fuck, Rumple?”
Nicole closed her eyes and breathed forcefully out of her nose.
“We really need to talk about this,” she finally said. “Let’s just…get it over with, but after practice, we really, really need to talk.”
“Okay,” I said, still not having a fucking clue as to what was going on, “whatever you want.”
She glanced at me and seemed to share my confusion for a moment. Then she turned toward the table and went to sit down.
I had been right; Rumple and Maria did hit it off. They both liked the same books, and though they didn’t have any classes together, they seemed to have the same subjects at different periods and were already making plans to work on their homework together while Ben and I practiced. I still didn’t know what she wanted to talk about after practice, but I figured it couldn’t be that bad.
Of course, she didn’t give me the chance to find out.
As soon as the team started walking off the field, Nicole was motioning me over.
“Sorry, Thomas,” she said, “but I have to run. A friend of mine is picking me up. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I thought you wanted to talk,” I reminded her.
“Um…yeah,” she said. She ran her hand through her hair as she stared over at the parking lot. “I know, and we do, but really—I just overreacted a bit. I’m sorry about that. We’ll talk about it later, ok? I really gotta go.”
“What friend?” I asked as she started heading away from me. I don’t think I could have hidden my disappointment if I tried.
“Just a friend,” she repeated, “but I do need to go.”
And with that, she was gone.
I went to the lockers for a shower, talked to the guys for a few minutes but never really heard much of what they said. I’d listen to it all in my head later just in case there was something important. I didn’t understand Nicole’s need to see a friend so urgently. I couldn’t help myself, so I drove past Nicole’s house on the way home. Her car was there, so I stopped.
No one answered the door, which I guess shouldn’t have surprised me. She said someone was picking her up. As I turned to leave, Sheriff Skye’s patrol car pulled up.
Shit.
I started back toward my car and then stopped as he got out of his. Then I took a few more steps toward my car and then I stopped again, having no fucking idea if I should stay or go.
“Thomas,” Sheriff Skye said with a nod. “Nicole won’t be home for a while, I think. She told me I was on my own for dinner.”
“Oh, um…sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know…I mean…I wasn’t sure where she was, so I didn’t know when she’d be back…so…um…yeah.”
Damn, I sounded like a fucking moron.
“She’s in town for the evening,” he said.
“Oh,” I replied. Yep…failed on the old loquaciousness again.
Sheriff Skye stood there with his arms crossed in front of him and a smirk on his face.
“Your father working late at the hospital tonight?” he asked suddenly.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod.
“Well, considering we’re both on our own for dinner, how about I order us a pizza?”
“Oh…um…well…” More stammering. I sounded just like I felt—like an idiot.
“That’s okay, really. I should be going…”
“Thomas,” Sheriff Skye said as he dropped his arms and motioned toward the porch, “I’d kinda like to talk to you.”
Oh shit.
This couldn’t be good, could it?
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar ran through my head: “He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” Somehow, even though he never had affected me in such a way before Nicole arrived, Sheriff Skye was scaring the shit out of me.
Now, what did he want?
CHAPTER 13
EQUALIZER
I tried not to look as scared as I felt as I walked into Nicole’s house with her father. The place did not feel the same as it did when I was with her alone in her room. Sheriff Skye walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a can of beer.
“Have a seat, Thomas.” Sheriff Skye dropped into a recliner, and I perched on the edge of the couch cushion, wondering if it was possible for my balls to rise back up into my body post-puberty. They sure as hell felt like they were trying to. Sheriff Skye continued eyeing me for a little while as he tipped his beer back a few times. He finally put it down on the TV tray next to the chair and leaned forward a little with his arms across his thighs.
“You were in my daughter’s bed last night, Thomas.”
Oh fuckity fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck.
I couldn’t exactly lie at that point—he obviously knew—but what the hell could I possibly say that wouldn’t get me into a shitload more trouble than I was already probably in?
“I didn’t…I mean…I was, but I didn’t do anything. I…I…”
He still has his gun on.
A cold chill ran up my back and down my arms. I was having a hard time drawing air into my lungs as if my throat was closing up on me.
He stood up.
Oh fuck…
“Thomas…son?” I heard his voice and saw him take a couple steps closer to me.
“I wouldn’t….do anything to her…” I still couldn’t breathe. “I didn’t! I swear I didn’t!”
“I know you didn’t,” he said. “Nicole told me all about it.”
A whole other chill took over at that point as I wondered just what Rumple told him.
“All about what?” I whispered.
“She told me you were upset about something and came here last night. I didn’t get any of the details as to why, but I got the idea you weren’t in the best of places at the time.”
My throat relaxed, and I could breathe again, so I took a really deep breath all at once, nearly choking myself.
“Hey, Thomas?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Um…yeah,” I said.
Sheriff Skye went over to a small table by the door leading to the back yard and opened up the center drawer. He stuck his hand way in the back and pulled out a pack of Marlboros and a box of matches.
“Don’t say anything to Nicole, okay? She’d string me up.”
I laughed from relief more than humor.
“Want to step outside with me a minute?”
“Okay.”
He opened up the back door and ushered me out. A small set of steps led down to a cement patio in the back of the house. A couple of potted plants flanked the door, but there were no chairs or anything, so we sat down just outside the door on the top step. Sheriff Skye leaned back against the side of the house and lit one of the cigarettes from his pack with the flick of a match on his thumb.
It was kind of intimidating.
He stared at me a moment then offered up the pack. I met his eyes, trying to figure out if this was some sort of test. Did he do this with every kid who came over here just to see if they were underage smokers?
Then I remembered I was eighteen.
I still hesitated before taking one, trying to at least keep the shaking to a minimum, then allowed him to hold a second match up for me. I inhaled the smoke and let it burn my lungs as Rumple’s father began to speak.
“I was supposed to have quit years ago,” he told me. “I don't do it often, but every once in a while, it's good for calming the nerves.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a nod. “I don't…um…smoke much, either.”
“Wouldn't be good for your running times, would it?”
“Ah…no, it wouldn't.” I wondered how he knew about my running times but didn't get the chance to ask.
“We need to set some ground rules here, Thomas,” he said. “I know this is all supposed to be some kind of elaborate ruse, and maybe it is…”
He looked at me out of the corner of his eye as he took a deep drag before continuing.
“But I kind of doubt it.”
Somehow, he knew I was more interested in her than I had let on. He was also asking me to keep his secret, but did that mean he would keep my secret, too, or was he going to tell her what he suspected?
“How much did Nicole tell you about why she left Minneapolis?”
“Enough,” I replied.
He nodded.
“I realize you don’t know what it’s like to be a father,” Sheriff Skye said, “but the hardest thing I ever did was not to jump on a plane and commit murder after I got that phone call. The second hardest thing I ever had to do was respect Nicole’s wishes not to press charges and see those two hung. Well…at least in juvie for a few years.”
“She didn’t want to do anything about it?”
“Nope,” he replied. He looked out across the back yard and into the darkening trees of the forest beyond. “She was too embarrassed, for starters. She was also doing something illegal at the time and could have been prosecuted as well. She wanted it all behind her, not dredged up over and over again.”
I hadn’t really thought about her reasons, but from what I knew of her, it all fit. She didn’t want people in her business, and having something like that all over the media would kill her.
“I realize you haven’t known Nicole very long, but I want to tell you a little about my daughter,” the sheriff said. I nodded and tried to make myself look busy with my smoke. “She was always an independent thing, even when she was little. She would get her mind set on something, and it damn well better work that way, or there was going to be hell to pay. That girl has a temper.”
“Heh!” I snorted. Yeah, I was aware of the kitten’s claws, no doubt. Sheriff Skye chuckled, too.
“You’ve seen that side of her more than once, huh?”
“Yeah,” I replied, and I could have sworn I heard him say “good” before he went on.
“When I went to Minnesota after that…‘incident’,” he continued, “the girl I found there wasn’t my daughter, or at least not the one I knew. She was timid and scared, and she always waited for someone else to tell her what to do. She never took any initiative. As if there were any way I could have been angrier over everything…”
He paused and shook his head before he continued.
“Seeing her act like that…It just wasn’t my girl.”
He shoved the butt of his cigarette into the dirt beside him and pulled out another one. I still had half of mine left since I hadn’t really been actively smoking it. All I could do was listen to him and try to picture my Rumple that way.
“Then I found out something else from her mother,” Sheriff Skye said, “and I was almost as pissed off at my ex-wife as I had been at the two who did that to her.”
“What?” I asked when he didn’t continue right away. “What did she say?”
“She told me Nicole wasn’t like that from the…from what had happened to her. She said Nicole had been acting like that for months—ever since she started dating that schmuck.”
I stood up and took a few steps onto the patio. I stared at the bright spot at the end of the cigarette as I inhaled. The sheriff looked off into the woods again while I thought about what he said. I tried to picture Rumple all quiet and waiting for someone to tell her what to do, and I just couldn’t see it. Why would she act tha
t way?
“I still don’t know exactly what he said or did to her to change her behavior like that,” Sheriff Skye said, his words echoing my thoughts. “She doesn’t talk about it, and I just hoped bringing her here and away from all of it would help her get herself back. I hadn’t really seen any signs of her… signs of that girl I knew the last summer she was here… signs of the daughter I used to have... not until the other day.”
“What other day?” I asked.
“When she came back from town, found you sitting on the front porch, and started tearing you a new one.”
The scene ran through my head again. She sure had been pissed off to find me there. I smiled a little.
“Yeah, I thought so,” the sheriff remarked.
“Thought what?” I asked. I looked at his face to find him smirking.
“Kinda cute that way, isn’t she?”
My face felt a little warm even in the cool fall breeze near the woods. I smiled at the thought of Rumple all ticked off and coming at me, kitten-claws extended and teeth bared. Yeah, she definitely was kind of cute that way. More than cute.
“Seeing that,” he went on, “was when I knew bringing her here had been the right choice. I gotta thank you for that, son.”
“You’re glad I piss her off?” Was I hearing him right?
“I’m going to guess just by the way you said that, you piss her off a lot, don’t cha?”
I nodded.
The sheriff laughed.
“Then I think you just might be good for her,” he finally said after he stopped laughing. “Tell me something else, Thomas.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Do you care about my daughter?”
All hints of a smile left my face as I looked into his eyes. I noticed how similar they were to Nicole’s—not just in color but in their expressiveness and the feeling that you could see right into their owner’s soul if you looked long enough.
“Yes, sir,” I replied. “I do.”
He nodded.
“Let me ask you something else,” he said as he sat up a little straighter and looked at me dead-on. “Was the last woman you ever cared about your mother?”
I swallowed past the hardening lump in my throat, but it only landed in my chest and started hanging out there. I reached up and rubbed deep into my eyes with my fingers then dropped my hand down and ran it over my thigh instead. I looked back at him, back into his eyes.