I pull my hungry mouth from hers, brush my cheek against hers, and then land a couple of soft, light kisses on her fleshy lips. I press my forehead against hers and close my eyes for a brief moment, needing to restore my control. I lift my head and look at her. Man, she’s beautiful. “Thanks for being here tonight,” I say, take a step back, and pick up the mug from the counter. “Come on.” I head for the door, not making the mistake of looking again at her. “I’ll show you to your room.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I toss and turn in the bed for what feels like two hours. After showing me to my room, from the doorway, a cold and safe distance away, Zeke bid me a good night. He never came back. He left me here to ponder what just happened.
In the kitchen, we were so close and connected, and then the next minute, he’s pulling back from me. I don’t understand him. And who is Addy? What does she mean to him? She’s not a relative. He said as much at the hospital when her nurse asked, but he’s her health care proxy. That’s huge. You don’t appoint just anyone to make health care decisions for you. She trusts Zeke with her life and, as evident tonight, he’s certainly there for her.
I reach over and pick up my cell, 1:30 a.m. I set it back on the nightstand and press the pad of my hand against my head. I wonder how Rayna’s doing. I texted Emmie, but she never got back with me. I can’t just lay here and stare up at the ceiling for another two hours. I decide to go check on Addy, so I get out of bed and head down the hall to her room. I stop when I hear a strange noise coming from the room before hers. Being sure to take slow, quiet steps, I walk up to the door and creep around the frame to peek inside.
Addy is sitting on the bed, running a hand through Zeke’s hair. “The walls are strong,” she whispers as he makes a muffled sound, almost like a child’s cry. Eyes squeezed shut, his body shakes as he clenches the sheets. I take a step closer, wanting to go to him. Addy looks up and raises a hand stopping me. “It’s okay,” she says, bending down closer to Zeke. “It’s just a dream. You’re safe now. You’re home. You have come back again to where you belong; not an enchanted place but the walls are strong.” She kisses him on the forehead. “Sleep, Zeke. Everything is okay.”
I stand immobilized by the scene before me. Like a caring mother, Addy feathers Zeke’s hair and whispers to him until he finally relaxes, his breathing even outs, and it appears as though he’s fallen back into a deep sleep. Addy places a finger to her lips and then reaches for her walker. She slowly gets off the bed and moves toward me. I step back out of the room to let her through the door. She stops and turns to reach for the knob, but I grab it and pull the door partially closed.
“Come,” she quietly says and starts down the hall. I follow her into a room full of books and she sits on the sofa. She pats the cushion for me to join her.
We sit for a few silent minutes. The room is remarkable. I look around at the impressive book collection.
“Since my eyesight’s gone bad, sometimes, he reads them to me,” she says.
Rounding the books, I land at the elderly woman’s bright blue eyes. “How do you know him?”
She lets go of her walker and rests back on the sofa. “A little over ten years ago, I was standing in my kitchen doing the dishes. I looked out the window and there on the sidewalk in front of my house stood a boy. He couldn’t have been any older than thirteen or fourteen at the time. I remember thinking that he looked lost. I watched him for a few seconds, but when he didn’t leave, I decided to go outside to shoo him away.” She folds her hands together in her lap. “I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. He looked at me,” she says, staring straight ahead, “and that’s when I saw it. Pain, so much pain, and it felt like it reached right out for me. So,” she clears her throat, “I asked him if he was there for the job. I mean, I wasn’t looking for anyone to do any yard work, but I figured the kid needed something. He was looking for something. But when I again offered him the job, he just stared at me for a long time. I was about to go back into the house when he finally found his voice and answered that he’d take the job. For the first year, he showed up every Saturday. He rarely spoke to me, but he did a good job. Then I brought him to this room and asked him to help me move some books around, and that’s when he opened up a little. Zeke loves to read. He’d spend hours in here. Sometimes, he’d fall asleep on this very sofa,” she touches the armrest, “and one day, I heard him crying out.”