Page 76 of The Progressions

“Kasia, fuck,” he said, and hugged me again. “Like you wouldn’t have done the same thing for me.”

I would have, and this time, I let myself lean against him and stay there, because it was such a relief.

“I’m glad we set up those appointments in Detroit,” he told my dad, and now his hand was on my neck and his fingers were rubbing the part that was hurting again. When Oren had shaken me so hard this morning, he must have jarred it a little. I hadn’t told Tyler any of that, but Iva must have, because he started asking questions about the arrests.

I shook my head. “Let’s not talk about it now,” I said, glancing toward my dad. Instead, I took the chair again and Tyler stood next to me, just being there. Thank goodness, he was there.

But soon, I had to make him leave. “Visiting hours are almost over,” I whispered.“I need to go home and get him clothes for tomorrow, and I’ll sleep there.” My dad was already asleep,but his blood pressure had stabilized and things seemed more positive.

“I’ll come,” Tyler said quietly.

“No,” I answered. “No, you have practice tomorrow and you can’t sleep on my bed.” I didn’t think he’d want to be in my dad’s, either, not with the painting of my mother staring at him. “I’m fine by myself.” I gently touched my dad’s foot, and then Tyler and I walked out together. Free of the hospital, I took a breath of cold air and it caught, like another sob.

“Come here,” he told me. He hugged me again there in the parking lot, and he took off his coat and put it around me. It fit about the same as mine had on baby Balderston earlier this afternoon outside of the ambulance. “Kasia, are you crying? How are you going to drive?”

“I won’t hit anything. I’ll go as slow as you do,” I promised.

He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head. “You leave your car here. If you really want to go back to your place, I’ll drive you.”

I was too tired to argue. I went with him to the condo complex but I stayed in the car when he went to his unit, because I was also too tired to make the short walk on the pathway. When the cargo door slammed, though, I picked up my head. “Remember when you got hurt and you couldn’t walk to your house, so you parked in the flowerbed?” I asked when he got back into his seat. “Remember when those guys hurt you? Who were they, again?”

“No, I’m not telling you that. Did you fall asleep while I was gone, that fast?”

“I think so,” I answered. I definitely fell asleep on the way to my house, but I jerked awake during the trip, too. “I’m so glad he’s ok. I’m so worried, still,” I said out loud, and Tyler said that he knew.

He made the dinner I had already prepped, much more efficiently and with a better result than I would have gotten, but I wasn’t very hungry. “I clean up, and then I think I’ll pull out the bed,” I said. I was yawning a lot as I spoke.

But Tyler did those things, and then he went to his car. “I got something,” he said when he returned, and put a thick, fluffy white blanket over the top of my covers. “I bought it after we stayed at the inn. I thought, if we’re going to be sleeping here, then we should be more comfortable.”

“We’re going to be sleeping here?” I repeated.

“We are, because I’m not sneaking anymore. Go brush your teeth.”

We did that together and then climbed onto the fluffy thing, which was apparently made of feathers and was the same as lying on a cloud. “Sweet Jesus,” I muttered.

“Not perfect, but better,” he agreed. The bed frame squawked. “Still loud.”

“Are you really going to be sleeping here?” I asked.

“Temporarily. I was thinking a lot last night when I was stuck in the hotel, and more on the flight home. And then, after I read your messages, that firmed up all my plans.”

“What plans?”

Before he answered, he pulled me over to him. “This ok on your neck?”

It seemed like his chest would have been uncomfortable to rest on, since it was so hard. “It’s better than anything,” I said.

He rubbed the sore spot anyway. “This house isn’t big enough for the three of us. Do you think your dad would be ok to move? We could get something with a separate apartment for him, no stairs. Or we could put in ramps.”

“Why would my dad and I move?”

“I just told you,” he said. “Maybe you’re too tired to discuss it.”

“No, I really want to understand,” I answered. “The three of us are going to live together?”

“I bought stupid Dominic’s house,” Tyler told me, and I was even more lost. Maybe I really was too tired but I tried again.

“What?” I asked.

---