Page 30 of Tommy

His eyes swirled as he looked all around. “I’m not sure, I’m calling my mom next, and she likes to talk. If you need me to—”

“Take your time,” I said. “Just trying to figure out how long I have to build this fort.”

“Then I’ll take my time.”

And he did. Once I handed him his cocoa, he sat there for another thirty minutes, talking to whoever was listening to his distant excited squeals. I’d never sounded like that on the phonebefore, the pure joy in his voice was special. Whoever it was he was talking to, they were lucky to have that in their life.

With the help and hinderance of the dogs, I finally got a fort built with the use if an old hat stand as a central pole, holding blankets up around it and draped until they were reaching the coffee table of arm chair and secured in place with wood from the pile. There was a duvet layer on the ground, followed by a faux fur blanket and a couple cushions. It was less of a fort, and more of a tent, but the overall effect was still there.

There was an opening made where the blankets could be folded. Rusty was already inside it, laying down as if it was his new dog bed, while Pip was more curious about the structure, going around it, sniffing.

“You did all this?” Tommy asked, seeing it for the first time.

“I had to prove a point,” I said. “Now you know I can build a better one than the one you had.”

“It looks big enough for both of us.”

“Or just one of you and all your crayons and what-nots,” I said.

He shrugged. “You’re gonna look silly when the storm hits and it’s real cold and you’re sat outside my comfy fort, asking to come inside.” He little smile, almost hidden by the way he tilted his chin down to his chest.

“When that happens, I might rethink my response,” I told him.

As he ran off, once more skidding around with Pip chasing him. At first, I thought he was doing that accidentally because of how well kept the tile and wood flooring was, but now, I knew he was doing it on purpose. It looked fun, I’d admit.

I sat on the sofa unoccupied with holding the blanket fort taut. A moment of quiet to finally see what all the fuss about him was. I opened the comic book. Not my go-to choice of book,but I could enjoy art accompanied by words. And within the first couple of pages, it had me chuckling. There was an old western cowboy shoot out depicted with teddy bears.

Tommy came back to the lounge with crayons and paper clutched to his chest.

“And I thought you’d never met a cowboy before,” I said.

“Huh?”

I flipped the book to show him the page.

“Oh god. That’s not book one,” he said. “You’re going to ruin the surprises.” He threw his things inside the fort, disturbing Rusty to scurry out. “You’ve got to start with—this one.” He grabbed the book from the bottom of the stack on the coffee table. “This introduces the characters.”

Closing the book, I handed it back to him and he took what appeared to be the third book from me. “Ok. But still, the cowboys.”

“La la la,” he said. “You’ve got to read book one first.”

“But c’mon, you’ve got Bear Cassidy and the Sunbear Kid,” I said, a snort of laughter at the names. “I’m surprised. That’s all.”

He pressed his finger to my mouth, and then fell right into my lap, the floor here was somewhat to blame for it too. One hand near my crotch, and another on my face, we were inches apart from him being completely on me.

“That thing is a danger,” I whispered.

“What thing?” he asked, keeping composure as he tried his best with his upper body and weak legs to push himself. His other hand now on my other thigh.

“The one piece, it has no tack on the feet,” I said. “Are you going to—”

“I’m just—”

“If you stay there, I’m gonna have to buy you dinner, because nobody has been that close in a while,” I said, seeing the struggle on his face.

He bit into his bottom lip slightly and nodded. “Ok.”

Helping him back onto his feet as I stood taller. He looked at me. “So, is there any tack on those feet? Because you could seriously hurt yourself.”

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