Page 15 of Trick or Treat with the Mountain Man
“I’m not coming tonight. Just hurry, please?”
Then I clicked off my phone, scooted over and held him as tight as I could.
It should have felt strange, hugging on a stranger who was obviously going through a dark patch in life. But it feltright.Like I’d held him a thousand times before, just like this.
“You’re going to be okay, Tyler.”
“Itoldyou I’mfine,” he barked back, but didn’t pull away from me.
“Of course you are. Here, let’s split a cookie.” I grabbed the bag out of his hands and split a cookie in half.
Before taking a bite, I said, “I don’t think I mentioned that I volunteer at the animal shelter. When an animal comes in who isn’t comfortable with something, one of the tricks is to give it something pleasurable to think about. Like when they’re gettingtheir toenails trimmed. Sometimes I’d feed them treats while a vet tech trims their nails. It helps acclimate them.”
“Are you comparing me to a dog?” he growled out.
“No, I’m just saying you should eat your cookie, so you can think of something pleasurable at the same time that things you don’t like are happening.”
Tyler looked completely miserable, his jaw still knotted up tight, but he took a big bite of cookie and started chewing.
“I’ll bake you more chocolate chip cookies if you want. And they’ll be nice and warm when I bring them by. And I bet anything that when I do, you’ll eat half a dozen of them before the night’s over.”
He ate his cookie, then reached into the bag to get another one out.
We stayed like that, eating cookies, until the fireworks stopped a few minutes later.
When the last booms echoed through the air and the night became silent once again, he let out a deep, shuddered breath.
Tyler wasn’t afraid of the ghost living in his house with him. But he couldn’t handle the sounds of a celebration. My heart ached for him.
“I’ll ask them not to do fireworks anymore.”
He looked like he wanted to tell me not to bother, that it was no big deal. But instead he hunched his shoulders slightly and quietly grunted, “Thank you.”
“I think that was the big display for the night. It just turned midnight.”
“Is it that late?” he asked.
I smiled up at him. “Yeah. We got lost talking, didn’t we?” I’d been here for hours. Knowing our night might be drawing to a close, I couldn’t help myself. I circled back to the thing that had been on my mind all night. “You didn’t really fall out of a helicopter because you forgot to wear your seatbelt, did you?”
The edges of his lips curled up. “Busted.”
“Do you want to tell me what really happened?” He’d obviously gone through something major.
“Naw. Not tonight, pretty kitty. I think we better end our visit tonight.” His eyes scraped across me, something forlorn hiding inside them. “But I wouldn’t mind if you brought me cookies again in the future.”
I’d worn him down! Perfect.
“ThatI can do. And when I come back, maybe you’ll tell me what’s in that letter.”
I glanced down at the unopened letter one more time. Curiosity was killing me. But the man had asked me to leave, so I would.
He led me to the door while I basked in the heat flicking between our bodies. Something bigger than a welcome wagon visit hovered in the air between us. And I understood that an invitation back to his place for a second visit was a very big deal. A very big deal indeed.
I stood in the doorway, feeling like I was staring into my future. I wished like anything that he’d lean down and kiss me. But it didn’t seem like he was planning on doing that.
I’d be spending the rest of my Halloween alone.
Too bad. Maybe next time.
