“Buddy, I’m going to release you, but can you promise not to hurt anyone?”
It took him a minute before his body relaxed and Wanda and I undid his restraints.
“What happened?” I asked Wanda as Teddy sat up.
“Sarah left for the weekend with her parents.”
I frowned. “Oh, dear.”
“He’s been yelling ‘bike’ and ‘Sundance’ for the last hour, but none of us knows what he wants, so he just kept getting more and more frustrated.”
“I wanna see Sundance’s bike!” Teddy said.
“Buddy, we can’t see Sundance right now. Do you want me to call him?”
“Call him.”
I nodded. “Okay, we’ll call him.”
I pulled my phone out of my purse and dialed Sundance’s number. The phone rang so long, I worried it might go to voicemail.
“Hey, Dimples. You miss me?”
“Teddy missed you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Do you have time to talk to him for a bit?”
“I thought you didn’t trust me with him,” he challenged.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please don’t throw my words back at me right now. He’s totally freaking out.”
“Okay, baby, put him on.”
I put my phone on speaker and held it up. “You’re on speaker.”
“Hey, Teddy,” Sundance said.
“Sundance!” he squeaked. “Bike!”
“You wanna see my bike again?”
Teddy bounced on the edge of his mattress. “Yes!”
“Okay, I’ll make that happen. But you gotta be good for your sister until I see you, got it?”
“Okay, Sundance.”
I stared at my brother in shock. He was suddenly totally and utterly calm.
“Put your sister back on the phone,” Sundance ordered, and I took it off speaker and put it to my ear.
“Hi.”
“You still worried?” he asked.
“No. He seems good,” I said.
