“Take it back!”
“Never!” he squeals.
When I finally do let him go, he sits up and brushes his fingers through his hair. Mussing it back up, but not so it’s sticking up in the state I left it.
“Mr. G?” he asks me. “Can I just say that I’m really glad you and my dad are a thing, and I hope you and Kai get your stuff worked out too. I think everyone deserves a second chance, kinda like you said about me.”
“Aww, thanks kiddo. Can I ask you something? What are your thoughts on hugs?”
“Big fan,” he grins, opening his arms to me.
After we embrace for a couple of moments, Colton gets up to go find and bring Morgan her hair straightener. Before he leaves theroom, he looks over his shoulder and asks me, “You know what I find kinda cool?”
“What’s that?”
“This camp is named Camp Healing Waters, and both me and my dad are Waters, and you kinda like—I dunno—healed us in a way…”
I grin. “I’d love to take credit for it, Colton, but you guys were the ones who really put in all the work, you know.”
He taps the door frame a couple of times. “Couldn’t have done it withoutyou, though…”
On that, he thumps down the stairs, and I’m left here thinking that I’m pretty sure those Waters are helping to heal me too.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“You’re late… again,” I tease as Brooks finally makes his way down the path that leads to his surprise.
I’ve got the tent finally all set up, after I managed to have Gannett score me a staven deal on an old canvas sail from one of his buddies at the marina. I sent Petro and Colton off in my truck to go pick it up for me.
I have a feeling Petro, at some point, maybe let my son sneak in another experience behind the wheel. They think they’re doing a stellar job keeping that a secret for me, but when I got in it today, the seat was a good deal closer to the wheel than if Petro were behind it. Kid’s gotta be half a foot taller than I am, for Christ’s sake.
Oh well, I’m doing as Brooks advised me to do, and giving Colt some more independence. He’s still breaking the law, which probably isn’t a good thing, but at least he’s getting practice… and my truck came back in one piece. So really, can I complain, when I know I myself was fourteen and first got behind the wheel of my dad’s old beater and took off down the back roads?
“You know I can’t say no, when a straggler comes into my office and sits in my chair,” Brooks huffs, as he takes in his surroundings in awe.
Around the perimeter of the site, I tried to create someambiance, or whatever the fuck it’s called, by hanging a string of solar-powered lights. I have a couple of torches lit as well, but that’s mostly just to keep the friggin’ mosquitoes away. I’ve got the flap to the tent open, providing him a view of the double hammock I have hung inside.
“Oh my gosh, Evan,” Brooks gushes, approaching the entrance to the tent and seeing the initials, encircled with a heart, that I carved on one of the posts. He titters. “Our initials spell EWW BUG.”
“Seems mighty appropriate, doesn’t it? Since you makemekill all the spiders, now that we’re together and all…”
He smirks. “It does. I appreciate you.”
I pull him in close and give him a playful nip on his neck. “You better. I didn’t go through all this trouble for nothing,” I tease him again.
Shit, the man brings out a playful side of me that I had long buried.
“This is amazing,” Brooks sighs, wriggling out of my arms and stepping inside the tent to look around more. “Are those my books?” he gasps, having spotted the bookshelf I built for him out of wood I cleared from the overgrown site. Beside that, there’s a little side table I made out of the scraps. “Oh, and is that homemade?!”
I nod. “Just for you, babe.”
There’s even a comfy chair in here, just in case he’d rather sit and read as opposed to lying in the hammock.
“Geeze, Evan. Between all this and everything else you’re doing to help me save and spruce up the camp, you’re taking ‘acts of service’ to a whole new level.”
I quirk an eyebrow up. “Who told you about me trying to save the camp?”
“Little birdy…” he says, biting his lip.
