“You make the bed.”
“I always make the bed!”
“Not since you were beat half to death and had your skull caved in.”
“Making the bed isn’t hard. And my skull wasnotcaved in! I had a concussion, which is now fully healed.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Adam knows it! And he said I am fully healed!”
“You’re cooking big dinners,” Colin added, spinning the wheel to pull into their driveway. “You’re out working in the yard, you’re doing laundry, you’re—”
“Yeah! I’m doing all the things I didbeforePage dragged me into that filthy, abandoned church!” Joshua turned his face away, gritting his teeth in frustrated anger.
“And you’re not fully healed. If you were, you wouldn’t get upset as easily as you do—like rightnow! Adam doesn’t know you the way I do. Iknowyou’re not there yet.” He opened the car door and climbed out. “You coming? Or you going to stay here and pout.”
“Very fucking funny!”
Colin smirked and walked to where Joshua was limping toward the porch steps. “Let me help you. And I’m sorry I teased you. I was being a smart ass. You weren’t pouting.”
“I don’t need help,” Joshua bit off. “I can walk just fine.”
“OK, tough guy. But if you don’t mind, I’m going to walk right beside you just in case.”
“So you can catch me when I fall?”
“You’d prefer it if I let you drop? Maybe hurt yourself again?”
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t treat me like a three-year-old,” Joshua muttered. He yanked his housekey from his pocket and unlocked the door, then pushed into the living room and limped toward the kitchen.
Colin husked out a breath and collapsed onto the couch. “Christ!” he muttered, then glanced toward the kitchen. “Josh?” he called.
“What!”
“At the risk of being accused of treating you like a child...are you OK?”
Joshua limped into the living room. “I’m fine. I have an appointment with Deena.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No. You won’t. I’m driving myself.”
“You just had knee surgery!”
“I don’t drive with my knee!”
“Josh!”
Joshua limped past the couch where Colin sat and yanked the door open. “I’m driving myself!” he spat out through clenched teeth.
Colin opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a sound, Joshua had stormed through the door and slammed it behind him. Colin moved to the window to watch as Joshua pulled out of the driveway and sped down the gravel road toward Charlottesville and his therapist’s office. He huffed out a sigh, then rapped the window frame with his clenched fist. “Dammit to hell!”
Fifteen minutes later he received a text from Dr. Deena Mallory, their therapist. “Hello! It’s me! Your husband is being a pouty brat and refuses to let you know he got here safely, so I’m doing it for him! See you soon…hopefully.”
Colin shook his head and threw the phone to the coffee table. He stretched out on the couch and sucked in a deep breath, gazing up at the oak beams that crisscrossed the ceiling.Maybe he’s right,Colin thought.Maybe I’m a bit overprotective.He laughed out loud at his own words. “Maybe evenmorethan a bit,” he muttered.
He thought about going out to the porch to where his workout machines waited. He thought about turning on the TV. And while he was thinking, he drifted off to sleep.
