“I do desire we may be better strangers,” I whispered to her. Her eyes widened a bit.
“More Shakespeare?” she said in a breathless whisper.
“As You Like It,” I replied, “Act three.”
Nicole’s lips pushed together as the corners turned up.
“I guess we’ll just have to work on that,” she replied.
“I guess we will.”
She looked at me again for along moment then took a deep breath and sighed.
“Sorry I was such a bitch,” she said sheepishly. “It really didn’t have anything to do with either of you, just my foul mood. Maybe I can make you both dinner this weekend. Kind of…make up for it?”
“Well, I don’t know about the sheriff,” I said, “but that would definitely work for me.”
Nicole smiled brightly up at me, and my heart began to beat faster. Unfortunately, it was getting a little late, so after Nicole made nice with her dad and said goodbye to me, I headed home.
Sheriff Skye shook my hand as I left.
“Thanks for the entertainment,” he said with a goofy smile, which was made even goofier by the way his moustache jumped around.
“Thanks for the pizza, Sheriff Skye,” I replied as I headed off the porch and toward my car.
“Hey, Thomas!” he called after me.
“Yeah?”
“Call me Greg.”
I think I was smiling all the way home.
Dad’s car was there when I pulled in the driveway, but when I got inside, he was in the living room and on the phone. His eyes met mine for a moment, and I gave him a slight wave. He just looked back to some notepad he had on his lap and kept talking.
I went up to my room, closed the door, and locked it. I looked around quickly, but everything was in place, so I could breathe again. I pulled my T-shirt up over my head, dropped my jeans to the floor, and pulled a pair of soft flannel pants out of the drawer. I picked up the dirty clothes, folded them, and placed them inside the hamper. It was getting full; I needed to do some laundry.
“Thomas!”
“Yeah, Dad?” I opened up my door and peered down the stairs.
“Where’s the garment bag and the bigger suitcase?”
“Down in the basement,” I said. “Do you want me to find them?”
“Yeah.”
I went all the way down and poked around the closets in the lower level until I came up with the two pieces of luggage he wanted. I hauled them back up the stairs and into his room. He was pulling clothes out of drawers and laying them out on top of his bedspread.
“Are you going somewhere?” I asked.
“Chicago,” he replied. He got down on his hands and knees and peered underneath his bed. “I’ll be leaving right after the game tomorrow.”
“Conference?”
“Hospital administration consortium,” he replied.
I wasn’t really sure how that was different, but I didn’t press for an answer, either.