Mind Games - Page 210

He knows you’re a freak now. He just wants to bang the freak, tell all his friends.

She knew better. She needed time, but she knew better.

You’ll never have anyone. Nobody sticks to freaks. You’ll always be alone.

She had her family, her friends. Alone? A choice. She would choose.

You’re locked in, bitch. And when I come for you, nobody’s gonna care. Take yourself out first, get it over with. Get yourself some pills, go to sleep. Leave it to me? I’ll make you scream.

“Not in a million years,” Thea muttered as she stepped outside to whistle Bunk back home.

But she did need to find a way to end this, to sever this terrible intimacy. Until she found that way, she had to do everything she could to block him out. Find some peace.

While she waited for Bunk, she went to the coop, stroked soft feathers, tended to her ladies.

She’d feed her dog, have a glass of wine, feed herself. Maybe go back to work for an hour or two, make up the time she’d missed that morning.

She needed to dig into the new game, focus on that new project.

She’d sleep on it.

When Bunk bounded up, she bent to greet him. He had an envelope, with a hole punched in the corner, a ribbon threaded through it and tied to his collar.

“All right, whatcha got here?”

She untied the ribbon, absently sticking it in her pocket before opening the envelope.

She found a construction paper card with a red heart drawn over a blue field. She wondered if Ty had guided the little hand to help print the sweet and shaky:

TO THEA

She studied the photo tucked inside first. Bray wearing a zip-up hoodie and mile-wide grin had his arms around Bunk’s neck. Bunk looked straight at the camera, his grin just as wide and love lights in his eyes.

Bray had drawn his version of the photo on the inside of the card in many Crayola colors. He’d signed it:

LOVE BRAY

“I do,” she said, and sighing, rubbed Bunk. “A picture’s worth a thousand words, right? This is the right picture and the right thousand words.”

* * *

The next afternoon, Bunk came home with a bright yellow dessert plate decorated like a smiling sun. She hung it by its bright blue yarn on the board in her office.

Need time, she thought, but felt her heart slipping. Time she put to good use with daily workouts—get stronger—walks that fed her spirit, and the beginnings of a new game that kept her mind sharp.

* * *

When Lucy turned in the lane, she spotted Bray and Bunk in the yard. She debated driving on to Thea’s, then stopped. Damned if she would.

When she got out of the car, Bray shouted, “Grammie! Grammie!”

And that was why, she thought as he ran to her, as she had her arms full of boy and dog.

“Got roses in your cheeks,” she said, and kissed them.

“I got two stickers in school today, and I can spell dog. D-O-G! And Bunk is B-U-N-K. And…”

While he regaled her, and she looked suitably impressed, Ty stepped out.