“It’ll pass,” he whispered.
“Maybe you should… talk it out with someone.”
He scoffed. “And what would that conversation sound like?”
I decided to tread carefully. “It wouldn’t have to be a tell-all. I’m sure you could carefully disperse information in a way that might help you find…tools…”
He sighed. “Never been into all that psychobabble, baby girl.”
“It couldn’t hurt.”
“I fuckin’ disagree with you there.”
“Okay,” I conceded. “You can talk to me. You can tell me what’s on your mind. Maybe it’ll help to just vent.”
“I’ll be good, Tia. Don’t worry.” He kissed my head again.
I chewed my lip.
We sat a minute in silence. The ice started to drip onto his legs.
“My wrist feels numb enough,” I said. “Here. I’ll put that in the bathroom.” I took the damp towel from him and went into the ensuite and dumped the rest of the ice in the sink. I reached into the toiletries bag I hadn’t unpacked yet and found a bottle of ibuprofen, took two with some tap water, and used the facilities, then went back to bed. He was there, both lamps on, lying back and staring at the ceiling, looking pissed off, hands folded behind his head.
I straddled him and leaned forward. His hands came down to land on my hips.
“Better just get some sleep, okay, baby?”
“Oh. Kay.” I rolled over onto my back and stretched to turn the lamp beside me off, then scooted closer to him. His arm went around me and my head rested on his chest. He lifted my hand and brought my wrist to his mouth. He kissed it.
He left his lamp on and I eventually fell back to sleep.
***
There are guns in this house. A lot of guns.
We had a little spat when I tried to ask about them our third day here.
“Just precautionary,” he told me.
There were guns in the bedroom. There were guns in the kitchen. We had guns on the rooftop terrace. I did not like it one bit.
“These are gonna have to be put away when all your nieces and nephews get here for the wedding!” I exclaimed in a panic.
“Well, duh,” he said, like I was an idiot.
I stomped to another room. He been working on my laptop a good chunk of the time since we’d been here and then had another one delivered, along with some of those guns. He’d also moved the nightstands from one of the spare rooms to our room.
Day three and I was bored.
“How about if we go to town and shop, and …”
“Got shit to do,” he said without looking up. “Family will be here in a few days to drive you nuts. Enjoy the peace. Swim. Sun. Somethin’…” He trailed off with a dismissive wave that was kind of a “something away from me,” reference, even if he didn’t intend it.
I felt dismissed and annoyed.
Nevertheless, I went to the rooftop terrace and downloaded some new books on my tablet and a candy matching game to get my mind off stuff.
He found me an hour and a half later up there, the two new fishing rods in his hand.