He snickered. “That was…wow.”
“Wow is one word for it. I’ve had odd stuff happen to me before, but never anything like that.”
He lowered his voice. “Do you think…Julie?”
“Ask her.”
She watched as his attention turned inward. After a moment, he looked frustrated. “She’s not talking to me now.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to be a third wheel.” She released his hand and sat back, smiling at his amused expression. “Let’s talk more about the house, though. Is there anything else you haven’t told Ellis that you’d like to tell me?”
He looked down and nodded. “Yeah.”
The waitress returned for their orders. Once they were alone again, he looked her in the eye. “I’m a little scared.”
Tendrils of disquiet wound through her. “Why?”
“It’s like it wears on me. Like after a while I feel…dark.”
Maybe being alone with him wasn’t such a good idea after all, cutie or not. “How so?”
“Not like I want to hurt anyone,” he quickly said, apparently reading her sudden unease. “Just…depressed. Sad. I don’t know how to describe it. I feel like there’s something watching me while I work. Whatever it is, I feel it most in the attic while I’m working.”
“Do you feel it now?”
He shook his head. “No. Not at all. It’s like I leave the house and a pall lifts.”
“You didn’t feel this until you were actually living at the house?”
“No.” He took a sip of his iced tea. “Maybe Ellis is right. Maybe it’s a new symptom. There’s a lot they don’t understand about TBIs. The brain’s still a mystery in a lot of ways.”
That didn’t feel right to her, though. Yes, she’d already sensed the duality of Bradley’s nature, the more “there” side of him like what she felt now while talking with him, and the other side of him that felt more ethereal, like he had a foot in an unseen realm.
Which, apparently, he did, if he could talk to Julie. “He mentioned you also have PTSD.”
“Yeah.” He let out a sad laugh. “That used to be a lot worse before the accident, believe it or not. It’s like the accident added a permanent mute button to some things.”
“Like lying.”
“Yeah. I mean, I still get jumpy sometimes. I don’t like gunfire. I can’t watch shows or news footage of combat. Before the accident I used to feel like I always had to look over my shoulder, be hypervigilant everywhere I went. I don’t feel that anymore. It’s…weird.”
“Do you miss not being able to practice law?”
He’d picked up the paper sleeve from his straw and systematically started folding it accordion style. “Sometimes. I liked it. Remember that show Boston Legal? We both wanted to be Alan Shore.” He laughed. “Fight the good fight, right the wrongs, and get the hot chicks all while making money and being smart-asses.” His smile turned sad. “We were so naïve.”
“Ellis really seems devoted to you.”
“He is. I don’t know what I would have done without him and Mom and Dad. His mom and dad, but I call them Mom and Dad.”
“It’s not any of my business, but it seems to me he carries a lot of guilt that’s not his to carry.”
“I know. I’ve told him that a bunch of times, but he refuses to see it like that.” He let out a sigh. “It makes him happier to take care of me, so I let him.”
She took a sip of her tea. When she set it down in a different spot, she drew shapes in the ring of condensation left behind. “Julie and I were close. Maybe not quite as close as you two are, apparently, but she hung by me through thick and thin. She never told me ‘I told you so’ when I messed up with my relationship choices. She was always there to pick up the pieces for me.”
“I just do what Ellis tells me to do and everyone’s happier that way.”
“Are you happier?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” He put down the scrap of paper. “Ellis was meant to be an attorney. He’s happiest when his world behaves and is laid out in neat, labeled, categorized niches. When all’s as it should be. The only reason he’s tolerating me taking my time with the house is because I suspect if I asked him to walk naked down US 41 with clown paint on his face, he would.” He let out a sigh. “I wouldn’t, of course. Sometimes I just get frustrated that he’s put his life on hold for me.”
“On hold?”
“Permanent hold. I am his life.”
“Maybe he’s in love with you.”
He laughed. “No, he’s straight as an arrow, believe me.” His smile faded. “I don’t mean to come off like I’m bad-mouthing him, either. Please don’t think that. I love him.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t. It’s obvious the two of you love each other very much.”
“Mom says we’re a couple of odd ducks. I guess she’s right. She just doesn’t know how right she is.”
“Do they know what’s going on? With the house, I mean. With how you feel.”
“He told them when we went down last week. I helped him board up their house and we stayed there for the weekend before I went to the VA Monday morning.”
“The doctors found nothing wrong, huh?”
He smirked. “They said there’s nothing more wrong with me than was already wrong with me. Medically, at least.” He picked up the paper again, this time shredding it into tiny pieces.
They had a good dinner. He was sweet, charming, funny…and thought his house was haunted.
Oh, and he seemed able to channel the spirit of her murdered best friend.
It was after six when he paid the bill and they headed for her car. The sun hung low in the sky, fighting to shine through scattered clouds remaining from the afternoon rainstorms, but there was still at least an hour of daylight left.
He gave her directions to their house. They lived on a rural, quiet, two-lane road west of US 41. Surrounded by properties of several acres each, the area felt peaceful. Large, old oaks and tall slash pines blended to create deep shade. The rain had stopped, leaving everything green and dripping wet in the fading light while steam slowly drifted up from the ground and pavement.
Their house was situated in the middle of their property without a lot of cleared space around it.
“There’s a backyard,” he said as he directed her to park next to the side door. “A small one. That’s all I care to mow besides here, where we park. I wouldn’t mind getting a couple of goats eventually to help keep some of the brush down. The whole property is fenced in. We don’t have a gate up, but it wouldn’t take much to put one up.” He led her to the door. “Let me get the alarm turned off first.”
He disappeared inside.
Her first impression of the house was one of love and caring. The new roof was the first thing she noticed, along with a fresh coat of paint in light blue, a cheery color, inviting. The trim was painted in a pale, light green, somewhere between mint and spring grass.
In fact, the whole house felt inviting. Warm.
Loved.
He reappeared a moment later with a smile. “There. Didn’t set it off. That’s one thing Ellis always teases me about. It doesn’t like me much sometimes.” He escorted her into the kitchen. “Sorry about the mess. It’s a work in progress.”
It was that. Not even messy, just…under construction. The cabinets had been ripped out and the walls refinished to bare, unpainted drywall and electrical fixtures, but that was it. The floor, old linoleum that had seen better days, was clean.
“We ripped out the plaster and lathe to put in insulation and do the wiring and plumbing. It had knob and tube everywhere. And lots of old newspapers and other stuff jammed in the walls all over the place for their version of insulation. I haven’t decided how to finish the kitchen yet.”