Chapter 24 #2
Stepping onto the first stair, I toed the edge of the bricks on the third step with my foot. On the right side, one of the bricks had darker edges surrounding it, and I bent over to wiggle it with my hand.
It didn’t move.
Shit.
“Don’t tell me the brick came loose again,” came a voice from the driveway, and I whirled around to see Ollie getting out of his car, still dressed in his uniform of navy-blue pants and a matching button-down shirt that fit his muscular build like a glove.
“Ollie?” I rubbed my eyes, making sure I wasn’t seeing things, but no. He was still there. “What are you doing here?” I said, as he opened his trunk and took out a few grocery bags. He easily slid them all up one arm and then shut the trunk with the other.
“What do you mean what am I doing here?” he said, giving me a funny look as he walked past me up the stairs. “It’s my house. What are you doing here?”
His house? This was Ollie’s house?
He tapped on the third step with his foot, right over the place with the darkened cracks. “Oh good. If that thing had come loose again, I would’ve chucked it into the lake.”
Oh God. A wave of dizziness had me reaching for the rail to keep me upright.
My mind knew Ollie’s house. But why…how? We’d just met, and I’d never been here before. But that detail was so strong, just like I knew if I walked up those steps, that it would lead into a hallway with dark blue walls and white trim before opening up into a living area and kitchen.
What the fuck is happening?
Ollie stood inside the unlocked doorway and looked down at me. “You comin’?”
Was I? I’d been about to call him anyway, but this revelation felt like my feet were being kicked out from under me. With shaky legs, I climbed up to where Ollie watched me with concern in his eyes.
“Everything okay?” he said, as he gestured for me to go in. And sure enough, the hallway looked exactly like I thought it’d would—dark blue walls and white trim, and I had to keep a hand on it as I walked so I wouldn’t fall over.
I don’t understand, I thought, a wave of dizziness hitting me again so hard I had to stop where I was and close my eyes.
“Reid? Did you get too hot?”
“Hmm?” I managed. I heard Ollie lower the bags to the floor, and then the back of his hand was on my forehead and then my cheek, checking my temperature, and then he took my wrist, checking my pulse.
“The heat index is still over ninety, so you need to cool off,” he said, leading me over to a recliner chair and forcing me into it. He returned a few seconds later with a glass of iced water, but my hands were still shaking so badly that he had to lift it to my lips.
It couldn’t be heat stroke that had me feeling so strange? No, I didn’t think so, but the cold water helped, and when Ollie went back to refill the glass, he also brought a cold towel, placing it around my neck.
“Is that better?” he asked, taking my wrist again and looking at his watch for a full minute. Then he let go and adjusted the towel. “You can lie back if you want to.”
I could only stare at him. It was like I was looking at him through new eyes. The way he took such great care with me, completely putting aside any hurt from the night before to make sure I was okay… It was then that I realized how lucky I was that he’d been the one to pull me out of the car.
“I’m sorry, Ollie.”
“It’s okay. I’m just glad you made it here instead of passing out on the sidewalk.”
“No, I mean I’m sorry for last night.”
“Oh.” He lifted the water back up to my mouth for me to take a sip. “That’s okay too.”
“I was horrible to you. I feel like I’ve been horrible to everyone lately, and I was going to call you and tell you…I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve my wrath.”
Ollie’s eyes bored into mine from where he knelt in front of me, and then he nodded. “Thank you. Apology accepted.”
The easy way he forgave made my eyes sting, and I had to look down at my lap so he didn’t see it.
After a moment, he got to his feet and went over to retrieve the bags he’d left in the hallway.
I was tempted to go help him, but I didn’t think my legs were quite steady enough yet, so I watched as he slid the bags up his arm again and carried them into the adjoining kitchen.
It was then that I got a good look of where I was.
Sitting up, I took in the straightforward decor: cream-colored walls, oversized grey couches, an entertainment center with a TV that just barely fit inside it.
Nothing fancy, but all well maintained, just like the man himself.
But what surprised me the most was the piano in the corner of his kitchen.
“You have a piano?” I said, my brows pinching together. “But…you don’t play. Do you use it as a table?”
“Hah, very funny, smartass. I think what you mean is I don’t play well. I do a pretty mean ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,’ though. My teacher may disagree.”
“Um. He’d probably say there’s room for improvement.”
“That would be far too kind of him,” Ollie said, chuckling. “So, just out of curiosity, how’d you find me?”
And there was the question I didn’t have an answer to. One I wanted to know myself. “I, uh, didn’t realize I had.”
Ollie continued unpacking the grocery bags and smirked. “Going door to door to ask for me, then? That’s stalker behavior, Reid. You could’ve just called me for my address.”
“No, I mean I didn’t know this was your house. I don’t know why I’m here.”
His hands froze as he looked up at me. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either.” I leaned forward and ran my hands through my hair.
“I-I was going for a walk, and I saw your house, and I swore that there was a loose brick on your porch step, and I had to…check. I don’t know why, but I had to see if I was right.
And your walls?” I gestured down the hallway.
“I knew what they looked like before I set a foot inside. Does that make sense to you? Does any of this make sense? Because I feel like I’m fumbling around in the dark, and when I’m awake all I see are these crazy images. ”
“What kind of images?” Ollie asked, his voice flat and his hands still frozen.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you.
I see you everywhere, but nowhere that makes any sense to me, and I’m just so fucking confused, Ollie.
” Looking up at him, I gripped the back of my neck and said, “I don’t have any explanation for any of this.
Not why I’m here, not how I know these things, none of it. ”
Ollie’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, and his eyes suddenly glistened with tears.
“I know you don’t,” he whispered, his voice shaking as his hands curled into fists.
Then he closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath, and when he let it out, he shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Reid. I’m so sorry. But I can’t do this anymore. ”