Chapter 14
JOSH
Tinley was quiet on the drive to Connecticut. She answered my questions but didn’t elaborate. I didn’t ask about her session with Maria. Her eyes were red and puffy when she emerged from the room, and she couldn’t look me in the eye.
When I touched her, she visibly relaxed and it made me feel ten feet tall. Her brain worked overtime, but she wasn’t ready to let me in on it. It was okay because she had the option to go anywhere, and she chose to stay with me, and I wasn’t going to disappoint her.
We pulled off the highway and down a two-lane road for a mile. It was midday before we left the doctor’s office.
The overcast day left a chill in the air.
It hadn’t snowed yet, but it seemed like it was imminent.
The house was down a private road and through a secured gate.
I approached the gate and punched in the code.
The gate crawled open. I drove through. The forest was so dense, you couldn’t see the house until we practically pulled up to it.
“Oh wow.” Tinley leaned forward to take in the structure. I pulled around the circular driveway and stopped in front of the garage.
“This place is huge.” Past the garage were a couple more structures.
The property consisted of the main house and two guesthouses with two bedrooms each and a sporting lodge.
The original house nestled in the forest about a half mile away between two tree Kyler’s great grandfather planted.
The whole property was connected by paved walkways.
Much of the landscape was kept natural past the pool and outdoor lounge.
Farther down the path behind the lodge was a set of tennis courts and a man-made lake where Kyler’s father would bring in fish for us to catch every summer.
“It’s cozy inside.” I stepped out of the car and went around the front. Tinley stepped out and followed me into the mudroom off the side of the garage. It led into the open kitchen and living room. The place reminded me of an English cottage, but with all modern appliances. Somehow, it all fit.
“Did you spend a lot of time here?” Tinley walked around the kitchen, touching everything.
“Yeah, summers and then we’d have Christmas up here, but not much since Kyler’s parents died.” I felt his mother in the house. For me, it was a happy memory. For Kyler, not so much. “You hungry?”
Tinley’s stomach answered for her. She giggled and the sound made my heart race.
“They stocked the refrigerator for us. How about my famous grilled ham and cheese?” I pulled open the pantry and grabbed the bread.
“That sounds good,” she answered. “Can I?” She circled her fingers.
“Yeah, go ahead. Explore.” I stopped myself from telling her to stay where I could see her. She smiled and turned away.
She made her way through the living room. She walked the perimeter of the room and studied each photo.
“Is this you?” She pulled a photo off the shelf.
I met her halfway and handed her a bottle of water.
“Yeah.” I took the photo. “That’s me and Mrs. Grant, Kyler’s mom.”
“How old were you?”
“About fourteen.” Mrs. Grant had arranged a family photo shoot and planned it to a tee, including what all her kids were to wear in the shoot.
They were in the hall to the kids’ wing of the main house, all in garment bags.
When I spotted a bag with my name on it, I kind of lost my cool and stepped out to gather myself.
She called us for the shoot and no one in the house batted an eye when I took my place with the rest of the guys.
“She’s so pretty.” Tinley touched her hair.
“Yeah, she was a sweet woman, but she was fierce about her kids.”
“About you, too.” Tinley took the photo and set it back on the shelf.
I finished making lunch and set it on the table. When it was done, I walked down the hall.
“Tinley,” I called out. I heard her from the other side of the house.
“Here I am,” she called and ran back. “Where’s the bathroom?”
She skidded to a stop on the marble floors. She’d kicked her shoes off somewhere.
“You slid right past it.” I pointed.
I grabbed two sodas from the refrigerator and sat at the table, waiting for her. She slid into the chair to my right.
“This looks good.” She leaned over and smelled the food.
“How’s it smell?” I grinned and took a bite of my sandwich.
“I’m sorry.” I shivered and looked back at the table. A purple book sat next to the folder Dr. Maria gave me. “It’s a trigger.”
“Dr. Maria said if I had a trigger or reaction to something that seems strange, I should write it down and make myself remember why it was a trigger.” She took a bite of her sandwich.
“That sounds like a good idea. Gets some of the yucky memories out of your head.” I grabbed the journal off the counter and set it next to her.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I got sick once from eating spoiled food. It was so gross, but I couldn’t go on a ‘date’” —she used finger quotes— “and got in trouble.”
My blood boiled and I took another bite to keep my mouth shut.
I had cut her sandwich into triangles and added some fries to the side.
Tinley picked up a section and took another big bite, no hesitation. She didn’t comment on the triangle either. She grinned with food in her mouth and rocked back and forth, swinging her legs. It was her little peeking out and I loved to see it.
“Thank you for introducing me to Dr. Maria and Dr. Anna.” She smiled. “I like them both.”
“I’m glad.”
“Maria told me she works with women like me all the time.” Tinley grabbed her soda with both hands and took a sip. “Both mes.”
“Both mes?”
“Uhm, the me from the last year and the me before last year.” She gestured with her hand.
I nodded.
“It’s nice to have someone to talk to who gets it.” Tinley attacked the next section of her sandwich.
“It is.” I bit into my sandwich.
“You’re easy to talk to, too.”
I stopped mid-bite. Ironically, Tinley remained silent for the rest of lunch.
After lunch, we cleaned up the kitchen. A few of the items I requested sat in a shopping back on the counter.
Tinley peered inside. “What’s this?” She pulled out a bottle of hair glue remover and placed it on the counter.
She also pulled out a brush and two combs.
One wide-tooth and another rat-tail comb. “Where did this come from?”
“I figured we tackle another item on your list.” I pointed. “I did some research and got stuff to remove the extensions.” I came around the counter. “I figured I could help take them down for you.”
“You want to?” Her eyes grew wide.
“Of course.” I touched her cheek. “If it will make you feel more like yourself.”
I barely finished the sentence before she launched herself at me and hugged me around the waist. The offending hair smacked me in the face.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She pushed the bun over and pulled the elastic off. Her hair fell around her face. “Yes, can we get them out now, please?”
“Of course.” I picked up the bottle. “What do we need?”
“Go grab two bath towels and do we have a spray bottle?” She searched another bag. “We do. How did you know what to get?”
“YouTube.”
Tinley giggled so hard she dropped the bag. She composed herself and studied the bottles again. “No detangler but leave-in conditioner. Perfect.” She held it up and stared. “Towels?” Tinley slid to the sink and filled the spray bottle with water.
“Oh, yeah, I’ll be right back.”
When I returned with the towels, I found Tinley in the living room. She placed what she needed on the coffee table and sat on the floor on a pillow. She had turned on the television to a sitcom.
“Here are the towels.”
She grabbed them and shifted on her knees.
“You sit there.” She pointed to the spot behind where she had just been sitting. I flopped back on the couch. “Put this over your lap.”
I did as she told. She sat back down between my legs and draped the other towel over her shoulders.
She slid her fingers through the middle of the back of her head. A track of brownish blond hair appeared. She pulled the rest of her hair back into a bun.
“This is a bit of a process.” She handed me the glue remover. “Saturate the track where it’s glued to my hair. Then we let it sit for a minute and then pull off the extension.”
“What if I pull out your real hair?” I shook the bottle and worked the tip along the top of the track.
“It’s okay. I have thick hair.” She patted my leg.
She separated the hair at the next section, and I did the same thing. Once all the tracks were saturated with glue remover, we went back to the first section and peeled the track out. Thankfully, it came out easily.
“Now, use the water and comb to remove the rest of the glue.” She demonstrated with the comb.
I took the water bottle and continued what she had done on the other side of her head. I sprayed it with water and then took some of the conditioner and worked it into the hair and then combed it out to untangle.
“That feels good.” She groaned and yawned.
I worked on her hair until all the tracks were out and her hair was detangled.
I enjoyed massaging the conditioner into her hair and enjoyed the victory of running the wide-tooth comb through her dark strands.
Each track removed released Tinley from the last physical connection she had to the past. All her physical wounds had healed, and all her bones had been mended.
Even down to the implant they put in her skin, another violation she was able to release from her body.
I knew the mental toll would be a greater feat to overcome, but we had to start somewhere.
“All done.” I wiped my hands and gathered both towels. I set my hands on her shoulders and continued.
She sat up quickly and scanned the room. I removed my hands. She turned and stared up at me.
“I fell asleep.”
“Just for a few minutes.” She ran a hand through her hair. “My head feels lighter.” She shook it back and forth.
I chuckled. She grabbed a piece and stretched it out past her shoulders. “It got long.” It bounced back. She pushed it all back and gathered it in one hand and put it in a ponytail. Small pieces were too short to fit.
“I need to wash it.” She stood and started to clean up.
“Go ahead. I got this.”
She headed toward the bedrooms but stopped and ran back and threw herself in my lap. “Thank you.” She kissed my neck. “For today and for everything.”
She hugged me and pushed off before I could respond and ran back toward the bedrooms.
I sat for a moment, stunned into silence.