Chapter 9 #2
Oz let go of Logan’s arms and crouched in front of him.
“I don’t know. I wish I did. Sometimes our missions are over quickly, and other times they take longer.
It could be a few days, or it could be a month or more.
If I knew, I’d tell you. That’s the hard thing about what I do.
One of the good things about my job is that while I can’t tell you where I’m going or how long I’ll be gone, the guys in the regular Army are gone for a lot longer than I should be.
Sometimes they’re deployed for a whole year. ”
“A year?” Logan asked, his eyes wide.
“Yeah. But I won’t be gone that long,” Oz said.
“Promise?”
“Promise. I’m gonna need to ask you a favor while I’m gone, though.”
“What?” Logan asked suspiciously.
“Please don’t play catch with Riley. We both know she can’t catch worth a darn.”
Oz was relieved to see a small smile cross his nephew’s face. They both turned to look at his doorway when they heard a small sniff. Riley was standing there wiping tears off her face.
“Riley?” Logan asked. “Why’re you crying? What’s wrong?”
“I’m okay,” she told him. “I’m just glad that you and your uncle aren’t fighting anymore.”
Logan looked at the floor for a second, then up at Oz. “I’m sorry for saying I hate you. I don’t.”
“I’m glad. We do need to figure out how we’re gonna get your stuff over to Gillian’s, since the suitcase was obviously a bad idea.
And now that I think about it, it wouldn’t work that well anyway since it’s so small,” Oz said.
“How about this…I’ve got an extra duffle bag.
It’s not very fancy and it probably still has sand in it from the last time I was deployed, but we could fit a lot of your stuff in there. ”
“You’d give me one of your duffle bags?” Logan asked.
“Of course. But remember, I warned you. It might be a little stinky.”
“Cool!” Logan breathed.
Oz chuckled.
“Oz?”
“Yeah, Slugger?”
“I wanna use your bag but…can I look at the suitcase? I’ve never had one before.”
“Of course,” Oz told him. “It’s yours. You can put whatever you want in it.
Shoes, all the bathroom junk you use, even your pillow if you want.
” Oz had been surprised at the amount of gel, shampoo, and deodorant the ten-year-old seemed to need.
He didn’t even remember brushing his hair when he was Logan’s age, but things had changed over the years, that was for sure.
“The extra duffle bag is in the back of my closet. Go grab that and the suitcase, and we’ll clean up the mess in here and figure out what you need to get you through at least a week at Gillian’s. If I’m gone longer than that, she can bring you back here to get anything else you need. Okay?”
“Okay!” Logan said. He hesitated for just a second before dashing out of the room.
For a moment, Oz thought he was going to hug him, but he knew that was too much to hope for this soon. Especially after such a colossal misunderstanding.
“You did good,” Riley said softly.
Oz stood up from his crouch on the floor and looked at the clothes strewn around the room. He shook his head. “No, I fucked up.”
“And then you fixed it. Porter, if you think other parents are perfect all the time, you’re so wrong.
Look at my own. They messed up all the time, and yet I still loved them.
Yes, I wish things had been different when I was growing up, but they were doing the best they could at the time.
I know it’s different since they were alcoholics, but still.
And you apologized. I can’t remember my mom or dad ever telling me they were sorry when their actions got me taken away.
They blamed the Child Protective Services employees for being incompetent, they blamed each other, they raged about how unfair it was that they had to prove their worthiness of being parents.
But not once did they sit me down and tell me they were sorry. ”
“I can’t get the look of betrayal in his eyes out of my brain,” Oz admitted.
Riley looked down the hall, checking for Logan, before walking toward Oz. She put her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “Cut yourself some slack. You did something you thought he’d like. You couldn’t have known.”
“I should’ve,” Oz grumbled, but wrapped his arms around Riley and held her to him.
“I wish you were my uncle,” she complained, “and I’d had your apartment to go to when I needed it.”
“I’m not your uncle,” Oz said definitively. “But you can still come to my apartment any hour of any day if you need to.”
Riley tilted her head up and rested her chin on his chest. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“I hate that I have to leave before I got to take you out on a date,” he told her.
“I’m counting four-wheeling as a date,” she told him.
“Fine. Then before I could take you out on a second date,” Oz said.
“You’ll just have to make sure you come back safe and sound so you can do that then,” Riley told him.
He knew she was worried about it, and it felt good. “I’m gonna come back to you, Ri.”
“Promise?” she asked, echoing Logan’s question from earlier.
“Promise,” he said with a small grin.
“You guys aren’t gonna start kissing, are you?” Logan asked from the doorway.
Riley jerked in his arms, but Oz held her tightly.
He looked over her head at his nephew. He had one of his old duffle bags in one hand, the end dragging on the floor, and the baseball suitcase in his other.
“We might. That gonna bother you?” he asked, curious as to what Logan thought about him being with Riley.
If he hated the idea, it wouldn’t make him give up on the possibility of dating his neighbor, but it might make him change how he went about it.
“No. As long as I don’t gotta watch,” Logan said as he came into the room.
Oz smiled down at Riley. “Well, there ya go,” he said softly.
Riley was blushing, but she licked her lips and said, “All right then.”
Not able to stop himself, Oz leaned down and touched her lips briefly with his in a chaste kiss. He wanted more, but he needed to make sure Logan was good with everything that happened. Oz still felt horribly guilty about making him think for even a second that he was going to have to leave.
Riley smiled up at him, then took a step back and put her hands on her hips.
“Looks like we’ve got some folding to do.
I’ll start with the shirts. Logan, you get your pants.
Put the ones you want to take in one pile, and when you’re done, you can go through my stack and decide which shirts you want to pack and which we can hang back up. ”
“What do you want me to do?” Oz asked.
The naughty look in Riley’s eyes almost made Oz pick her up and carry her into his own bedroom, but he simply smiled back.
“If that bag really does have sand in it, can you see if you can dump it out? I’m sure Gillian doesn’t want a beach in her guest room.
And if you have any Lysol around, you might spray it too.
Logan might think it’s cool to smell like a stinky soldier, but I’m sure his teacher and his classmates might disagree. ”
If Oz didn’t know that Riley was single and childless, he might’ve thought she’d been doing this mothering thing for years. She seemed to know exactly what to say and do to make Logan relax. She was a godsend, and he itched to make sure she knew how important she was to him.
Two hours later, Logan was packed and they’d eaten one last meal together. The minutes were ticking down too quickly, and before Oz knew it, Riley was saying it was time for her to get back to her own apartment.
She gave Logan a long, heartfelt hug and told him that he could call her whenever he wanted to.
Even if it was the middle of the night. Her reassurance seemed to make him feel better, although Oz couldn’t help but think of all the things that could go wrong that would make his nephew need to call Riley.
“I’m gonna walk Riley to her apartment, okay, Slugger?”
Logan nodded absently. He was used to the routine by now.
“I’ll be right back. Go ahead and get ready for bed, and I’ll come in when I get back to say goodnight. If you’ve got any other questions for me, I’m happy to answer them.”
Logan walked to the end of the hallway, then abruptly ran back toward Riley. He gave her one more fierce hug, then turned and ran back toward his room.
Riley sniffed, and Oz hated knowing the two most important people in his life were sad because of him.
He intertwined his fingers with hers and walked her out. They went down the hall, and he held on as Riley unlocked her door. This time, he didn’t stand outside as usual. He urged her inside and, as soon as the door shut, he took her in his arms again.
They stood locked together for a long moment. Oz could feel her fingers digging into the muscles in his back as she held him close.
“Ri?” he asked into her hair.
“I’m okay,” she mumbled without lifting her head.
Oz chuckled. “Why don’t you look at me and try to convince me of that?” he asked.
She tilted her chin up, and he sighed at seeing the tears in her eyes. He brushed his thumbs right under her lashes. “I’ll be back before you know it. Just think about all the work you’ll get done without also having to do my job as a parent half the time.”
“I’m gonna miss you both,” Riley said softly. “I look forward to meeting Logan’s bus, and he’s just so…interesting. Thinking about the endless days of transcription without the reward of seeing either of you at the end of them is kind of depressing.”
“You could go hang out with Logan at Gillian’s place. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”
“I know, and I’m sure I will, but I’m gonna miss you too, Porter.”
His heart swelled in his chest. “I’ll miss you too, Ri. I’ve gotten used to seeing you every day.”
“I hate not knowing where you’re going or when you’ll be back.”