Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
I gulped. “Okay…”
Unsure whether he wanted to talk about Scottie or us, I didn’t ask him to elaborate; a part of me was scared to find out.
“I just want to enjoy this day without any stressors,” he said.
“What are we gonna do?” I asked.
“Nothing. Hang out with him. Watch some of Wayne’s movies. Eat ice cream. Fucking decompress from the nightmare of the past two days.” His hand found mine.
I linked my fingers with his. “You won’t hear me complain about that.”
Josh took me into his arms and held me, resting his chin on the top of my head.
A knock at the door caused us to step away from each other.
“Who the hell is that this early?” he asked.
Josh went to answer it, and I followed. My heart sank when I saw a police officer standing there. I knew Scottie was safe in Wayne’s bedroom, but my first inclination was to panic. It must have been PTSD.
“Sorry to disturb you folks.” The officer looked over at me and chuckled, a reminder of how ridiculous I must’ve looked in this damn onesie. “The owner of the house where Mr. Longo was found discovered this framed photo on the ground underneath the clubhouse he’d been hiding in. So we figured we’d return it to you. Mr. Longo must’ve had it with him when he escaped from the group home.”
I took the photo from him. It was the one of the three of us taken at Michael and Vanessa’s Christmas party.
“Wow.” Josh covered his mouth, staring at the photo.
“I gave that to him when we dropped him off at the group home that first day,” I explained to the cop. “Thank you so much for returning it.”
“It’s our pleasure. Glad everything worked out.”
“Thanks again, Officer,” Josh said as he shut the door. He turned to me with a look of awe. “Scottie took two things with him when he decided to escape—his device and a photo of the three of us together. I’d thought him getting out was sort of accidental, just a result of them leaving the door unlatched. But now I think he might have thought it through.” Josh scratched his head. “I think he was…”
“Looking for us,” I finished his sentence.
“Yeah,” Josh muttered in a daze. “Holy shit, Carly.”
My chest felt heavy. “I know.”
***
We’d spent the day lounging around the house, and it was glorious. Though I did take a quick trip to Walmart to get myself some normal pajamas, a few more items of clothing, and some groceries.
Now, it was almost bedtime, and we were once again hanging out in the living room. Josh and Scottie had showered, and they were now looking at something on the iPad.
“Look at what he’s doing.” Josh pointed to the screen. “He’s using the Andy Warhol filter again on, like, a hundred pictures of his own face.”
“Just like old times,” I said. “He must like himself.”
“That’s a good quality.” Josh mussed Scottie’s hair. “If only we all liked ourselves that much.”
Scottie laid his head on Josh’s shoulder and continued playing with the photos. My heart.
“He’s very calm tonight,” I said. “You can tell he’s happy to be home.”
Josh smiled. “Can you blame him?”
“No, I can’t.”
“I’m happy to be here, too,” he said.
“It’s crazy that it took Scottie going missing to get us back together like this.”
“Not the way I would’ve chosen for it to happen, that’s for damn sure,” Josh said.
He looked down at his phone for a moment and placed his hand on Scottie’s shoulder. “It’s past your bedtime, dude.” He led Scottie into his room to get him ready for bed.
It seemed to take forever for him to return to the living room, which figured, since I was nervous about the talk we were going to have.
When Josh came back, he plopped down and rested his head on the couch for a moment. Despite how much we’d relaxed today, Josh still seemed a bit preoccupied and spent. He didn’t immediately start talking, but I decided I couldn’t wait anymore.
“So…” I cleared my throat. “You said we needed to talk…”
He turned to me and straightened. “Yeah.” He bounced his legs. “So…” He paused. “I want to know if you’d be willing to stay out here for a couple of weeks with Scottie while I go back to Chicago.”
My eyes widened. That was about the last thing I thought he’d say.
“I’m moving back to Woodsboro, Carly. I pretty much made that decision the moment I landed back here. I promised myself that if Scottie came home safely, I’d never let him out of my sight again. I don’t want him going back to the group home. I’m gonna take care of him myself.”
“Wow.” I nodded. “So you…need me to stay here while you go get your stuff?”
“Basically, yeah. I need to talk to my job to see if they’d be willing to let me work remotely on a permanent basis.”