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 nodded. “That’s one of the reasons I haven’t yet. I’m in no rush.”
“I can understand that.” She sighed. “If I run into someone I know at the store, I turn the other way instead of going toward them.”
“That’s what you wished you could’ve done when I showed up here that first day, I bet.”
“God, yeah.”
I laughed.
After I took Scottie into the bathroom with me for shower time, I helped him get dressed before changing into my evening clothes. I’d definitely be missing my bed in Chicago tonight.
When Scottie and I returned to the living room, Carly was sitting on the couch with her feet up. Her dainty toes were painted red. My eyes might have lingered on them a little too long.
“Did you watch any more of the DVDs while I was away?” I asked.
“No. I waited for you.” She sat up. “You want to watch one now?”
“Sure.” I took a seat next to Scottie, who promptly began playing on his iPad.
Carly popped another DVD into the player. It was a video from when Brad was home for Christmas. It looked to be about five years old, if I had to guess—so probably right before he’d met Carly. Someone was shooting footage of Wayne and Brad watching Scottie open his Christmas presents.
To my surprise, Scottie got up from his seat on the couch and walked over to the television. He must’ve recognized Wayne’s voice. I’d thought he wasn’t paying attention, but I was wrong. He placed both palms flat against the screen and gently pressed his cheek to the glass.
Carly and I both stilled. We were speechless. There was so much inside of Scottie that begged to come out. So much we didn’t know about what he could comprehend. Watching him connect with what was on the screen was both sad and beautiful. I didn’t know whether he believed they were coming back, or perhaps he thought they were literally inside the television. Either way, it was pretty damn heartbreaking.
Carly moved to the spot next to me with tears in her eyes. “He doesn’t understand why they left. He doesn’t understand death.” She let out a shaky breath. “Josh, what if he thinks they abandoned him?”
Fuck. My eyes were starting to water now. I reached my hand out, and she took it.
“There’s nothing more important than this—us being here for him right now,” she said.
My voice was strained. “I know.”
When the DVD finished, Scottie returned to the couch and resumed playing on his device like nothing had happened.
But Carly and I didn’t get over it so easily. We sat in silence for a long while before I said, “I don’t know about you, but I could really use some pistachio ice cream right now.”
“Between this and losing Bubba-Hank…” She shot up, shaking her head. “I’ll get some bowls.”
“Bring the whole tub,” I hollered after her.
CHAPTER 11
* * *
CARLY
ON SATURDAY, WE’D finally arranged for Scottie’s therapist, Lauren, to take us to her agency’s group home in town. Lorraine had agreed to watch Scottie for a few hours while we were out, and I was feeling good. We were making real progress. If we ended up liking the place, we would take steps to get Scottie on the waiting list. There weren’t a lot of options in and around Woodsboro, really only two potential places, and we planned to visit both of them. We’d discussed that the biggest requirement for Scottie’s eventual home was that it needed to be local, so Lorraine could be nearby if anything ever happened.
After we arrived, Lauren introduced us to Julie Wilks, the house manager of the place. Julie then took us around, room by room. She explained that all of the tenants had their own bedrooms, and they had twenty-four-hour staff onsite.
She gestured to a large, central room with a television mounted on the wall. “This is the main living space. Although most of the time the guys who live here prefer staying in their own rooms, we have them congregate together for a couple of hours each night.”
“Do most of the men who live here have autism?” I asked.
“Right now we have six tenants, and five of them have autism.”
“I see.”
Josh scratched his chin. “How many people are on staff?”
“There are three people on duty at any given time, around the clock, in different shifts.”
“What’s the average wait time to get into a room here?” he asked.
“That’s tough to say. We generally only ever have openings if one of the tenants becomes problematic and has to be moved, or if someone’s family moves out of state, warranting their child being transferred to another home somewhere else.”
My blood ran cold. “So this could literally take years...”
“It could.” She shrugged. “But you never know.”
Josh and I looked at each other, eyes wide.
Julie then took us out back. Overall, the place seemed well-kept and nice enough. The property was pretty secure, with a fenced-in yard and triple locks on the outside doors. There would definitely be more space here for Scottie than at home. There was only one problem: it wasn’t home. And I had no idea how he’d react to living in a brand-new environment for the first time in his life.