I smile at him. “You swim like a fish.” But the idea of him going to try to volunteer with these people worries me. “How receptive do you think the townspeople will be?” I saw how awful they were to him at the ballgame. I saw how it affected him.
“No idea. But I want to help my community. If my mom were to drive into high water by accident, I’d want a strong, fit person to go in after her, to bring her to safety.”
I let my eyes slowly slide up and down his body. “You’re certainly strong and fit.” I waggle my brows at him.
His cheeks immediately turn pink. “Stop it,” he says. He turns and starts to open cans of soup, so that his back is to me. Then he grabs bowls for the soup and puts them in the microwave to heat.
“How did you get so fit, anyway?” I ask, just because I’m curious.
“Well, there wasn’t much to do in prison aside from read and work out. So I did a lot of both.” He shrugs as he drops a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster and pushes the lever down.
“What was prison like?” I probably shouldn’t pry.
It takes him a long moment to respond, so long I begin to think he won’t answer at all. “Lonely,” he eventually says. “It was so fucking lonely.” The toast pops up, and he takes it out, cuts it into triangles, and smears a little butter on it, and then sets a bowl of soup and a plate of toast in front of me. “Dinner is served.”
“You know you don’t have to take care of me, right?” I ask as I dip a toast point into my soup and then stick it in my mouth.
“Who else would do it?” he asks. He grabs a bowl of soup for himself, and two pieces of toast but he doesn’t cut his into triangles. “Nobody is here.”
“This place is a little strange when it’s deserted, isn’t it?” I’ve never been here during this time of the year, at least not for long.
“I wouldn’t say it’s weird. I’d say it’s peaceful.”
Suddenly, a thought pops into my head, based on something he said when he was talking about the storm. “If the campground floods, what will happen to your tent?”
“I’m going to have to take it down, I guess.” He shrugs. “I haven’t really given it a lot of thought.”
“Where will you go?” The thought of him leaving makes my pulse quicken. “To your mom’s house?”
He shakes his head and grins. “No. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” He looks at me, his eyes full of light and excitement all of a sudden. “Mr. Jacobson just gave me the keys to a cabin for me and Mitchell.”
“Seriously?” He looks overjoyed by the idea.
“Seriously. And it just happens to be the one right next door to you.” His grin grows even more. “We’ll be neighbors.”
“What’s the place like?”
He motions around us. “Exactly like this one. Already furnished. I just need to paint and do some maintenance.”
“And then you can have Mitchell come live with you? Permanently?”
He nods. “Yeah, I think that’s where we’ll end up. Maybe not all at once. He might go back and forth for a little while, until he gets used to spending time with me. I mean, I don’t want to just force myself on him. He barely knows me.” He stares into my eyes. “Do you think it’s a bad idea?”
I cover his hand with mine. “I think it’s a great idea. The best one you’ve ever had.” Mitchell will be ecstatic.
“Thanks.” His brow furrows. “You never did answer me about volunteering for fire and rescue. What do you think about that?”
“The Jacobsons are going with you to the meeting?”
“Mr. Jacobson said something about smoking a huge pile of ribs to take to the meeting. He already has them in the smoker.”
“Well, as long as they’ll be there, I don’t think anything can go wrong.” They’ll take care of him. They wouldn’t let anyone treat him poorly. I saw how Mr. Jacobson took up for him at the ball game. The fire and rescue meeting will probably be similar. “Are you sure you want to volunteer?” I reach over and cover his hand with mine.
“Not only do I want to volunteer, but I think I need to volunteer.” He flips his hand over so that we’re palm to palm. “Have I told you how happy