Page 12 of Healing Home
Had he been speaking and not even realized it? “Not sure. It changed day to day.”
Lincoln loved having BB standing beside him like this, squeezing his arm. Just having someone to talk to was very strange for him, especially considering the subject. His mother was an angry woman, not someone pleasant to be around. His dad had seen something in her though.
BB reached out and drew a finger down the face of the Boise PD shield. It had Matt’s name on the top and the PD on the bottom. Link had been surprised find it in the box. He figured it would've gone to Matt's former sweetheart. He wasn't complaining. He was glad to have the piece.
Then BB reached for the Wile E. Coyote lunch box. Her blue eyes flashed to him. “May I? This is a classic.”
He hesitated, then nodded.
She removed the box from the shelf and layed it horizontal in her hand, looking at the old cartoon. It was faded where the raised metal had rubbed for so many years. “It was mine first, and Matt adopted it.”
“Can I look inside?”
This time he hesitated a little longer. She moved to replace the box but he stilled her hand. “No, you can.”
It had been a long time since he’d gone though it. Probably sometime after it had been delivered, years ago.
BB stared at him for a moment, as if judging her timing. Finally, she repositioned the box and released the metal clasp on the front. The lid creaked open and he could see the treasures inside. There were a few Matchbox cars, as well as a homemade slingshot, the band long since degraded. They had whittled the thing together after they’d broken the first one. She pulled out each treasure to look at, before carefully returning it to the box. There was a magnifying glass from a Cracker-Jack box, and old gold ring with a gaping orbit where a stone had been. They’d found it along the railroad tracks one day. She dug a little deeper and pulled out a postcard with a circus on the front.
Link laughed, taking it from her hand. “We used to want to run away to the circus but neither one of us were especially skilled at anything. I think there’s an old lock blade knife in there we used to practice knife throwing with.” She pointed the item out and he nodded. “Mom and dad would fight and we’d go out back. There was a set of train tracks about a mile behind our house, through the woods. We would go down to the line and dream.”
His smile turned sad.
“I’m sorry, Link. I was just curious.”
He shrugged lightly, giving her a slight grin. “It’s okay. I don’t think about him as much anymore.”
She dug a little deeper and pulled an old magazine page from the bottom. Before he could grab it and shove it away she’d flipped it open. It was a Playboy centerfold at least thirty years old. She chuckled, though he could feel his skin prickling uncomfortably. Grinning through it, he shrugged. “What do you expect? We were teenage boys. Our dad had a cherished stack of these in his closet and we found them one day. Oh, man,” he shook his head, remembering. “I think Mom knew about them but I’m surprised she let him keep them.”
“I can understand why it’s in your treasure box. She’s very pretty.”
Link looked at the woman on the paper. He didn’t recognize her name anymore and as BB stood in front of him, he decided that there were much prettier things to look at, like her. “She used to be.”
BB glanced at him, smiling, then took a second look and locked gazes with him. She had to understand what he was trying to convey. Even as he watched a slight blush worked up through her pale skin and she dragged her gaze away, busying herself putting the things back in order in the box.
Link loved that he could fluster her. It meant the attraction he was feeling might not be one-sided.