by Zoe Chant
Zach nodded. Based on how her mom had sounded on the phone, he thought that Teri probably wasn’t going to be going anywhere with her mother for a while no matter what she said, but it wasn’t his choice to make. And Teri obviously knew her mom best, anyway.
He could think of one other thing to suggest, though.
“I can’t do anything about your family or your job, as much as I wish I could,” he started. “But if you want to get out of the house...would you like to have dinner with me?”
Teri’s face lit up. Her expression was so beautiful, so magnetic, that Zach almost reached up to cup her cheek. His hand actually jerked up, before he forced it back down.
“I would love that,” she said.
“Great.” He couldn’t control the dumb smile on his own face, but he didn’t care. “I could pick you up at six-thirty tonight?”
“Perfect.” She looked so happy. He couldn’t believe he was the one making her look so happy. “Let me give you my address and my number.”
They exchanged information, and then, after they’d put their phones back in their pockets, Teri held out her hand. Zach took it, surprised at how small it was inside of his. Teri was actually quite short, he had to remind himself. She didn’t even come up to his shoulder. Her personality just seemed to expand outward, making her seem taller.
When she was happy, at least. When she was sad or upset, she shrank down into herself until she looked as small as she was.
Zach tightened his hand around hers and resolved to make her happy as much as he could.
***
Teri said goodbye to Zach at the Visitor’s Center and told him to go back to work. She didn’t want him standing there to see the scene when her mother inevitably arrived.
He squeezed her hand, and said, “See you tonight,” with a warm smile that Teri felt all the way down to her toes.
He didn’t try to argue with her. He didn’t insist on coming along, or on keeping her in his sight. He didn’t even ask if she was sure.
It was amazing.
As she came out of the park entrance, Teri reflected that she’d gotten used to a lot of things. Maybe it was time to start reminding herself that they weren’t normal, that this wasn’t how things were supposed to work.
Her timing was perfect; just as she came out of the park’s entrance, she saw her mom’s car zooming up. Teri waved, and her mother screeched to a halt in front of her, leaned across, and opened up the passenger-side door with a violent push. “Get in,” she ordered.
Teri got in. Her mom pulled away, her knuckles white on the steering wheel.
Here it came.
“I cannot believe you would be so irresponsible as to go off on your own like this,” her mother began. “Without even telling me!”
“I left you a note,” Teri pointed out, knowing it was useless even as she said it.
“A note,” her mother repeated. “A note. You told me you were going out into the wilderness by yourself, without anyone to help you if you fell, or got dizzy, with a note.”
“I haven’t had any vertigo since January, Mom.” Teri took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “You have to acknowledge that I’m almost better. I can walk just fine. I’m not in pain. I’m capable of going out by myself without a problem.”
“Almost.” Her mother seized on the word. “You aren’t well! You were in a wheelchair for a month, Teri!”
“People in wheelchairs go about their lives just fine!” Teri hadn’t meant to yell, but it was just so unreasonable. “Mom, you aren’t treating me like I’m hurt. You’re treating me like I’m mentally incompetent, and can’t make any decisions about my own safety. I’m an adult and I’m capable of choosing what risks to take on my own.”
“Obviously,” her mother said with deadly calm, “since you chose to go driving along an icy, deserted road at night without being careful enough to avoid an accident, you aren’t.”
The injustice of that shocked Teri speechless. Her mother drove at night in winter all the time. Everyone in northern Montana did, because if you didn’t, you were stuck inside after about four PM all winter long.
“Well,” she said finally, “I’m sorry my driving habits didn’t meet with your safety standards. Clearly you’re much safer than I am, considering you’re going seventy in a thirty-five zone right now.”
“What did you say to me?” her mother asked dangerously.
Teri had a choice, she knew. She could say, You heard me, and wait for the consequences. Or she could back down.
She knew she’d been rude. But her mother didn’t seem to hear anything that fell short of rudeness. If she couldn’t be courteous and make her point, what was she supposed to do?
She didn’t know. And she didn’t want to have a screaming fight while her mother was already driving too fast.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, and slumped down in her seat.
She really did feel like she was fourteen years old again. It was awful.
The drive home was finished in frigid silence. Her mother stalked into the house, leaving Teri to follow several steps behind.
“Now,” her mother said, “you will do your physical therapy, and then you will go to your room and stay there until you’re feeling more yourself. Do you understand?”
Teri wanted to shout, You can’t send me to my room, I’m twenty-five! at the top of her lungs, but if anything would make her feel more like a child, it would be throwing a tantrum. So she just left the room and went to the den.
Then she changed her mind. She went upstairs, quietly enough that her mother didn’t hear her attempting the so-dangerous task of climbing stairs, and went into her old room.
Her bed was downstairs, but the desk and chair she’d used in high school were still there, and she sat down to start the first of her physical therapy stretches.
The exercises were pretty vigorous by now, and she felt pleasantly tired by the time she was done. She remembered back at the beginning, when physical therapy was agony and left her completely wrung out for the rest of the day.
She’d come a long way. She had to keep reminding herself that she’d improved more quickly than usual and with fewer setbacks than the doctors had expected. Maybe that was why her mother was so overprotective—she’d been expecting Teri to have a relapse all this time, and she never had.
She had another appointment later in the week. Maybe she’d ask Tina, her physical therapist, to talk to her mom. At the last appointment, Tina had told her, These are exercises to improve your strength and flexibility overall, and you can keep doing them even after you’re well. Right now, we’re just focusing on getting your muscles used to moving around normally again. You’re almost done!
Her mother probably wouldn’t take the word of a mere physical therapist over Dr. Campbell—he’s been our doctor for over thirty years, Teri, of course he wants to help you!—but maybe it would help.
Be real, Teri. It’s not going to help.
It wouldn’t. She knew that. She’d grown up with her mother, and ultimately nothing really helped.
The hardest part was that she knew that her mom was truly, genuinely concerned for her. She was afraid that Teri would hurt herself again, and she was trying to do everything she could to stop that from happening.
It was the everything she could that was the problem. That, and how she wouldn’t listen to any arguments, completely ignored logical reasons that she was wrong, and used her worry and hurt feelings as a weapon to make Teri do anything she wanted her to do.
So really there were a lot of problems.
At least she’d gotten out of the house today. And she knew that she could do it again, if she needed to. Spring was here; there were going to be plenty of beautiful days ahead, and anytime her mother was out of the house, she could go out, catch the bus, and spend the day in the Park.
Just the prospect of having a temporary escape made her feel so much better, even if she knew she’d pay every time she used it.
And then
there was her date tonight.
She’d been putting off thinking about it because part of her didn’t even believe it was real. Could that gorgeous, kind, intelligent man really have asked her out?
Maybe it was out of pity. No, probably it was out of pity, Teri corrected herself. He’d made the invitation right after she’d told him she was basically under house arrest. He’d already seen what her mother would do to get her back home where she belonged, and he wanted to give the poor girl who was recovering from a terrible accident a night out on the town.
That made the most sense, Teri told herself firmly. That was probably what it was.
Still, though...surely he’d felt that thrill of attraction, too? When their eyes had met, hadn’t there been a connection there? Or was she imagining things, projecting her own desires onto him?
His eyes were a fascinating color, a deep silver-gray that seemed to go down and down forever. She wanted to learn everything about him. He’d said he took care of his younger brother—how had that happened? Where were their parents? He’d followed his brother to Glacier to be a park ranger with him: did he really want to be a ranger, or just want to be with his brother?
It was weird—following a family member to a new city and taking the same job to be near them sounded, on the outside, just like something her mom would do. Teri could see it now: Teri decided she wanted to be a park ranger, and got a job in Yellowstone or wherever, and the next day, there was her mom, showing up to work beside her. I didn’t want you to be lonely, dear.
But Zach had said that he’d wanted to send Joel by himself, but Joel had stubbornly waited until there was enough money for them both.
What was it like to have that kind of bond with your sibling? Teri could remember, a little wistfully, the days when she’d been little and Lillian had been a rebellious pre-teen. Lillian had been determined to stick it to their parents back then, and she’d...what? Protected Teri? Cultivated her so she’d have a tiny ally?
Whatever Lillian had wanted, it had ended up with Teri feeling like Lillian was the best sister in the world. She’d wanted to be exactly like her, had followed her around and asked her what she thought about everything.
Lillian had gotten sick of it eventually, of course. Who wouldn’t? And then by the time she’d graduated high school, she’d been well on her way to becoming a direct copy of their mom. They hadn’t spent much time together by then. Teri had been eleven, and spent all of her time outside, ranging through the woods, coming back to be yelled at for going out of sight for hours at a time.
Hmmm, that seemed familiar.
Anyway, she and Lillian hadn’t been close in a long, long time. Teri envied Zach his relationship with his brother.
She was going to see him again tonight. She wondered how much this really was a pity date. Was he attracted to her? Would she get a chance to touch him, kiss him, feel that muscular body pressed all up against hers?
Teri flushed, feeling warmth pool in the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t touched a man since she’d broken up with her last boyfriend, over a year ago. And that relationship had dried up long before it ended; they’d only been having the most perfunctory sex, hardly any fun for either of them.
Come to that, Teri had never dated a man who really set her on fire. She’d been attracted, sure, and she’d had pretty good sex, but she’d never met anybody who felt as...magnetic as Zach did. She wanted his hands on her, she wanted his mouth on her, she wanted his—
Whoo, calm down, girl. That was getting a tiny bit ahead of herself. For God’s sake, all they’d done was hold hands, and this was probably a pity date, anyway.
But maybe it wasn’t.
And that thought had her smiling helplessly at nobody, there in her empty room.
***
She didn’t tell her mother ahead of time.
It made her feel like even more of a teenager, but that was when she’d learned how this worked: telling her mom what she was doing that night would only lead to her mother refusing to let her.
And since her mother could not let an adult woman choose whether or not she went on a date, it was better not to bring it up ahead of time at all.
At six-twenty-five, Zach texted her to say, About to pull up to your house. Should I come to the door?
Teri smiled. No, I’ll come out, she texted back. As humiliating as the incident in the park had been, it was nice that Zach understood the situation already. She couldn’t imagine trying to explain to a man she’d just met that no, he couldn’t come to the door, because Teri lived with her controlling mother and there’d be a big scene if he did.
She stealthily grabbed her jacket and slipped on her shoes. She’d put on a dress, which she hardly ever did, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a chance to dress up for any reason at all.
The shoes were comfortable flats, though. Even before the accident, Teri had never been strong in heels.
All right. Moment of truth. Teri took a deep breath, and said, “Bye, Mom, I’m going on a date!”
Her mother appeared instantly, as if by magic. Lillian was right behind her. “You’re what?”
“I’m going on a date. Bye!” She’d timed it so she already had her hand on the doorknob when she called out. She opened the door and slipped out.
As she closed the door, she saw her mother coming forward fast, with a look of ire on her face. What did she think she was going to do? Physically restrain Teri from leaving?
She and Lillian together probably could. Better not to think about that, maybe.
Teri ran lightly down the front steps—running! She was running! Just a few feet, maybe, but she could do it!
As she reached Zach’s car, she glanced over her shoulder to see her mother framed like a vengeful angel in the light of the doorway, Lillian hovering behind her shoulder. A vengeful cherub, maybe.
Teri stifled a giggle and got into the car. As she plopped into the seat and shut the door, she let out her breath in a whoof. “Safe!”
Zach was eying the house. “Your mother sure looks angry,” he said. “Is that just because you’re going on a date?”
“Just because,” Teri confirmed. “Well, also because of earlier today. And because I didn’t tell her I was going on a date until thirty seconds ago.”
“Seems wise,” Zach observed, and pulled away from the curb.
Teri relaxed into the passenger’s seat. Away, away! She could feel her muscles unknotting already.
“So,” Zach said tentatively, “you’re local, so you’d probably know better than me where to go. The only place I’ve spent much time at here is Oliver’s.”
Oliver’s was the local diner, more of a burger-and-fries place than a pasta-and-wine. Teri’s lips curved into a smile. “I would love to go to Oliver’s.”
Zach glanced at her. “You’re not just saying that? Because I’m happy to expand my restaurant repertoire. I even asked the guys for advice.”
“Oh yeah?” Teri asked curiously. “What’d they say?”
Zach hesitated. “Oliver’s.”
Teri burst out laughing. “It’s really the best place in town,” she told him. “And I don’t want anywhere fancy. I have enough walking on eggshells back home.”
“Fair point,” Zach said, and turned his attention to the road.
“I just want to mention,” he said after a second, eyes fixed ahead, “I’m a careful driver, but if you see anything I’m doing that you don’t like—speeding, or anything reckless—please tell me. Or you’re welcome to drive.”
Teri looked over at him, startled. “I am?”
He shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. “I know you were just in a bad accident. And you said people have to drive you everywhere. So just in case you wanted some more control over the vehicle...”
Teri smiled, touched. “Thank you. But I’m okay. Really,” she added, when he glanced over at her as if to make sure. “I was driving the night of the accident, so if anything, it’s my own driving I shouldn
’t trust. But I do. It was just dark, and icy, and bad luck.”
“Okay,” Zach said. “Just wanted to make sure.”
Teri settled back into her seat and reflected on the difference between Zach’s concern and her family’s. Because Zach was being solicitous, trying to take care of her here, wasn’t he? But somehow it was completely different from how her family did it.
The difference, she decided, was that Zach was asking her what she needed instead of telling her.
And, maybe even more importantly, he was asking her if his behavior was a problem. Not telling her that she was being a problem.
It was like having a refreshing drink of water after being stuck in a desert for three months.
“Thank you for doing this,” she said sincerely. “It’s such a relief just to get out of the house. I really appreciate it.”
Zach smiled a little, the grin tugging at the corners of his mouth in a way Teri found impossibly endearing. “Well, I’m not just doing it out of the goodness of my heart. I mean, I also get to take a really great woman out on a date.”
That filled her chest with warmth. Maybe he was just being nice—he wouldn’t tell her if this was a pity date, after all, he was way too kind for that—but he sounded like he was telling the truth. She was going to believe him, at least until any evidence for the contrary showed up.
“Good to know,” she said. “So tell me about your hardware project. Did you end up getting the tools you needed for whatever you’re working on?”
The smile spread over Zach’s face, wide and happy. “I’m not quite working on anything yet. But I got a good set of tools, enough to start a small project, anyway.”
“Anything planned, then?” Teri wondered what she would make, if she had any carpentry skills and the options were all stretching out in front of her. A door with a lock for the den, probably.
“Not sure yet. One of the guys I work with, Grey, is really handy with furniture, so I might ask him if he’d be willing to teach me a thing or two. Joel and I could use another couple of chairs.” Zach looked thoughtful. “Although one thing I’d really love to build would be a deck for the house. Someplace to sit out and look at the mountains, have barbecues in the summer...”
