Page 110

“But I just told you, it’s my thinking spot, Silly Willy.”

“It’s a dangerous thinking spot. And no calling me Silly Willy,” he added. He wondered how he was going to get up on the roof himself to grab her. There was no way that railing could take his weight.

“I’m going to have to go find a ladder from somewhere,” he said, even though it was after ten at night.

She sighed loudly. “Don’t do that. I’ll come down.”

“No, do not come down.”

The next thing he knew, she was half hanging off the end of the roof.

He hastily reached up and grabbed hold of her ass just as the gutter gave way beneath her stomach, and she let out a loud cry.

As she started to fall, he quickly adjusted his grasp to around her waist and lifted her down gently just as the gutter fell with a clang.

“Oh, that’s not good,” she said.

“No, this whole thing isn’t good.” He turned her to face him, looming over her. “I can tell you what’s not good, and that’s the fact that you were up on an unsafe roof all by yourself. You could have slipped off at any time. If I hadn’t been here, you would have fallen. Imagine if you’d been here by yourself without me to catch you.”

“But you were here to catch me, so there’s no use worrying about what might have been. Is Kevin okay? And Owly?” She reached up into her hair and then gave a sigh of relief. “Kevin is good. He liked the ride, didn’t you, Kevin? What about Owly? Where is Owly McOwlFace?”

“You’re holding him,” he told her.

“Oh, thank goodness.” She held the toy up in front of her face. “Don’t do that to me, Owly McOwlFace. No running away. Understand?”

He thought about telling her that she’d been holding onto the toy the entire time but decided maybe he was better not to.

He wasn’t sure about the way she was acting right now. She almost seemed a bit too carefree. Most of the time, she appeared to be quite afraid of things and had a tendency to run and hide rather than confront. But all of a sudden, she was filled with bravery when it came to climbing up on rickety rails onto unsafe roofs? It really felt like it made no sense.

“Oh, you know what we should do?” she said, clapping her hands and swaying. She yawned.

“What should we do?” he asked. “Go to bed?”

“No, Silly Willy. Why would I want to go to bed?” she asked.

“Because you’re dead on your feet.”

“I’m dead? Oh no. I don’t wanna be dead! I haven’t even lived.”

“Shh, you’re not dead. It’s just a saying,” he told her hastily as she started to sniffle. “What did you want to do?”

“I don’t know. What was it? I can’t remember. Wait, wait. It’s got something to do with being naked.”

Fuck, she wasn’t going to proposition him, was she? He needed to figure out some way of letting her down gently, because he didn’t want her like that.

Right. Sure, you don’t.

“Oh wait! I’ve got it. Go skinny dipping! I’ve always wanted to go skinny dipping. There’s this creek not that far from here. We could go skinny dipping in it. Or we could go skinny dipping in the fountain in the middle of the town. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?”

Right. That checked his ego, didn’t it? Here he thought she wanted to sleep with him, and she wanted to go skinny dipping.

“That would be the exact opposite of hilarious,” he said. “No way are you doing that.”

No fucking way was anyone getting to look at her naked.

“For a guy called Silly Willy, you sure are a party pooper, you know?”

“My name isn’t Silly Willy. And I am a party pooper if you’re going to do something that puts you at risk.”