Curveball

Teddy was almost as excited to climb up into the attic with his new best friend to get the tent as he was to sleep in it.

Lloyd handed him the sleeping bags which Teddy then lowered to Shelby before Lloyd carried down the four-person tent he'd only used once. He and Katie had talked a lot about going camping, but each time he came home from somewhere the last thing he'd wanted to do was sleep outside. Consequently it had less 'miles' on it than the Corolla.

Lloyd fired up two lanterns and Teddy had the time of his life putting up the tent with a minimal amount of help from his mentor.

"Nice work!" Lloyd told him once the front flap was folded back.

Teddy was absolutely beaming from the praise and Shelby was as happy for him as he was for himself.

"Hey! I've got some marshmallows inside. How about we cut some sticks and make us a little fire in the fire pit and roast them?"

"Just when I thought my life couldn't get any better," Teddy said cracking everyone up again.

It was nearly 10pm and well past Teddy's bedtime when Shelby said, "Okay, buddy. Go use one of the new toothbrushes in the hallway bathroom then go pee and get ready for bed."

This time there was no argument as Teddy happily went back inside.

"And why do you have so many unused toothbrushes, Mr. I-never-date-anyone?" Shelby teased.

"I can assure you it isn't for that," he told her. "I've just kept collecting the free ones the Navy dentists gave me each time I went in."

"Uh-huh. Sure," Shelby teased before sitting on his lap.

"Scout's honor," he told her.

"I don't want a boy scout tonight," she whispered in his ear.

"Oh. Right. I nearly forgot about that," he said trying to keep a straight face.

She felt him again and said, "Oh, you lie!"

"Oh, you are so gonna get...laid!" he whispered back causing Shelby to shriek with laughter again.

Once everyone was ready for bed Teddy asked, "Can I sleep in between you guys?"

Without hesitation Lloyd said, "You better believe it."

Lloyd waited until everyone was set before saying, "Okay. Lights out."

Once it was dark and quiet no one spoke for several seconds.

Then Teddy said in an unusually quiet voice, "Mr. Mullens? I still really like Connor, but you're my new best friend."

Lloyd rolled over onto his side toward Teddy and said, "Yeah. Same here, buddy."

He put his arm around the boy and pulled him close and Teddy snuggled right up against him.

"Night, Shell. I love you," he said to his sister.

She didn't want him to know she was fighting back tears so she took a slow, deep breath to steady herself before saying, "Goodnight, Teddy. I love you."

"Goodnight, Mr. Mullens," he said before adding, "I love you."

"I love you, too, Teddy," Lloyd said fighting back tears of his own. "And now that we're best friends, maybe you should call me Lloyd, okay?"

"Cool!" Teddy said before putting his arm around the big man's shoulders.

He was sound asleep in less than two minutes, but Lloyd just laid there taking it all in. It was as though he finally had the family he'd always wanted but had been to busy to make. He fought off several sharp stabs of guilt for having made so many huge mistakes with Katie knowing there was nothing he could do to change them. But he could and did vow then and there to never make them again.

He had no idea how much time passed before Shelby quietly asked, "Are you awake?"

"Yes," he said very quietly.

"This is really nice," she said.

"Yeah. It really is, isn't it?" he agreed.

"I would love to go inside with you, but...."

"No, this is fine," he told her truthfully.

"Are you sure?" she asked reaching over Teddy for his hand.

He took and said, "I'm sure."

"Goodnight, Lloyd," she said sweetly as she interlaced her fingers with his.

"Goodnight, beautiful," he told her.

He was as surprised as she was when he heard himself say, "I love you, Shelby."

She ran her thumb over his knuckles then choking back tears again said, "I love you, too, Lloyd."

He slowly raised up and without another word being spoken, leaned over Teddy and kissed her goodnight.

It took him a second to remember where he was when he woke up. He pressed a button on his watch and it said 05:32 as it was still set for 24-hour time.

"Gee, I slept in a whole 32 minutes," he said to himself as he unzipped his sleeping bag knowing there was no going back to sleep.

He quietly slipped out of the tent then went inside and started a pot of coffee before heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a leak.

As he sat down with the cup of coffee he heard the door open and saw Shelby coming inside.

"I have to pee and not one word," she said with a smile.

"I'll get you a cup of coffee," Lloyd said standing back up.

She thanked him for it when she came back out then smiled before she stood on her toes and kissed him.

"Good morning," she said sweetly.

"Yes, it is," he told her.

She sat close to him as they sipped their coffee and when they were finished she said, "Teddy is the world's soundest sleeper. There's no chance of him waking up on his own this early."

"Oh, really?" Lloyd said. "That's very interesting. And why may I ask are you telling me that?"

He turned to look at her pretty, young face and tried not to smile.

"If I have to tell you then there was no reason for me to mention it," she said trying to sound tough.

"Tell me what?" he said as he touched his forehead to hers.

"Well, I still owe you part of a hug and after last night, I at least owe you the same thing you gave me," she explained as though she were talking to a child.

"Ah, right. You did seem to enjoy that as I recall," he said now smiling happily.

"Oh, I did," she assured him. "And you are gonna love the way I pay my debts."

She stood up and grabbed his hand and as they walked to the bedroom she told him, "I am about to blow your mind."

She stopped at the foot of the bed then pushed him back. As he sat there with his legs dangling, she reached for his underwear then said, "On second thought, I'm about to blow something else."

By the time Teddy stumbled into the house informing them he had to pee, they'd made love twice, showered together, and had breakfast.

"Do you want bacon and eggs or pancakes?" Shelby asked cheerfully when he came out still bleary eyed.

"Can I have both?" he asked, his hair a matted mess, causing another round of laughter.

As Shelby and Teddy got ready to leave after breakfast, she asked Lloyd, "So now what?"

"So now I want to see you again. Soon. And often," he told as he ran his hand up and down the back of her upper arms.

"Are you sure you really want to get involved with me? With us?" she asked genuinely needing to know.

"I don't have college degrees and I'm not the most eloquent guy around, but the answer to your question is unequivocally yes. Or maybe—I already am?"

He smile then said, "My question to you is are you sure you want to get involved with someone twice your age?"

"I don't believe I've ever told you how old I am," she said. Her eyes were happy and bright and Lloyd loved seeing her this way.

"It won't matter to me as long as you're over 18. You are over 18, right?" he said knowing she was.

"Yes. I'm over 18. In fact, I just turned 22."

She got very quiet and said, "Another horrible thing Teddy's had to deal with was my parents referring to him as their 'mistake' or 'accident.' I did my best to protect him, but I moved out as soon as I graduated from high school. Maybe I was being a coward leaving my brother behind in the devil's den, but I just wanted to get away from the madness, you know?"

"You've proved your love and your dedication to your brother many times over, Shelby. Don't beat yourself up for the things you might have done but didn't. Lord knows I've become quite an expert at that since Katie died."

"Can you tell me what you mean by that?" she asked.

For the first time he poured his heart about the way he'd neglected his wife, her depression, his refusal to stay home, the endless prescriptions from various doctors, and then her suicide.

"Oh, my gosh, Lloyd. I had no idea," she said sympathetically.

"Nor would I have known you'd lost your parents or had such a difficult time growing up or that Teddy has been through so much. But that's life, you know? It can be the sweetest thing ever...."

He smiled at her and touched her face when he said that, "Or it can bring you to your knees and make you beg for mercy when it keeps coming at you relentlessly. There's no rhyme or reason why it does what it does. It just does its thing and rolls on. We either pick up the pieces or we fall apart. Katie couldn't handle what she must have felt was the universe's constant pummeling and she found her way out. You and I are still here slugging it out. And maybe, just maybe, the universe put us together to make life a little...sweeter...for all three of us."

"I'll take your brand of wisdom over a college degree any day," she told him sincerely.

She looked down for a moment then said, "Lloyd? When you said, you know, 'I love you, Shelby', you were just being silly, right? You know, like at the end of The Waltons when they all said goodnight to each other."

"Yes, I was being silly in the sense that I was looking for an excuse to say it, but I wasn't being silly as far as how I feel about you, Shelby."

"This feels like I'm living in some kind of dream where my whole life just suddenly turned around and I can't even catch my breath let alone understand how or why it happened."

"Then don't think so much," he told her with a tender smile. "Just let it happen. I'm just as surprised as you are. I had no idea I was gonna stop and watch a Little League game. I just wanted to blend in and feel like I was a part of society or something. And for once the universe did me a solid by sitting me down next to the most amazing woman I've ever met."

"If I don't leave now I'm gonna start crying and I don't want to have to explain why to Teddy," she said feeling overwhelmed with love and emotion for the first time in her life.

"Shelby? Before you go, will you do me a favor?"

"Of course," she said barely able to speak.

"Let me take care of you. Please? You spend all your time and energy taking care of Teddy and it's amazing, but no one ever takes care of you. I want to be the guy who does that. So...will you let me?"

His words were soft and tender and sincere and as Shelby listened to them and watched his eyes, months and years of sadness and anger and hurt all came pouring out. She laid her head on his shoulder and cried then sobbed then cried some more until she was shaking and trembling.

Through it all Lloyd just held her and stroked her hair. When the sobbing stopped and she was breathing almost normally again he said in a playful way, "So was that a 'yes'?"

She raised her head and looked at him not caring how she looked and said, "I want to say something witty and be all tough but the truth is I'm giving everything I've got to give and I would love to be taken care of for a while."

She was so honest and sincere it nearly made Lloyd tear up, too.

"Nothing would make me happier," he told her. "And, Shelby?"

"Yes?" she said very quietly.

"I do love you."

"I have to stop crying or I'm gonna get a migraine," she said.

"So...you don't want me to love you?" he teased knowing what she meant.

"I hope you love me because...because I'm falling in love with you, Lloyd."

"Hey. I told you I would never hurt you or Teddy."

He raised her chin then asked, "Do you believe me?"

"Yes," she said quietly as he looked into her eyes.

"Okay. Then go home. Relax. Read a book. Watch TV. I'll come by later on and bring you back here," he said.

"And? she asked.

"And then I'll start taking care of you," he told her as though that would answer all her questions.

"What? We just...move in with you?" she asked trying to understand.

"Pretty much," he told her with a smile. "I mean, who else are we trying to impress? Family? Friends? Co-workers? Please. So why wait?"

"But you don't really know anything about me. What if you hate my politics or what if I like to turn the toilet paper roll the opposite of the way you do? What if...."

"I warned you I tend to go 'hog wild' on things," he reminded her in the kindest way. "I'm a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy, Shelby. This is me 24/7 day in and day out. I'm a very simple man. I'm loyal to a fault and I'm...I'm falling in love with you, too, and I love that goofy kid in the bedroom laying Xbox. So turn the toilet paper however you want. Vote for whomever you want. I don't care about any of that."

"Can I have some time to think about it?" she asked.

"Take all the time you need. But please let me see you in the meantime, okay?"

"Okay. Deal," she said sweetly before kissing him. "I should go grab that goofy kid brother of mine and take him home. Or...back to the apartment we live in. But I should probably wash my face first, huh?"

Shelby spent the next day sitting at home just thinking and asking herself questions all day long.

Was Lloyd really the one? Was he perhaps just a ready-made 'bank' to end her financial woes? She was sure age wasn't an issue with him even though she'd never dated anyone over 25 before. She also felt she could trust him and that he really had 'learned his lesson' from the way he'd neglected his wife. And yes, she really did feel like she was in love with him and she knew Teddy had the biggest case of 'hero worship' he'd ever experienced.

So what was bugging her so much? The only thing she could come up with was how fast it all happened. And yet she couldn't help but wonder if good things couldn't happen just as quickly as the bad. Her parents had been wiped off the face of the earth in seconds. Lloyd's wife had ended her life in minutes. Why couldn't love come along and make itself known in a short period of time?

She finally concluded that she hadn't accepted a marriage proposal by agreeing to move in, and although Teddy could be deeply hurt were Lloyd to turn out to be someone else, she decided to follow her instincts.

"Lloyd?" she said when he answered the phone a few minutes later.

"Hey, Shelby. How are you?" he asked with obvious enthusiasm.

"I'm great, actually. How are you?"

"Missing you," he replied.

"Yeah, same here," she said sweetly. "Listen. Is there still room in your house for two other people?"

"Really? Are you serious?" he said as he realized how much he was sounding like Teddy.

"Yes, I'm serious! I've been thinking about this all day, and although I do worry about Teddy, I'm...I'm trusting you," she told him in the kindest voice.

"I swear I won't let you down, Shelby. Not now. Not ever."

"And...I believe you, Lloyd."

There was a short pause before she told him, "And I do love you."

"I love you, too, Shelby. When can I come over and help you move?"

"Well, I know tomorrow is Memorial Day. Would that be too...inappropriate?"

"Um...no. It would be...memorial. Epically memorial!" he told her.

"Okay. Then I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Yes, you will!" he told her.

Shelby waited until Teddy got up that Monday morning to let him know they were moving.

"Where to?" he asked. "Will I still be able to see Connor at school?"

"Yes, you'll still be able to see Connor, but school will be out in another week. Now, as to where we're going, how would like to live at...Lloyd's house?"

Teddy's sleepy eyes grew wide as saucers.

"Are you telling me the truth, Shell?" he asked unable to believe what he'd just been told.

"I am. In fact, he's coming over here this morning to help us move so you need to eat some cereal then go start packing up."

"Yes!!!" he said. "Can I can go pack now?"

Shelby smiled and said, "Sure. Go ahead. We can get something to eat later."

Just minutes later, in fact, Lloyd showed up and again literally swept Shelby off her feet as soon as he saw her.

"Put me down!" she said after screaming happily.

The noise brought a now-fully-awake Teddy out to the living room who said, "Guess where we're moving to, Lloyd?"

He went over and scooped Teddy up and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The boy squealed with laughter as the man he looked up to spun him around several times as fast as he could.

"Am I gonna have my own room?" Teddy asked once Lloyd set him down.

"You sure are," he told him.

"Cool! Can I have Xbox in my room?"

Shelby gave him a look and he put his hands up and said, "Okay. Okay. Just asking."

"We'll talk about it later, okay?" Lloyd told him. "For now, we need to get all your stuff ready to go. I picked up a bunch of boxes from the moving company so what do you say we all get crackin'?"

In less than three hours, every single thing they owned was packed up or otherwise ready to do. It only took two trips in the Tundra to move it all, and by 6pm nearly everything had been put away.

Lloyd sprang for Subway sandwiches for lunch after making sure fast food was okay. Shelby had laughed and told him it was more than okay. She even said okay to pizza as they were too tired to go out, and no one wanted TV dinners again.

Teddy explored every nook and cranny of the house and the garage and by 9pm he was exhausted and fell asleep in his new bed in minutes.

As Lloyd and Shelby checked in on him he said quietly to her, "I'm so glad you guys are in my life."

She turned around and held him tight as she said, "So am I. I don't know who I'm happier for: me or Teddy."

"All I can say is I feel...I feel whole again."

"Yeah. That's a great way to describe it. Our lives have been so...fractured. I...I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever find someone or even be happy again."

He pulled away and looked down into her pretty eyes and asked, "Are you happy, Shelby?"

"Yes. Very," she told him. "Happy and content. I can't explain why, but this just feels so right, you know?"

"I do. I'm sure most people would think we acted so fast we're being irrational, but we're not most people."

"No. No, we're not. Most people haven't been through what we've been through. But even more importantly, this feels right just because of who you are, Lloyd. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself falling in love for someone, you know, so much older than me, but then again, I never imagined meeting anyone like you."

"No, I get it. I don't think I'd have been looking for anyone under, say...30 or so...just because...well, I'm not sure why. I just don't think I would have. But I am so incredibly thankful I decided to stop and watch a baseball game that day. If I hadn't...."

"Don't say it," she said as she laid her head in the crook of his neck. "I don't even want to think about that."

"Then we won't," he told her.

"How about we stop talking and maybe start...loving?" she said with a smile as she looked back up at him.

"Hmmm. I think I could be talked into that," he told her before kissing her softly.

She closed her little brother's door then took her lover's hand and led him to their bedroom where they made love with abandonment as need and want and lust consumed them.

As she lay in his arms she knew she'd made the right decision for her and her brother. She couldn't know the future, but she was as confident as she'd ever been that this was real and that it would last.

As she lay there just thinking and dreaming, Lloyd asked something she'd also been thinking about lately.

"Do you want to have children, Shelby?"

She raised up and smiled at him before saying, "Yes. Very much. Do you?"

"I do," he told her. "I really, really do."

He smiled back then said, "I guess in a way I already have one, huh?"

"You do," she said sweetly. "Are you really okay with that?"