Confounded: Part II - 27. Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27 --==Mitchell’s POV==--

I was still laughing when I followed Kit into the house, immediately gaining the attention of Tay who was in the kitchen, finishing preparations on dinner.

“What did you do?” he asked, glancing at the door leading to the bedrooms. “Kit stormed in here with the face of a thundercloud.”

“Just rattling his chain a bit,” I snickered, going over for a kiss. “He’s got a date tonight. With your nephew.”

“Ah! Suddenly, ze plot sickens,” Tay said, elbowing me gently as I wrapped my arms around him from behind. “Now I know why Tom’s been making himself very useful today. Oh, I had him move the stuff back into his room, by the way. Since punishments’ off and all that.”
I nodded.

“They’ve been texting all day; I had to threaten Kit with the old ‘or I’ll take it away’ line. Hadn’t used that in years. What is that wonderful smell; what are we eating?”

“Lasagna,” it came back, making me stiffen for a second.

“Oh…really…uhm…”

“Oh, thank you so much. Relax, tall one; like I said, Tom has been making himself very useful. You’ll note the actual good smell coming out of that oven? That’s his doing. He’s made dinner.”

“I wondered why there was no faint rubber smell when you said lasagna.”
That earned me a slap on the wrist and I pressed my lips on his cheek to stay in his good graces for the remainder of this day.
“The kid can cook, huh?”

“Apparently. We went to the store and when I asked him what he wanted for dinner, he came up with that. So when I explained that my lasagna would make excellent traction for any road-vehicle out there…he offered to make it instead. And you know me…”

“Any way out of cooking and you’ll jump at it. Yes, I know. Do I have time to go take a shower, or…”
Glancing at the oven clock, Tay nodded.

“Yeah, you have about 15 minutes. Tell Kit?”

“Will do.”
I gave him another kiss and made myself scarce.

Passing Kit’s bedroom door, I softly knocked. When no answer came, I went in. Apparently he’d had the same idea; the door to his bathroom was closed. Soft whistling came through and I heard the tap running. Exiting, I quickly went to our bedroom and followed his example.

**********

Heaven. Pure unadulterated heaven.

Taking another bite of what was probably the best lasagna ever, I couldn’t help but growl my appreciation, earning a killer stare from the husband unit. To my right, Kit was digging in like no tomorrow, earning an equal stare.

“It’s just lasagna,” Tay muttered.

“It’s not your lasagna. Makes all the difference,” Kit replied, with his mouth full. He never spoke with his mouth full. Swallowing, he grinned. “Sorry.”

“Get stuffed.”

“I will,” he shot back.

“Thanks, Tom. I’ll never hear the end of this one,” Tay said, quasi chagrined, addressing his nephew.

“Sorry.”

I could tell he was pleased that we liked what he made, but taking a compliment definitely wasn’t his strong suit. He did participate a little more in the conversation, though, which was a good sign. A lot less lip, no moodiness in sight and sometimes even an amused smirk around his sharp mouth during some of the conversation. The kid was finally thawing.

He didn’t like it when the focus of the conversation was on him. Then he’d withdraw, go quiet. At times, there was this longing look he tried very hard to not show, but it was there. He was ruthless to himself to hide it. When everyone laughed, for instance, it flashed across his face. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t had much to laugh about in the last several months. I noticed Kit saw it too. As much as he tried to hide it, Tom was vulnerable. Very much, if I was any judge.
The psychiatrist friend of mine returned to the fore of my mind.

“Tom, would you mind coming to my office for a minute, once dinner’s over?”

“…ok…”
Almost immediately, he became guarded.

“Nothing serious, I just want to talk to you about something.”

“Sure.”
Sending him a nod, I then eyed the leftover lasagna.

“Now someone better grab that before I do.”
Before the words had even left my mouth, two hands reached greedily towards the dish.

**********

About half an hour after dinner, Tom appeared in the doorway to my office. I motioned for him to take the seat in front of my desk. He sat down, the guarded expression back in place on his face.

“Relax, Tom. You did nothing wrong.”
The expression remained.

God, kid…what else happened, that made you trust people so little? I thought.

“I’d like to talk to you about a psychiatrist friend that I have?” I said instead, keeping my thoughts to myself.

“Yeah, Kit told me.”

“Would you want to give it a try?”
He bit his lower lip.

“I’d prefer not to, I don ‘t like shrinks. But…maybe this one won’t be so bad. The last one…”
He suddenly stopped speaking.

“It’s okay,” I said softly. “My friend…she’s actually used to working with young adults. And if you don’t want talk to her, then don’t. But I thought it might be good for you, to talk to someone who is a) a professional and b) someone you talked to willingly. It is your choice to go, or not. I’d never make you go.”
That made him look up.

“You wouldn’t?”

“Of course not.

“So I don’t have to go…”
I shook my head.

“No. You don’t have to. But I’d consider it a personal favor to me, if you did. I think it’d be good for you. You’ve… seen things someone your age should not see. Or experience. That does something to a person, especially one as young as you are still, and maybe you need a little help getting through it.”
He mulled that over for a while and his guard seemed to lessen somewhat.

“..ok…”

“Ok, you want me to make an appointment for you?”

“Yeh…”

“Very well, I’ll set it up.” He made as if to get up from the chair. “There’s something else I’d like to talk to you about…”
He stalled in midair, an eyebrow raised. “About you and Kit…”
Slowly lowering himself back into the seat, his face reddened a little.
“He’s falling for you. Hard. I hope you can appreciate that.”

“I…”

“Just listen, please. I’m not going to tell you that you can’t do this or that because you’ll do it anyway; boys will be boys. But Tom…I’m not a fool. I think we both know who the more experienced one is, of the two of you. Because of that, I expect you to be responsible. You know what I’m talking about, yes?”
He didn’t say a word and avoided to look at me, but he barely nodded.

“Thank you.”
Relief was evident on his face at the clear dismissal as he got up and went over to the door, opening it.
“Oh, and Tom; one more thing…”

I waited until he did look me in the eye.

“Don’t hurt my kid.”
He swallowed and held my gaze.

“No sir…”
Sir? As long as I’d known him, he’d never once called me that before.