Between the Sheets by Molly O'Keefe Page B

the other day, when Ty took him fishing. Even though they didn’t catch any fish, it had been the best day in his whole life and he’d tried not to show Ty how happy he was. How close he was to bawling like a baby. So, at the restaurant they went to after fishing, when no one was looking, he took a pack of cigarettes out of a woman’s purse when she went to the bathroom.
    After that he didn’t feel like crying anymore.
    “What … what sort of stuff do we do in the class?”
    “Scott from your class is working on some miniature sculptures.”
    Scott was a pretty cool guy. He had been in Casey’s group for the medieval castle project at school and he’d made this really awesome tiny throne and some soldiers and horses for the castle.
    “Look over there,” she said, pointing to a low shelf in the middle of the room. The top of it was covered in tiny clay figures. He recognized half the figures from the Skylanders video game.
    Ty got him that game. And the second one. Ty had bought him like a gazillion video games when they moved here and he’d put them all in Casey’s bedroom. Which had been awesome for a while; Casey had playedvideo games all night, but now he’d totally figured out that Ty did that so he wouldn’t actually have to look at Casey. Or talk to him.
    “These are cool,” he murmured, picking up a little elf character with a flaming arrow notched to a tiny bow. “Really cool.” This was where Scott must have done the work for the castle project. He imagined Ms. Monroe helping him, and his skin itched he was so jealous.
    “Well, if you’d like, I’ll give you some clay and you can work with that today.”
    He bent down, peering closer at the tiny flames eating up that arrow. They looked so real.
    “That would be all right, I guess,” he said.
    She started to gather up the crystals and cloths. “I’d better get ready.” She picked up the metal chandelier and the towel of dirty crystals and headed down the hallway on the other side of the barn.
    He looked down at the crystal in his hand. It caught the light, and a bright little circle showed up on the clay figures in front of him. He moved the crystal in his hand and the circle shifted from figure to figure, like a little spotlight.
    He put the crystal in his pocket, where it sat heavy and hot.
    And then he picked up that elf with the flaming arrow and he put it in his pocket, too.

Chapter 6
    “I don’t need a babysitter.” Casey was picking the pepperoni off the pizza Ty had ordered. The kid, as far as Ty could tell, had a pizza eating system. Eat all the pepperoni, eat the cheese, eat the crust. Repeat.
    “So you’ve said.”
    “I’ll just watch video games in my room. It’s not like I’m going to burn the house down.”
    “I’m pretty much done talking about this.” Ty stood at the front windows, looking for any sign of Gwen. It was nothing but dark out there, the lights of Shelby’s house set back from the road the only break in the thick blackness.
    All the lights were on in that house, again. Which was weird. Even the little window up in the eaves.
    I wonder what’s going on .
    “Can I have another piece of pizza?” Casey asked.
    “How many have you had?”
    “Five,” Casey burped the answer.
    Ty winced and turned on his kid, who was beaming as if he’d won the talent show. “I’m going to give you a little advice, buddy. This girl that’s coming over? She’s pretty. Really pretty. And that garbage, that won’t impress her.”
    “Is she as pretty as the girl you’re going out with?” Casey asked, angling for information. Ty hadn’t told him who he was dating because he worried his dad dating his teacher might be weird for Casey. When he was Casey’s age, if his dad had done that he would have dieda thousand horrible humiliated deaths. Not that his dad would have ever had a chance with one of his teachers, and not that Mom, no matter what phase of broken up or together she and Dad were in, would have ever