by J. E. Parker
He may have been a pain in my rear end most of the time, but I loved him more than words could ever say. A Daddy's girl since the day I was born, I'd stay that way.
Forever.
Pulling back, I wiped away the tears of happiness that streamed down my cheeks. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming home? I thought you had another week or two left on the road."
He smiled down at me. "Well, Carissa Ann, I figured I'd surprise you." His eyes narrowed the slightest bit. "How's the man-boy treatin' you? Do I need to go dig a hole? If so—"
Heidi snorted and I scoffed.
"Oh my goodness, for the millionth time, you are not allowed to kill Kyle. Like, ever. So quit talking about it."
He grunted before mumbling, "We'll see," under his breath.
I rolled my eyes just as Heidi had done moments before.
Swinging his attention to Heidi, Daddy slid a finger under her chin, forcing her head up. Looking her in the eyes, he slowly said, "What about you? You stayin' away from that Jacobs boy like I told you to?"
Heidi huffed out a breath, but said nothing.
"Bug, I mean it. You go near that boy and I'll break his legs."
Heidi didn't get the chance to respond before Charlotte waltzed into the office, a pretty smile on her beautiful face. "Hey, Daryl," she said. "Didn't know you were back yet."
Dropping the arm he still had wrapped around me, he ran his palm down the side of his bearded face. "Just got back. Wanted to surprise my girls, maybe take-em' out to supper."
Charlotte's smile grew. "How sweet." Like I'd done minutes earlier, she glanced at the clock. "It's almost quitting time for both of them, so why don't y'all go ahead and get out of here. The second shift girls will be here soon and Shelby and me can hold down the fort until then."
"Are you sure?" I asked. "I can stay until—"
She waved her hand, cutting me off. "Course I mean it. Now y'all get out of here, and spend some family time together. Lord knows there is nothing better."
I nodded. "Thanks, Boss Lady."
She smiled. "Anytime, honey. You know that."
Walking over to the time clock, Heidi grabbed both of our time cards and punched us out, while I fetched both our purses from the shelf that hung next to the filing cabinet.
Once I handed her hers, I turned to face Daddy again. "Kyle has my car. He's picking me up at 5:30, but we can follow you."
Daddy scoffed. "Lord almighty, Carissa Ann, I didn't invite the man-boy."
After sliding my purse up my arm and securing it on my shoulder, I shot a glare his way. "Where I go, he goes. Haven't you figured that out by now?"
Daddy, being the drama queen he was, threw his hands up into the air. "Guess I'll just have to deal then."
"Now, now, Daryl," Shelby interjected from behind him. "I know it's hard seeing your little girl fall in love, but just think, before long you'll have an army of grandkids to keep you company."
Shock spread across Daddy's face. Then, "Ah, hell no. That would require my girls to have—" he paused and sucked in a breath "—to have... ya know..."
"Sex," Heidi said. "The word you're looking for is sex."
Daddy's face turned as red as Grandmama’s strawberry-rhubarb pie, and Heidi being Heidi, she took advantage of his embarrassment. "Dirty, sweaty, scream until you can't speak, sex. That's the kind that makes babies." She swung her gaze to me. "Right, Carissa?"
Shelby and Charlotte both burst into laughter.
But me? I about died.
Swear to God, I almost had a heart attack.
"Heidi Lynn Johnson!" Daddy hollered. "I swear on all that is holy I am gonna snatch a knot in your behind."
Wearing a huge smile, Heidi met my eyes and winked. "You ready? I'm sure the Hulk is waiting on you."
Unable to speak, I nodded. "Let's go."
I offered Charlotte and Shelby a quick wave before walking out of the office. Falling in step beside me as we headed down the hall, Heidi bumped my shoulder with hers. "So are you going to tell me? Or do I need to come right out and ask?"
I had no idea what she was talking about. "What?"
She scoffed before glancing over her shoulder at our father, who followed behind us. "You're holding out on me. That's just wrong."
My confusion grew by the second. "Seriously, Bug, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Coming to an abrupt stop, Heidi grabbed my arm stopping me in my tracks as well. Turning to face me, she placed one hand on her hip while keeping the other on my arm. "You know exactly what I'm talking about," she hissed. "You just don't want to tell me."
"Tell you what?"
My question earned me another eye roll. "Do I really have to say it?"
"If you want me to answer, you do."
"Fine," she replied, releasing my arm and flicking her hair back over her shoulder. After peaking at Daddy from the corner of her eye, she stood tall and smiled. "How big is Kyle's dick?"
I gasped and I was fairly certain I heard Daddy start to choke.
"You did not just ask that!"
Spending so much time with Shelby’s house had obviously warped my sweet little sister’s mind.
"What?" she asked, clearly offended by my raised voice. "It's a legitimate question. I mean, with the way he looks and behaves it seems like he'd have a huge co—"
"Heidi!" Daddy hollered, finding his voice.
Head spinning, I grabbed Heidi by the arm and started to drag her down the hall before one of two things could happen. One, Daddy was going to have a stroke. Two, I’d break down and tell her the truth.
That truth? No doubt about it, Kyle’s dick was huge.
THIRTY-THREE
Carissa
Kyle was waiting for me when I stepped outside.
To my surprise, Dottie was too.
Though I didn't know what they were doing together, at the sight of Kyle standing next to his Mama, my heart swelled.
"Mrs. Dottie!" I yelled, walking down the ramp to where they stood next to my car. "You're here!"
The smile she wore was so bright it was nearly blinding. It was so different than the look she wore the day before that it shocked me, momentarily knocking me off kilter.
Something is different...
"I hope you don't mind that I tagged along," she replied, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "I don't want to intrude, but Kyle invited me to supper, and I couldn't resist."
I came to a standstill in front of her. Heidi stood next to me, and Daddy was ten or so feet behind us, his assessing gaze watching the situation from afar.
"I'm glad you came," I replied, shooting Kyle a smile before returning my gaze to her. "As for supper, that sounds perfect. My father just got back in town so we can all go together."
At the mention of Daddy, Dottie's gaze darted behind me.
Tears filled her eyes as she lifted a hand to cover her mouth.
Unable to get a read on the situation, I stepped back and turned, meeting my father’s gaze. "Daddy, have you met—"
I snapped my mouth shut when Daddy started forward, headed straight for us. Eyes narrowed, he looked Dottie over from head to toe. "Dottie?" he asked. "Is that you?"
Dottie nodded, tears falling from her eyes. "It's me."
Daddy's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Well I'll be damned," he said, a grin spreading across his face. "Ain't seen you in forever, lady. Where you been?"
Not wanting Dottie to fall back into the rabbit hole that Kyle had clearly sprung her from, I stepped in, intervening. "Daddy, you're okay with Dottie and Kyle having supper with us, right?"
I prayed he could read my plea-filled eyes. Please don't be a butthead...
He looked at me like I was nuts. "Course I don't mind. Me and Dottie go a ways back. Hell, I knew her before I knew your Mama."
Well, alrighty then...
I chuckled. "So it's a done deal. Now we just need to—"
Heidi tapped me on the shoulder, grabbing my attention.
&nb
sp; Brow quirked, she wore a sassy expression on her face. Right away, I knew what she wanted.
Crap!
So wrapped up in everything going around me, I hadn't introduced her yet.
I was such an idiot.
"Before we go any further," I said to Dottie, determined to fix my mess up. "I'd like to introduce you to my baby sister." Moving my hand from Heidi to Dottie and then back to Heidi, I continued. "Heidi, this is Dottie, Kyle's Mama. Dottie this is Heidi, my pain-in-the-butt little sister."
I was a second away from explaining to Dottie that she needed to look directly at Heidi if she spoke to her since she was hearing impaired, but there was no need.
Smiling, Dottie tapped each of her ears, gesturing to the hearing aids Heidi wore in hers.
Beside me, Heidi stiffened.
Though it was obvious that she was partially deaf, Heidi always panicked when meeting others for the first time. People could be cruel, that was a fact, and Heidi seemed to attract the meanest of humans.
I held my breath waiting for Dottie to do or say something else.
Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long.
Raising her hands into the air, she quickly signed, "Hello, Heidi. It's nice to meet you," while mouthing the words.
My jaw almost hit the ground.
"Once upon a time I was a teacher at Georgia School for the Deaf," she continued to sign. "But I became a stay at home mother after my youngest was born."
Heidi's face lit up and before I could stop her—not that I would've—she stepped forward and pulled a frail Dottie into her arms, hugging her tight.
Dottie closed her eyes and embraced her right back, soaking up every bit of comfort she was offered. It made my heart happy—extremely so—to see.
I opened my mouth to tell them as much, but stopped short when an older model, pristine pink convertible Cadillac sped through the shelter's opened gate, kicking up gravel as it flew past the courtyard and into the parking lot.
I'd never seen the car before, and didn't have time to make out the driver because the car was headed straight for us.
It wasn't slowing down either.
Instinct kicked in and I lunged for Heidi and Dottie both while Kyle lunged for me. My arms wrapped around Heidi and Kyle's wrapped around me.
Behind us, Daddy kicked up a fuss, hollering for all the world to hear.
Panicked, I held onto my sister for dear life as the sound of tires sliding across gravel reached my ears. I braced for the impact I thought was to come and sent up a silent prayer.
Please God, I begged. Don’t let us die.
I held my breath, waiting for the collision.
It never came.
My chest rose and fell in rapid succession as Kyle released me and turned, looking behind me. "Goddammit!" he screamed. "You could have killed somebody!"
A door opened, then slammed shut.
"Listen, here, Hulk. I don't give a good dadgum how delicious you look, if your sexy behind barks at me like that again, I'm pulling out my flyswatter!" Grandmama, of all people, hollered back.
Heidi blew out a breath and met my gaze. "She drives almost as bad as you."
Dottie giggled like a little girl as I stuck out my tongue at Heidi in response. "Brat."
Feeling like my heart may explode, I dropped my arms from Heidi and spun around. "Grandmama!" I fussed. "What is the matter with you? You could've killed us!"
Wearing a baby pink sundress—which matched the color of the car she was driving, I might add—a white headscarf, sparkly silver sandals and her signature fuchsia lipstick, she looked a hot mess.
If I hadn't been so dang mad, I would've loved it.
"And when did you get a new car?" I added, waving to the car that looked like it had rolled straight out of a Bruce Springsteen music video.
Grandmama squared her shoulders and smiled like a loon. "Mr. Money Bags bought it for me yesterday."
"Brantley?"
Grandmama jerked her head down once in affirmation. "It was a gift for kidnapping him and Clara's hardheaded self the night of Shelby's bachelorette party. If it hadn't been for me, those two never would've gotten together."
Next to me, Kyle looked confused, almost as if he didn't know whether to cuss or laugh.
"Now," Grandmama said, placing her hands on her hips. "Since I've got y'all in one spot, I wanna know why I ain't see hide nor hair"—she pointed from Kyle to me—"of you two since Carissa's graduation."
Here we go...
"We've been busy," Kyle answered.
"Busy doing what?" A troublemaking grin spread across her face, and I knew whatever came out of her mouth next would embarrass the dickens out of me. “Whatcha been doing, Carissa? Baby dancing?"
"I don't know what that means,” I huffed.
Heidi smacked my arm. "Think about it, doofus."
Then it suddenly hit me.
"Oh!" My cheeks flushed in embarrassment as I glanced at Kyle.
Kyle wrapped an arm around me, pulled me into his side and nodded toward Daddy. "Grandmama, put a lid on it before you get me killed, yeah?"
"Oh please," she said, waving a dismissive hand in the air. "Daryl ain't gonna do a dadgum thing."
Realizing that this was not an appropriate conversation to have in front of Daddy nor Dottie, I looked up at Kyle. "Are you ready to go? Because I really think we need to go."
Kyle nodded. "Yeah, Princess. Let's—"
"Dottie," Grandmama suddenly said, effectively cutting Kyle off. Her voice was unsure and full of surprise, something that wasn't normal for her.
"Hi, Doris," Dottie said, "It's nice to see you again."
Grandmama's mouth fell open and tears filled her eyes. "You're here"—her eyes moved to Kyle, then back to Dottie—"with Kyle."
I couldn't see Dottie, but I assumed she nodded. "I am. He and Carissa invited me over for supper."
"Supper?" Grandmama's eyes lit up. "Now that's something I can handle."
"Oh, shit," Kyle mumbled low enough for only me to hear.
"I'll tell y'all what—everybody pile in their cars and head on over to my house. I'll make a few calls, round the family up and we'll make a big thing out of it. Haven't had a family supper in a while and I'm itching to get all my babies back under one roof."
"Grandmama—" I started.
"Flyswatter, Carissa," she said, shooting me a warning look. "I'll pull it out."
My mouth snapped shut.
Stayed that way too.
I’d seen Grandmama throw Hendrix and Evan both a beating with a simple flyswatter, and I certainly didn’t want to be on the receiving end of such a punishment.
"Alright, then," Grandmama continued, smiling from ear-to-ear, "let's boogie!"
Heidi laughed behind me as she jumped back into her new Cadillac, fired up the engine, and shifted into reverse. Before backing up, she reached over and cranked up the radio.
Dottie joined Heidi in laughter when Jailhouse Rock started blaring over the speakers, drowning out the sounds of the rush-hour traffic.
"Well," Daddy said, sliding his hands into his pocket. "At least the demented old bat has good taste in music."
"Dottie!" Grandmama screamed over the music. "Come on! You're riding with me!'
Kyle’s Mama didn't hesitate.
After hugging Heidi and me one last time, she pressed a kiss to her only son’s cheek, waved at Daddy and rushed to the passengers side of the car. Popping open the door, she climbed in and fastened her seat belt.
Then she smiled—and I mean she smiled big—when Grandmama handed her a headscarf of her own to wear. After helping her put it on, they both waved at us all one last time.
"Y'all better not be late! I mean it!"
“Take care of my Mama, Grandmama!” Kyle yelled before mumbling, “I just got her back.”
With a roll of her eyes, she started to back up.
After whipping the car around, she shifted into drive and took off, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
Dropping his arm from around me, my guy placed his hands on his hips. "What the fuck just happened?"
Daddy shrugged. "The Crazy Old Biddy happened."
That pretty much summed it up.
THIRTY-FOUR
Carissa
I wanted to scream.
Sitting on Grandmama's front porch steps, I held Kyle's busted hand in my own as I examined his split knuckles and bruised fingers. I’d tried to check them out in the car, but he hadn’t let me look. Now, he had no choice. And let me tell you, seeing him injured made my chest ache the way a rotten tooth would: continuous and without cease.
He swore that he was fine, that it didn't hurt the least little bit, but I had a hard time believing him. He'd never lied to me before, but I doubted he'd ever tell me if he truly was in pain.
Hence the reason I wanted to scream.
Turning his hand over, I ran my fingertips over the inside of his wrist. "Are you going to tell me?" I asked, forcing my voice to remain steady. "Or do I need to get Grandmama out here and let her take her flyswatter to you."
"I'm fine, Princess.” He grimaced and looked away. “Nothing for you to worry about."
"I know you'll be fine," I replied, not fooled by his attempt to evade my question. "But that's not what I was referring too."
Tightening his jaw, he stared out into the front yard where Liam, Declan, and Lucca were playing football, while Bella and Melody watched from the swing set in Pop's yard, which was right next door.
"Tell me," I whispered, not wanting anyone else to overhear us.
He turned his head, eyes landing on mine. "Got suspended from work."
My mouth fell open. "What?" I hissed. "Why?"
"Because I punched Carson in his ugly damn face."
"You hit Carson?" I repeated his question like a loon. Why I had been surprised at his answer, I didn’t know. I’d known the confrontation was coming, and I’d even expected it to go down the way it did, but it still frustrated me. Kyle deserved better than the anger he wore like a second skin.
The look he gave me was all the answer I needed.
