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Dakota reached up, tapping Norma’s arm. “What he really did was much smarter.”
Norma leaned her hip against the table, her eyes gleaming with interest. “That so? What’d he do?”
“He shielded me and Hope with hisbody.”
“Oh, yes,” she all but purred. “That is better.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Folks will love that,” Norma said. “I’ll be sure to pass that around now that I know the story from the horse’s mouth.”
“Please don’t,” I grumbled.
“Couldn’t hurt to set people straight, right, buddy?” Colt asked, winking at me. Then he turned to Norma as he flipped his white mug right side up on the table. “Coffee would be great, Norma.”
She began to fill his cup. “Sure thing, sugar.”
Austin moved to flip his own cup over, then stopped when I lifted a brow at him.
Norma filled Dakota’s cup and then mine before she left, promising to bring Austin a milkshake.
“So, you never did tell me how you got here, Little Black.”
Austin bristled, shaking his head. “Little Black? I’m taller than you. By a lot.”
“Not exactly a tall feat,” I mumbled, wincing when Dakota’s elbow connected with my bicep. I’d shifted on the bench seat to avoid the blow I’d known was coming, and that only shifted my weight onto my injured butt cheek, making it hurt even worse to be sitting on the worn red vinyl.
Unfortunately for me, all of the stools at the diner’s bar were taken by the high school’s basketball team when we’d come in, and I didn’t have it in me to ask them to quit their chatting so I could stand instead of sit.
It’d be rude, sure, but worse—the embarrassment.
“You’re right,” Dakota said to Austin. “You’re not Little Black. It doesn’t fit. Gimme time, I’ll come up with somethin’ better. Now, spill. How’d you get here without your big brother knowin’?”
“I took the bus.”
She gaped at him. “Youdidn’t.”
He nodded, confirming what I already knew to be true and had given him a serious talking to about. The kid wasn’t mine, but after his dad bailed the same way my own dad had nearly twenty years earlier, it was moments like that when I felt like I was. And not a very good one, either.
Dakota was still shocked by that news, and something in my chest pinched at the way her face scrunched up in concern for him. “You coulda been killed!”
Austin shrugged. “Better than hitchhiking, right?”
“Not much, honey. Not much.” She gestured to me with one hand while blocking my view of her lips with the other, whisper-shouting, “How mad was this guy? Bet he wasbigmad.”
“The biggest,” he confirmed, and they had a nice little laugh at my expense—Colt included.
“I’m right here.”
“You know it’s only because he loves you, though, don’t you?” Dakota went on, completely ignoring me. Her tone was softer now, and she’d dropped the act with her hand blocking her mouth.
All I could do was stare at it as I waited for Austin to reply. I’d almost kissed her in that dingy basement, and as easy as it would’ve been to do that if the goat hadn’t interrupted us… right now? Hearing her soft words reassuring Austin that I loved him made me want to kiss her even more.
“Sure, I guess,” Austin replied, failing to sound as casual as he probably wanted to. He cleared his throat, chuckling lightly. “Well, and he’s a total control freak.”
I rolled my eyes. “Still right here.”
Once again, it was like I hadn’t even spoken. Dakota reached across the table and took Austin’s hand, giving it—and my heart—a quick squeeze. “I can see that. From one youngest sibling to another, don’t let him push you around too much.”
