Chapter 16
Cal stayed close. He didn’t know why he wanted to rescue her tonight, but…he did. He shot a glare at Slater Davis, until the guy got the message. The other man held up his hands quickly in a gesture of understanding and surrender.
“This really hasn’t been a great night,” Davis said. Then disappeared into the crowd. For some reason, the back of the guy’s pants was wet now.
Cal would not say what it looked like. He was more mature than that.
Davis would just have to go find someone else for his fun tonight. He wasn’t about to get Auggie.
“Lean against me, if you need to,” Cal whispered near her ear. “No one will be able to see.”
He could see Claudia coming through the crowd, one of the younger girls in her arms. She had all three of them. The girls were okay. He felt the tension leave the woman next to him.
“I don’t need rescued…but thanks. I was…
starting to panic there. There are a lot of little sisters to keep track of in here tonight.
” He heard the grudging admission and took it for what it was.
Miss Stubborn wouldn’t admit a weakness.
Especially to him. Not in this little game of theirs.
“It’s these stupid shoes. I shouldn’t have worn them, especially without my leg brace, but…
I didn’t want to wear granny shoes and that brace with this dress. ”
Vanity. The things women did to themselves for vanity, he would never understand.
He’d have thought she was beautiful in the brace and galoshes, if that was what it took for her to be comfortable, no hesitation.
Of course, he thought she was beautiful no matter what.
There was that. “Would it help to slip them off for a bit?”
She shook her head. “I’d never get them back on. I’m afraid I’m at my limit for tonight. Some of the girls, too. I just hate to cut Em’s time short. I think she needed tonight. Her last break-up did a number on her. Having two guys interested in her was good for her.”
Auggie was practically curled up in his arms. Her words were almost a whisper.
It was the first time he’d been this close to her without the baby being between them.
He just did what he had to do to support her, without looking like he was copping a feel or anything.
There were Tyler guys rumbling closer. He didn’t want a problem with them tonight.
He just didn’t have time to crack skulls.
Her sisters appeared as if by magic. Em on one side, with the preschooler toddling along next to her. Junie on the other, with the baby-Auggie in her arms.
Just as a crowd came around the edge of the tables, headed straight for the little girl who couldn’t see them coming. Two were in front of her before anyone could move. Stumbling. Cutting her off from her sisters.
That tiny little girl had nowhere to go. Just that fast.
Calloway just reacted, elbowing a guy out of the way, and scooping the child close before she could get trampled. He snapped at the drunken group, not a one of them older than Em and Clancy, to watch where they were going. Someone could get hurt with those idiots as drunk as they were.
His heart was pounding, just from that single instance. He held Markie close. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re okay. I promise. You’re safe. You’re safe; I have you. I promise.”
“Cow-way hold Markie!” Tiny arms snaked around his neck and she sniffled against him. That was all it took. Cal was a goner. The kid stole his heart again forever in that instant. Just like Clancy used to do when she was just as small.
“I’ve got you, baby girl. I’ve got you. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.” He just held her and rocked.
Maybe the keeping him for breeding stock thing would be okay. He looked far too beautiful holding Markie like that. Protectively.
Auggie’s heart was still racing.
Her baby girl…
Em was telling off those people she’d known in school for being so careless. They were just ignoring her, drunk off their rear-ends. Her sister had always seemed so much older than her classmates, at times. Apparently, that hadn’t changed in four years.
Auggie’s first thoughts were for her baby girl. “Is she okay?”
Em finally got the idiots to apologize, but it wouldn’t make a difference. Markie was still afraid. Em scooped Tobi up. “I think we’ve had enough for tonight?”
“Me, too.” Auggie definitely had. Every muscle in her body ached right now. She just wanted to get the girls home. “I am going to burn these shoes in the wood stove, I swear.”
She reached up and patted Markie’s back. She looked up at the man who held her sister so close. “I can take her now.”
“You’re obviously hurting. I could see it clear across the room. I’ve got her. Markie and I are buddies, aren’t we, little bit? Me, and Markie.”
Markie just sniffled and rested her head on his broad shoulder. Obviously exhausted. She just melted on his shoulder like chocolate on the sidewalk in that particular way young kids had.
“Does anyone have Baby Miss Missy?” he whispered. Auggie’s heart melted. He even knew the doll’s name. Em passed him the doll, and he gave it to the little girl so gently. That was about all it took. Markie’s eyes were drifting shut already, one arm around her precious doll.
All right, so he did have the power to melt a woman’s heart, at times. Devils usually did. But letting Calloway Ellis Grady ride to her rescue…not something she was exactly comfortable with.
Then again, she wasn’t stupid. Markie could get heavy at times, and hurting herself even worse to avoid wounded pride would be an idiotic thing to do. Auggie just nodded instead. “We need to get our things, then I think we’ll take the girls home.”
The expected whining came. But…little girls were good at that. “The dance ends in fifteen minutes anyway. Let’s get out of here before the parking lot gets stupid.”
“Just a minute. I’ll meet you there,” Em said. “I’m going to go tell Suzanne Hollister that her son is stinking drunk, and she needs to make sure he has a ride home. He’s stupid enough to drive this way.”
She darted off, Tobi still in her arms.
“She always did move quickly,” Cal said, as they watched Em stop by Claudia. Tobi leaned toward Claudia and the other woman took her. Then the three hurried across the community center.
“Suzanne will listen to Claudia better than she will Em, at least.”
“Em rushes in where angels fear to tread, doesn’t she?” he asked, leaning closer.
“Sometimes. It’s always worried me.”
“Me, too. She and Clancy…I remember when Clancy was this small.” He took Markie’s blanket from Auggie’s hand, and covered the little monster with it, expertly.
Markie was almost out. Right there, on his shoulder, like she’d been there a thousand times.
“I used to complain about having to babysit, but…now…I wouldn’t trade those times with her for anything. They are some of my best memories.”
“I know. I feel the same way.” She looked over her shoulder. Junie had stayed a bit behind, Maeya in her arms. Her eyes met Auggie’s, and she smirked. Made eyes at Cal’s back. And then the brat fanned herself.
Auggie turned away. Looked at her pack of little sisters. “Ok, ladies, let’s get to it. Everyone look down. All shoes are present, correct?”
She’d learned her lesson with the heathens before. They fully believed shoes were optional, her children. Which…Junie, too, for that matter.
She did a spot check. They had all the little girl shoes they’d come with, at least. Markie had her glasses—they had a strap on the back to prevent her losing them; Auggie removed them quickly—Maeya’s bag was slung over Junie’s shoulder.
“Everyone has everything they brought tonight, right?
No one brought any toys? Books—" She shot their number one bookworm a look. Jules shook her head. “Anything?”
“We’re good, I think,” January, her quietest sister, said. Always quiet and responsible and thinking it was her job to help. “We’re ready, as soon as we have Em and Tobi.”
“Ok, did anyone check to make sure Em had her shoes? She’s notorious for taking them off and losing them everywhere.” Her sisters giggled. But Auggie was only half joking. Em was a bit uncivilized and always had been.
Of course, she wouldn’t have her sister any other way.
Em and Claudia and Clancy returned, with Tobi.
Then they were ready. Cal told his sisters he was taking Clancy home with him; and telling Claudia and Cloe they should just camp over at his house.
Because it was late out, and he would worry about them out there on the roads.
He did like to hover over his sisters. Cloe just sent him a quiet look—she only lived ten minutes away from him, at most.
It was one of his real redeeming qualities. Cal was a good brother. She was half-suspecting he’d be a good father, too. He just…looked so natural holding her little girl like that.
A warm hand snaked around her waist. “Lean on me if you need to across the gravel. I’m here if you need me. And I’m strong enough to carry you. For however long you need it.”
She shot him a look. She didn’t trust the man one bit. He knew it, too. The snake. He was sneaky enough to try something right now, too. Her stomach clenched when she thought about that. “Are you after something from me, Calloway Grady?”
“Just being a good best friend’s older brother?” He shot her a look right back.
Oh, he was a dangerous sort, wasn’t he? Giving her that look, while holding her kid. “I don’t trust you one bit. You’re after something. Your kind usually is. You’re not the first to try to charm me, you know.”
“I bet not. What did Slater Davis want, anyway?”
Besides dry pants? Auggie hadn’t missed it, though he’d said it was a food accident. Down the back of his pants. She could only imagine what had caused it.
Slater Davis probably wanted the same thing this man was wanting. Auggie was wise to their male ways. Guys like those two—yes, they were used to getting what they wanted. Especially from women.
“To dance. When I told him I couldn’t, he offered to get me something to drink.
He kept staring at my hair.” She shrugged lightly.
She wore her hair long because when it was short she looked horrible.
And the longer it was—the less it stood up all over the top of her head.
Her cousin Nikki had beautiful curls that rioted everywhere.
Gorgeous. But Nikki’s were manageable. Auggie’s were twice as thick, and usually out of control. Like snakes on Medusa’s head.
So were Tobi’s, January’s, and the baby’s. She envisioned a lot of hair detangler in her future. But Slater had apparently liked the wild red chaos.
“I’m sure he wanted more than dancing. You look very nice tonight. Tempting to every mortal man in the room. I was trying to catch you to dance with me, too. But the other men in this place kept getting to you first. I think it was some sort of conspiracy.”
“Why, Calloway, I think that was a compliment.” That was the last she could say, as the kids had caught up with them from where they’d been telling her uncle Nick’s and uncle Phil’s children good-bye.
“Just a fact. I don’t believe in flattery.
Just fact. You look good, and you know it, too.
And the hair—tempts a man. It tempts a man.
In so many ways.” His hand tightened on her waist as Avril slipped in front of them to push open the doors of the community center.
“I didn’t realize it was as long as it is.
Until last week—at breakfast. I can’t get that night out of my head.
The afternoon—completely gone, but that night… ”
“You still don’t know what happened?” Auggie immediately put her hand on the little girl’s shoulder. Avril tended to dart out of places sometimes. And she was going to ignore that he was saying things like that.
He shook his head. “No clue. I have an appointment with my doctor next week. I think it could have been a migraine, though. Cloe thinks that was the most likely explanation.”
She had to focus on her girls, not Calloway Ellis Grady.
The butt. Her sisters, not the man. “I remember when you’d have them as a teenager.
I remember Cloe being scared once. We were there, and you were sleeping on the couch, I think.
Your mom made us move to another room, and turned all the lights off for you. And we had to be really quiet.”
“I don’t really remember what happens after I am back to normal. It’s been over a decade since I have had one though.”
She was distracted when Jules and Avril got too close to the road. She called them back sharply, reminding them of traffic.
Her sisters didn’t quite know how to behave out in public just yet. Probably because her father had kept them isolated ninety-five percent of the time in whatever shacks he’d hidden them away in. But they would figure it out, together.
And while she might be flirting with Claudia’s brother now, with him…she knew he wouldn’t take it seriously. Or assume something.
He was as safe a man as possible now.
Calloway Grady. Safe. Yeah, right.
How the world could certainly change, couldn’t it?