Page 63 of Dare You to Run
“I gives myself a hairs cut. Momma got mad.” Her voice is sweet and innocent and everything I imagine Dagen was at that age.
“Yes. Little Miss decided she wanted to try out some bangs. And then hid the hair in Sloane’s backpack.” Her mom walks closer and stands with her hands on her hips.
“It was in my homework folder, Day. She put it in there.” Her brother Sloane throws his hands up as if to askcan you believe this shit.
“You must be Hendrix.” Vaughan walks up to me at that very moment, a big smile on his face as he offers me his hand.
The fact that he is Dagen’s dad is undeniable. They share the same green eyes, the same smile and the same nose. Her hair is darker than his that is sprinkled with grays.
“Yes, sir. Hendrix Dare. Nice to meet you.” I shake his hand and pull out every ounce of manners Miss Shirley tried to drill into our thick skulls. “I hope I didn’t overstep by accompanying Dagen. I wanted to see to it that she made it home safely, and to make sure the repairs are to your satisfaction.”
He pats my shoulder then grips it with a strong hold. “Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. I’m sure you could tell how worried I was about my girl.”
“Just a little, sir,” I smile.
“Woah. You have lots of pikturs on your body. More than Uncle Nix.” Sloane comes walking over to where I stand with his dad, his big whiskey eyes tracing all of my ink.
“You must be Sloane.” I hold my fist out for him to dab and he does so happily.
“Yup. Sloane Robert McCallan. And that’s my sister Autumn Jade. You can call her AJ.”
“Nice to meet you, Sloane.” I pass him a small smile then stand up to my full height to find Dagen’s mom right behind him. “Hello, ma’am. You must be Mrs. McCallan.”
“Oo. Ouch. Ma’am and Mrs in one sentence,” she laughs then pulls me in for a hug. “Camille, please. And thank you so much for taking care of Dagen.”
My hands don’t know what to do. From what Dagen has said, her father would cut a man’s eyes out with a rusty butter knife for looking at his wife, so my fear is quite great. I end up air hugging her, not fully touching her back.
Dagen laughs as our “hug” breaks. “Dad’s not going to murder you Hendrix. He only wants to do that to men who want to steal mom away. I think she’s safe around you.”
Vaughan laughs as does Camille and I relax.
“Come inside and eat. Dagen said I better have food ready for you two, because she was starved since you didn’t want to stop to eat,” Camille tells us, ushering us to the side of the house.
Before I follow behind her, I turn around and go to the trunk, grabbing Dagen’s bag from it and handing it to her.
“Here you go, lit–Dagen.” I quickly release it once she takes hold of the handles and take two steps away from her.
She rolls her lips between her teeth, holding back a laugh, but I’m not taking any chances. I look at the land sprawled out behind and to the side of their property, and see a vast amount of space where a body could be buried.
“Hey, mister,” Sloane calls.
“You can call me Henny,” I tell the little guy.
He smiles wide. “Henny. You wanna see my new bow and arrow? Day bought it for my birthday and she’s gonna show me how to shoot a deer.”
“One day, Sloaney Baloney. First we’ll start with shootin’ at hay bales. It’ll be a few years before we start hunting bud.”
His face falls and he drags his feet as they walk into their home. The five of them laugh and smile and hug as if they haven’t seen one another in several years and not days. I grow a little uncomfortable as this is all so foreign to me. Hugs weren’thanded out freely when I was growing up, and by the time we got to Miss Shirley’s we were way too “cool” for affection. At least in the motherly way.
I feel a tug on my hand and look down to see AJ standing there, her very uneven bangs falling to the side. She smiles and pulls on my hand.
“We hafta go inside. Momma made food.”
“Oh. Sorry. I forgot.” She doesn’t let go of me and I follow her in.
Something about this moment strikes me, but I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t know what it is about a simple walk with this little girl, but I get a feeling it’s big.
“Vaughan, I really don’t want to intrude. I don’t have a problem staying at a hotel near the airport. This was so last minute I didn’t even have time to book a flight. I was planning to just show up in the morning and take the first one out to Biloxi.”
