“When do the girls leave?” I ask, changing the subject.
“In two days,” Maddy replies, still not meeting her father’s eyes.
“We’re leaving early Monday morning. It’s only two hours from the city,” he explains.
“Do you want to come?” Hazel asks me.
I glance at Wylder, and he nods. “Sure, baby. I’ll come with you guys. I want to see if the camp is as miserable as Maddox thinks it is.”
“Oh. It will be,” she says. “There are going to be so many bugs. I hope you’re ready to get bitten, Hazel.”
Hazel’s eyes grow wide at her sister’s statement. “I hate bugs.” She sticks out her tongue and gags. “They’re the worst.”
“They’re as big as softballs in Indiana,” Maddy adds, trying to scare the heck out of Hazel. “I haven’t even mentioned the spiders.”
“Maddox,” Wylder snaps, making Maddy seal her lips shut in a hurry. “The bugs are no different there than here, Hazel.”
“Is that true, Tate?” she asks me for confirmation.
“It’s true,” I lie with the best convincing head nod I can muster.
City bugs and Indiana bugs are not the same. No one will ever be able to convince me otherwise, but I can’t tell the kid that. She’d have a panic attack before she even got there.
“I’m going to miss you girls this summer,” I tell them.
“You’ll live,” Maddy whispers. The sass is strong with her today. Unusually so. She’s always snippy, but not quite this much.
Wylder sighs. “Give it two weeks, Maddy. If you hate it, I’ll come and get you.”
She finally looks in his direction. “Promise?”
“I promise, sweetheart.”
She lets out a long, loud grunt. “Fine. I can do anything for two weeks, but if you don’t come and get me, I’m going to thumb my way home.”
“Oh boy,” I mutter, picturing her being picked up by some creepy truck driver. “Don’t do that. I’ll make sure he comes to get you. I promise.”
But I have a feeling after two weeks at camp and making new friends, Maddox isn’t going to want to come home early. I thought I’d hate it too, but there’s something exciting about being away from home, surrounded by friends, and just having fun. It’s the way it should be for kids.
“I’m holding you to that,” Maddy says to me.
And I have no doubt that she will. The kid forgets nothing.
“Well, we better go. I have to get the girls packed up, and the list of shit they need to bring is a mile long.”
“That’s three dollars,” Hazel says without missing a beat.
“Want any help? I have the evening off, and Timber can close up the shop.”
Wylder’s shoulders relax. “That would be great. I could use a second set of hands and eyes.”
“Yay!” Hazel fist-punches the air. “Tate’s coming over.”
“I’ll bring pizza with me too.”
“From the bar?” Maddy asks with a glimmer of light in her eyes for the first time since she walked into the shop.
“Of course. They have the best pizza in town.”
