“I think she’ll be safer.”
“How the fuck does that make sense?”
If I don’t give him all the reasons why this is a good idea, he’s going to lose his shit and not hear me out at all.
“Well, for one, I’m not the one who walked out of there with her. You’ll be the first one they go after to find her.”
“They haven’t come here,” he argues with a shake of his head.
I say nothing to that, and instead, add more to my case.
“I also have my brother and sister-in-law living with me now. So she’d never be alone.”
His frown is deep. “When the fuck did that happen?”
He seems genuinely confused, but I know I told him about this.
“About a month ago. I told everyone about it at Church because Tommy was thinking about joining.”
“He’s a cop,” he spits out.
“Hewasa cop,” I correct. “He’s retired.”
Snapper shakes his head. He doesn’t want to hear anything I have to say.
When he stays quiet for a while, I throw my last bomb, knowing I may have to run for cover.
“She said she wants to.”
I watch his face change from annoyance to fury.
“Why the fuck would she want that?” he hisses, stepping closer to me. For a moment, I think he and I are going to duke it out right here in his living room, with him only in a towel.
That would be… interesting.
I hold my hands up, letting him know I’m not trying to fight with him or anything.
“She didn’t wanna tell you, but she doesn’t like being here in the middle of the woods by herself while you’re gone all day. She’s scared.”
“The whole town is in the middle of the woods,” he spits out, taking another step closer.
I knew Snapper would get mad about this. He doesn’t like when things are changed or when responsibilities are taken from him. It’s like he’s offended and thinks it means he fucked up or something.
“You don’t have to get upset, Snapper. You didn’t do anything wrong,” I tell him.
His eyes widen. “Fuck you.”
I sigh. This is going nowhere. He’s never going to agree, but at least he knows. So when I come back tomorrow to collect her things and take her to my house, he won’t be surprised. Maybe he’ll have accepted it by then.
“Look, we’re trying to do the same thing here, okay? Do you, uh… like her or something?”
Honestly, I’m not really sure why I ask that question.
I mean, I know why I ask—because I want to know. But that’s not the sort of question you ask Snapper.
He holds my gaze, then he starts to laugh.
And I know I’m really in trouble. Him laughing? It ain’t like normal people laughing. He doesn’t do funny…
