“I’m sorry,” he blurted out.
“It’s okay, J. It happens.” I hoped it never happened again, but it wasn’t like he’d gone out of his way to get infected, or whatever it was considered.
“I was at sea once when a lot of people got lice,” Dallas piped up not two seconds after I finished talking. “I’ve never seen so many adults cry in my life, Josh. We’ll get it all sorted out, don’t worry.”
Why did he have to be so nice? Why?
“You were in the army?” Josh asked.
“Navy.”
The eleven-year-old scoffed. “What? Why didn’t I know that?”
I could see Dallas’s mouth form a grin even as he kept his attention forward. “I don’t know.”
“For how long?”
“Twenty-one years,” the man answered easily.
The noises that came out Josh’s mouth belonged to a kid who couldn’t begin to comprehend twenty years. Of course he couldn’t. He still had at least seven more years before life started bowling right by him. “How old are you?”
“Jesus, Josh!” I laughed.
So did Dallas. “How old do you think I am?”
“TiaDi, how old are you? Thirty-five?” he asked.
I choked. “Twenty-nine, jerk face.”
Josh must have been joking to begin with because he started cracking up in the backseat. Without turning around, I was pretty sure Louie was cracking up too.
“Traitor,” I called out to the little one. “I’m going to remember that when you want something.”
“Mr. Dallas, are you…fifty?” Louie blurted out.
Oh my God. I couldn’t help but slap my hand over my face. These kids were so embarrassing.
“Thanks for that, Lou. No, I’m not fifty.” Dallas chuckled.
“Forty-five?”
The man behind the steering wheel made a noise. “No.”
“Forty?”
“Forty-one.”
I’d known it!
“How old is Grandpa?” Louie asked.
By the time I confirmed that Grandpa Larsen was seventy-one, Dallas had turned the car into my driveway. We hadn’t even made it into the house before our neighbor said, “You three shower, and I’ll take care of the sheets.” He already had the container of bleach in his hands.
“You’re sure?” If I was him, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about being in a house full of people with lice.
Dallas blinked those beautiful hazel eyes as he waved me toward the house. “Yes. Go. I need to grab something from my house, and I’ll be right back.”
As I unlocked the door and led the boys toward their bathroom, I didn’t even think about Dallas going into my bedroom and how I’d left a bra hanging off the doorknob.
