“Excuse me, son, but how was I supposed to know they actuallywereWaco whackos?”she returned.
“You probably shouldn’t call them that,” I said carefully.
“I’ll say whatever I want,” she shot back.“Though, I wouldn’t call them that if they didn’t pull that stunt with you.”
She had a point.
She glanced at Tonks.“You got the dog because of this?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“Smart girl,” she mumbled, and I had no idea why, but her words, her approval, made me feel amazing.
No, I did know why.
She was wild, I didn’t know her very well, but I liked her.I even admired her.
And one could say I was a girl who had not grown up with many positive affirmations.
Nor many people to admire.
“So!”she stated crisply.“You look okay.You know to phone me if something else should occur.You have a dog, and you’ll soon have lights and a camera.For now, I think that’s all we can do.”
With that, she swept our way, but I stopped her by asking, “Do you like sourdough bread?”
She halted on a low-heeled pump, looked to the bread, to my face, and asked, “Is that homemade?”
“Yes.I have a starter.”
With that, she turned to Hutch and declared, “Boy, I’m thinkin’ you’re just plain loco.”
Hutch said nothing.
She might not be young, but her hand came out faster than my eyes had the ability to see, and she snatched the bread out of my hold.
She tucked it under her arm like a football and proclaimed, “I’m leaving.”
For a second, I didn’t know why she proclaimed that since her trajectory to the door already did, until she stood immobile at said door.
I heard Hutch make a low noise in his throat that could be humor, or frustration (knowing him, I was betting on the latter), and he walked to the door and opened it for her.
She didn’t say thank you.
She just walked out.
Hutch and I stood at the door and watched her go down the steps and make her way over the damp earth to stand at the passenger side of the truck.
She allowed approximately two point five seconds to pass before she bellowed, “We’re going!”
Two goon-like young men loped out of the forest to the truck.
One opened the door for his grandma and helped her in, and when I say that, I mean he mostly scooped her up and deposited her in her seat.
He got in the back, Brooks got in the front, and before he pulled out, he peeled his four fingers from the wheel in a kind of wave to Hutch and me.
Hutch didn’t move.
I waved back.
