“I brought food and I was going to put water in the drawer with them,” Waylay explained.
“We’ll talk about this in the morning,” Naomi said. “Your grandparents are going to take you home. It’s up to them whether you have to scrub floors or if you still get to watch movies tonight.”
“It’ll definitely be movies,” Lou whispered.
“But you have to do all the dinner dishes,” Amanda added.
“I’m sorry for worrying you,” Waylay said quietly. She lifted her eyes to look at Naomi. “And I’m sorry for not telling you.”
“Apology accepted,” Naomi said. She swooped down and gave the girl a quick hug. “Now, I have to get back to work.”
“I’ll drive you,” I volunteered.
“Thank you. I’ll see everyone in the morning,” she said wearily.
There was a chorus of good-byes, and Naomi headed for the truck.
I waited until she opened the passenger door, then interrupted Amanda, who was making plans to stop for ice cream on their way home. “Can you two do me a favor and swing by Honky Tonk to pick up your Explorer? I’ll drive Naomi home tonight.”
I had plans for her.
TWENTY-EIGHT
THIRD BASE
Knox
“She ran away from home,” Naomi said, staring out the window and clutching the bag of warm pretzels in her lap.
“She didn’t run away. She snuck out,” I argued.
“Either way, how does that make me look as a guardian? I let an eleven-year-old walk into town with a jar of mice and a computer virus.”
“Daze, you need to stop gettin’ yourself so worked up over this custody thing. Do you really think any judge in their right mind is going to decide Way is better off with her mom?”
She turned flashing eyes on me. “How about when your life choices are under a microscope by the legal system, you can decide not to get worked up?”
I shook my head and turned onto a trail barely wide enough for my truck.
“This isn’t work,” she observed.
“Not goin’ back to work yet,” I told her as we bumped along the rutted track.
“I need to get back. I have a shift that I should have already been working,” she insisted.
“Baby, you need to stop obsessing about the things you should be doing and make some time for the shit you wanna do.”
“I want to get back to work. I don’t have time for you to murder me in the woods today.”
The trees parted, and a field of tall grass opened up before us.
“Knox, what are you doing?”
“I just watched you stand up to that bully who was trying to take her shit out on a kid,” I began.
“Some people don’t know what to do with their pain,” Naomi said, looking out the window again. “So they take it out on whoever is nearby.”
“Yeah, well, I liked watching you in that excuse for a skirt standing up to a bully.”
“So you kidnapped me?” she asked. “Where are we?”
I brought the truck to a stop along the treeline and shut off the engine. “Third Base. Least, that’s what it was called when I was in high school. We used to sneak beers and hold bonfires out here. Half of my class lost their virginity in this field.”
A hint of a smile played on her lips. “Did you?”
I slid my arm around the back of her seat. “Nah. Lost mine in Laura Beyler’s barn.”
“Knox Morgan, did you bring me out here to neck when I’m supposed to be at work?”
She sounded adorably appalled.
“Oh, I plan on doing more than necking,” I said, leaning over to release her seatbelt. Task accomplished, I plucked the pretzels off her lap and threw the bag into the backseat.
“You can’t be serious. I have work.”
“Baby, I don’t joke about sex. Besides, you work for me.”
“Yeah. In your bar, which is full of PMS-ing women waiting for their pretzels.”
I shook my head. “Everyone in town knows it’s a Code Red. It’ll be a slow night.”
“I am really uncomfortable with the idea of an entire town tracking its women’s menstrual cycles.”
“Hey, we’re normalizing period shit,” I argued. “Now, get your sexy ass over here.”
Good Girl Naomi was warring with Bad Girl Naomi, but I could tell which one was going to win by the way she was biting her lip.
“Between that skirt and the way you stood up for Way, I barely managed to keep my hands off you in front of Way and your parents, and it almost killed me. We’re lucky I got us here, driving with my dick so hard there’s no blood left for my brain.”