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It doesn’t make sense.
Deuce grimaces. “Dolly… she…beat the shit out of her.”
“What?” I swear the ground beneath me shifts with the weight of his words. “Dolly isn’t more than five feet tall and a hundred pounds soaking wet. How in the hell did she beat up Tiffani?” I lick my lips, trying to understand what he’s saying until Everly sidles up, slipping Bear’s hand into Deuce’s from hers.
“Go on inside with Uncle Deuce, show Trace your paintings, hmm? I wanna talk to Daddy for a minute,” my sister says as I lift my boy from the ground, covering him in another sheen of smothering love in the form of hugs and kisses.
I lower him back down to skip along with Deuce and slide my focus to Ev, who is already shaking her head. “I’m so sorry, I should have been here. My stupid wedding can wait.”
“Your wedding isn’t stupid, for one, and for two, nothing’s your fault, Ev. I’m the one who thought Tiffani could sit in a house for three hours.” I press a hand to my chest but nothing can compete with the heaviness inside. “It’s my fault.” Those last three words have me feeling like the worst father.
I should’ve asked Dolly.
But I’ve been thinking such impure, terrible things about her lately. After the morning in the hotel room… asking her feltwrong. So I asked Tiffani, in an effort to open myself up to the possibility of more.
She shakes her head. “Damn woman was on the phone for over two hours! Poor Bear.”
I clear my throat, and why I feel nervous about this, I don’t know. But I need answers, so I ask, “Where’s Dolly?”
Everly blinks at me. “Hudson Gray, that woman loves your son.”
That woman.
Why am I relieved to hear my sister reference Dolly as a woman and not a girl? She’s twenty years old. She’s been an adult for two years. Still, hearing her referenced as an adult does something to my sore nerves.
“Deuce said she heard him, ran out and got him.” I scratch my head as something behind my ribs flutters at the thought of Dolly saving my boy.
“Tiffani called me in a panic and we were already almost home. By the time we got here and ran through the house, Dolly had already got him and was carrying him up the bank. She was drenched, covered in dirt and blood. And she set him on the ground, waited until I had him, and then she….” My sister shakes her head, eyes drifting into the distance as she relives it clearly. “Something came over her, Hudson. I’ve never seen Dolly like that. She was screaming and yelling and crying. She kept sayinghe’s only four!andhe could’ve died!By the time Deuce got over there, she was…chokingher. He had to pull her off of Tiffani. We tried to get her to stay to get checked out by the paramedics but… she was shaken up bad, Hud. She gave Bear another hug and kiss, then Ivy took her inside.”
“Did Dolly tell you what happened?” I ask, trying to piece together how the details came to be.
She shakes her head. “No. Ivy came back out after she and Juniper got Dolly settled. She told me that Dolly doesn’t want to go to the hospital, that she’s fine, and she just needs to rest.” She smiles sadly. “She said Dolly is more upset about Bear than her own injuries.”
“I need to sit down.”
Around me, the world whirls and whooshes, and Ev’s hand pinches my elbow as she attempts to help me to the ground. I clutch my chest with one hand.
“I don’t even know how it’s possible that she got him out of the water and carried him,” I tell Ev, trying to picture it.
“She was determined.” Everly falls to her ass next to me in the grass and drops her head on my shoulder.“I think she would have killed Tiffani.”
I swallow, waiting for the shock of her words to set in, waiting to feel uncomfortable.
But the feeling never comes.
I watch the sun sinking slowly into the horizon before glancing over, stealing a peek at Dolly’s house. “How do you feel about her attacking Tiffani?” I ask, dipping a toe into reality.
She saved my boy. I recognize I’m gonna feel some type of way about her for doing that, and therefore, my silent celebration of her physical outburst toward Tiffanimust stay silent. Being glad someone got the shit kicked out of them isn’t a good thing.
“I think she loves fiercely, and that Bear should feel honored that he is on her roster,that’swhat I think.”
I get to my feet, heading inside with my sister to go see my son. We stop outside the back door when I see Tiffani’s car is still here, partially hidden by the sports car. “She’sstillhere?” I question, my voice shaking with raw anger.
“She wanted to talk to you.”
I stare at my house, my entire body aching with how bad I want to be in there with my family, appreciating what I have, being grateful for everything that was saved today.
“Send her out, please,” I tell Everly as I extend my arm to the door. “Head on in, and send her out. She’ll need her purse.”
