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Man, to be young and naïve again.
There’s so much to unpack in everything she just said, I don’t even know where to start.
But I don’t have time to ponder if I should be telling a five-year-old about the reasons people get married because the dashboard screeches and Rhett’s voice echoes inside the cabin.
“Where you girls at?”
Joey wastes no time grabbing the receiver and answering. “We’s almost home!”
“How many minutes?”
Joey looks at me, and I tell her ten.
“Ten more minutes, Daddy!”
“Now, Joey, did you mind your manners and not con Leah into buying you all sorts of stuff?”
Joey glances down at Ernie and then at me, and I glance in the rearview mirror where all of Ernie’s belongings and the Target bags filled with Joey’s bedroom decor are located.
Whoops.
When Joey doesn’t respond, Rhett’s voice fills the cab again.
“Josephine Jameson, you better not have talked Leah into buying you things that we both know you don’t need.”
“I didn’t ask Leah to buy me things I didn’t need,” she eventually responds. “Promise.”
Then she looks at me. “Don’t worry, Leah. It’s not lyin’. I needed all those things.”
“The stuff for your bedroom, sure,” I agree. “But Ernie?” I question with a half smile and half grimace. “You really think your daddy is going to be okay with him?”
Joey’s eyes go wide, and she shakes her head. “He’s gonna be mad ’bout Ernie. That’s for sure.”
“I’ll meet you girls at Leah’s cabin, all right?” Rhett adds. “See ya in a few.”
Joey looks at me with big, wide eyes. “How we gonna hide Ernie if Daddy’s at your cabin?”
“Honestly?” I sigh. “I have no idea.”
Oh boy.
July 10th, Saturday
Rhett
Leah pulls my truck to a stop a few feet away from her cabin, and I start to walk down the steps of her porch and toward the girls.
“Stay there, Daddy!” Joey shouts through the open window of the passenger door. “We don’t need no help! We got it!”
I tilt my head to the side in confusion, narrowing my eyes as I peer through the windshield toward Leah and Joey, who appear frozen in their seats.
What the hell is goin’ on?
More than a little suspicious now, I walk toward the two of them.
And once I’m about ten feet away, Joey’s eyes go wide, and Leah leans her head back against the headrest.
The instant I step up to the driver’s side door, the window already down, I look inside and spot a shaking furball sitting in my Joey’s lap.
What the fuck is that?
“Is that a damn rat?” I question, my eyes going wide. “In a T-shirt?”
“It’s a dog, Daddy,” Joey answers.
“A dog? I thought you two went to Target.”
“We did,” Leah responds, and I don’t miss the slight grimace that mars her face.
“Last I checked, they don’t sell dogs at Target.”
“They don’t,” Leah agrees, and her smile drips with apology. “But sometimes, they set up adoption tents outside of Target.”
I glance back and forth between the two culprits. Joey clutches the T-shirt-wearing rat-dog in her arms, and Leah looks like she can’t decide if she should sprint from the truck or wiggle into the floorboards.
“So, whose dog is this supposed to be?” I ask, already knowing by the damn collar and T-shirt that my daughter probably thinks this dog is hers.
“It’s Leah’s!” Joey chimes in, her voice far too amped up and excitable to be believed. “Leah fell in love with Ernie and the lady said he has no mama, so Leah wanted to be his mama. Ain’t that right, Leah?”
I move my gaze to Leah, and all she offers is a shrug. “I guess it was something like that.”
“Something like that?” I question. “You sure my daughter didn’t con you into adopting her a dog?”
“No way!” Joey answers before Leah can even open her mouth. “I didn’t do that, Daddy!”
I narrow my eyes at my adorable but certainly lying-ass kid.
“I mean, I might’ve told Leah it was a good idea. And that Ernie should have a mama…”
“Joey.”
“I’m no con, Daddy!” she shouts so loud that the damn rat-dog in her lap yelps and burrows himself into her T-shirt.
“Josephine Jameson, you know how I feel about lyin’.”
She huffs out a sigh. “Yeah.”
“Did you get Leah to adopt you that dog?”
“Maybe.”
I furrow my brow at her. “Maybe?”
“Okay, fine,” she says on a heavy sigh, and her bottom lip starts to tremble. “But I couldn’t help it, Daddy. Ernie looked so sad, and his mama just left him, Daddy! She left him and I know how that feels, so I thought I would be able to take good care of him because my mama leaves me all the time, ya know? I know that doesn’t feel good sometimes.”
By the time she’s done, a few tears drip down her cheeks, and I feel like the meanest bastard on the planet.
Fuck.
I let out a sigh and look down at the ground, and Leah leans closer to me to meet my eyes. Her face still looks guilty as hell but apologetic, too.
