AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I patted her hand and smiled. “Oh yeah. He’ll be fine.”
And if he wasn’t, I’d lick every one of his wounds.
“So...” My dad jerked his chin toward the still-open door. “What’s up?”
“I didn’t sleep with him. Well, I did, but, you know, not...we didn’t...it was...just sleep.” I sucked in a breath. “You weren’t here. I was...” Alone, but not. “He held my hand. He kept us safe.”
My dad squinted his eyes. “Is there something—”
He didn’t get to finish his question. My mom interrupted him with one of her own.
“What did my son do now?”
“Decker is a jerkface,” Nereida said as she came back from the bathroom.
“That pretty much sums it up.” And I couldn’t agree more. Smiling, I tapped Arteisma’s hand as a reminder to get into the bathroom so we could head out to Red Lodge. She turned and skipped away.
My dad huffed. “I’m gonna have a serious talk with our son. You know, after he’s had his ass handed to him.”
Mom shook her head, her face taking on a different kind of sadness. She sighed and looked past me toward the bathroom. Her eyes grew wide as her lips parted.
“What?” I turned to see Arteisma standing there, a thick braid of brown hair dangled from her little hand. “Oh, dear ancient gods,” I whispered.
Obviously, it wasn’t Arteisma’s braid since hers was still attached to her head.
Arteisma stared past me. I swung back to see what I’d failed to notice when Nereida had come back into the room...her much shorter hair tucked behind her ears and into her snow jacket.
“You cut your hair?”
Those four words came like a whispered chorus by the four people standing in the living room.
Nereida looked at each of us, her back straight and her little chin jutted out defiantly. “I want a pixie haircut, too.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
No one spoke whileNereida put on her gloves, scarf, and hat. She marched toward the open front door, then turned and glanced back at me, her little brows furrowed.
“Do you think Cari can cut my hair when we get down the mountain?”
I swallowed past the hard lump in my throat. “I’ll call when we get close and see if she can fit you in.”
She looked away out the door, but I saw the sad downturn of her mouth. “I don’t know how to pay her.”
The scent of her tears drifted in on the slight breeze. Her lower lip trembled.
