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Didn’t matter. Dream was her own woman, and while Jay was my brother, he wasn’t under any kind of obligation to tell me every bit of his business. Besides, nothing stayed a secret for too long between the three of us. I’d find out soon enough.
“OK!” Dream said as she led us back to the tent. “This is Noah.” She swept her hand toward the boy, a kid with a shaved head and scrappy look to him who regarded us with huge eyes. “And he wanted a tigeron his face. Isn’t that right, Noah?”
Noah said nothing, the kid’s big eyes moving between the three of us and back again. The kid was clearly unsure of what to make of the three huge men in front of him. I flashed him a grin, dropping down to speak at his level. He had an outline of a tiger’s face on his cheek, the colors not filled in yet.
“You’re getting a tiger? That’s so freaking cool. What kind?”
“The orange kind.”
“There’s lots of different kinds,” I chuckled. “During one of my last tours with the Berets, I saw one that was white. You ever seen a white tiger before?”
“Wait, there are white tigers? And hold on, you were a Green Beret?” A big grin spread across his face, and I could sense Noah wasn’t sure which of the two details to be more excited about.
“Yep, and yep.”
He turned to Dream, who was in the middle of preparing her paints.
“Miss Dream, is it too late to get a white tiger?’
She smiled over her shoulder, holding up a tube of white face paint. “Not at all. Had a feeling you might change your mind.”
“What was the white tiger like? Was he mean?” Noah asked, so excited that he was literally on the edge of his seat.
“Let me tell you all about it…”
The kid hung off my every word as Dream went to work painting. Jay and Evan chatted with some familiar faces in line, everyone seeming to want to know what the Wolf brothers had been up to. By the time I’d finished with my story, Dream was putting the finishing touches on the white tiger.
“Want to check it out?” she asked, holding up a mirror in front of Noah’s face.
“Yeah!” Noah turned his head to check out his new art. I had to admit, it was good. The detail was amazing, down to the whiskers.
“I think it’s pretty rad,” I said. “How about you, kid?”
“I love it!” he said, bouncing off the seat. “Thanks, Miss Dream! And bye, Mr. Wolf!”
“Bye!” I said, waving to Noah as he hurried off to show his friends his new face painting. He joined a nearby group of kids his age, eagerly pointing in our direction, making a machine gun shooting gesture with his hands, leaving little doubt what he was telling them about.
I chuckled as I watched.
“You’ve always had a way with kids, Dunc,” Dream said as she stepped to my side. “They practically worship all of you guys.”
“Kids are fun,” I said. “They’re always excited to hear about anything and everything. And they’re never afraid to tell you what’s on their mind.”
“Very true, very true. Anyway, I’m starving. I’m thinking of taking care of the next few people in line then breaking for lunch. You guys want to grab some food and meet me back here in, say, thirty?”
“Perfect,” I said. “I’ll pull the guys away from the line.”
Dream smiled before turning her attention to the next customers. I hurried over to the guys, letting them know the plan. They were down, and we split up to grab drinks and food from around the market. I bumped into tons of people that I knew from back in the day, and it was hard not to lose track of the time in conversation.
Before too long we were all back in front of Dream’s tent. Jay picked up some hot dogs, I grabbed a couple of sixers of some local craft beer, and Evan…well, he had two armfuls of just about everything the market had to offer.
“You know there’s only four of us, right?” I asked, my eyes tracking along all the food in his arms. He had funnel cakes and pie and pork rinds and churros and burritos and more. Truth be told, it all looked really good.
“Yeah, but we all eat as much as two normal-sized people each,” Evan replied with a grin. “And I’m hitting the gym later anyway. Gotta hit those macros, you know?”
I laughed, using my free hand to snatch a bag of pork rinds from his arms.
“Damn, guys,” Dream laughed, emerging from the tent. “When you said we were going to do lunch I didn’t know you meant buffet style.”
