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“Can Sailor stay over tonight?” Waverly asked.
“Oh, uh…”
“That’s okay,” Sailor hastened to say. “I can stay with my dad.”
“You can’t stay with your dad,” Waverly stated. “You said he’s out of town and won’t be back for a few days.”
Sailor bent her head. “I lied.”
“Your dad isn’t out of town?” Waverly asked.
Sailor shook her head. “He’s home. Or I should say, he’s in town. I just don’t want to stay with him.”
“Why not?”
“Waverly,” I said. “Don’t push her into talking.”
“She’s not pushing me into talking,” Sailor protested. With a sigh, she announced to Waverly what she had told me in the truck, “My dad’s a drunk.”
“Enough said,” Waverly responded. She looked at me, pleading with her eyes.
We didn’t have the space, and everything was a clusterfuck as it was. I didn’t even have legal guardianship of my sister yet. Nothing was settled. But like hell I was going to let Sailor go home to a place with a parent who didn’t even care that she’d gone missing.
“You call your dad?” I asked. “To tell him what happened?”
“I left a message last night—this morning, whatever. Doc let me use her phone and gave me the number for him to call back. He hasn’t called yet.”
“Some people really don’t deserve to have children,” I said before I could stop myself.
Sailor blinked, her eyes wide, but she nodded in agreement.
“You’re welcome to stay with us as long as you need,” I said. “Okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
I’d figure out logistics later, with Duke’s help.
The heavy thudding of boots trekking down the stairs alerted me that we had a visitor. “Colt’s calling for us,” Duke said.
Nodding, I stood up, taking my full plate of food with me.
“You didn’t eat,” he admonished as he followed me up the stairs.
“No. I was getting some things sorted.”
“What things?” he asked as we made it to the first floor. The living room had cleared out again, so we were alone. I set my plate on the counter.
“Stuff with Sailor,” I said.
He peered at me for a moment. “You’ll tell me more about it after church?”
I nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
He took my hand and we headed to the shed once again. Everyone was already there and I quickly sat down next to Savage so we could get on with the vote.
“All right. Let’s vote,” Colt said without preamble. “I vote aye. Mia?”
