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Of course. Of course. He liked to think he was suave and sophisticated, maybe not exactly a man of the world, but becoming that. But this little street urchin, this little homeless girl, had far more common sense and street smarts than he did. Of course she couldn’t go to the diner every day. Someone was bound to notice and call some kind of authorities. Not to mention, in a town like Strawberry Sands, everybody knew everything about everyone else.
“I should call the authorities on you.”
“You promised!” She struggled to sit up.
“Calm down, Beckpet,” he said, pulling her back against him. At least if she were mad, she’d get warm faster. Her teeth were hardly chattering at all now.
Of course, she probably carried a knife and she wouldn’t hesitate to slit his throat if she thought she needed to. He was under no illusions that Becky wouldn’t do whatever it took to get what she wanted. She was scrappy. He smiled a little. She reminded him of a mangy, scrounging stray dog or, more like it, a cat who wasn’t afraid to fight for what it wanted.
She was definitely not a puppy dog.
But really, he should call someone. The kid couldn’t run around without a home. Without a family. Without parents. But it made sense to him now. Becky was anything if not fiercely loyal, and he could see her running away just so that she wouldn’t be separated from the one bit of family she had.
Made him a little bit sad to think about it. Partly because he didn’t have anyone to be that loyal to, and partly because family shouldn’t be separated.
“Where are your parents?”
“Don’t know.” Her words were simple, but they were a little bit too studiously casual for him to believe that the answer was quite that easy.
“Don’t know? You don’t want to tell me?”
“You’re a big fat nosy brat, Dixie,” she spit out, but her words didn’t sound like an attack, they were just...her spouting off.
“All right. Does that make you feel better? Now tell me where they are.”
“I don’t know where my dad is. And my mom is in prison, and I’ll be an adult with kids of my own before she gets out. So forget that. There’s no one to rescue me. No daddy to take me home to. And if you’re going to try, I’m leaving.”
He was older than she was, but she acted like the adult. And he believed her mom probably was in jail. She probably raised her little sister until they’d gotten put in foster care.
He had a whole bunch of questions he wanted to ask, but he figured he knew enough for now.
“All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll have food in my room from now on.”
“I’m not taking your charity, Dixie.”
“Calm down, Beckpet. I’m gonna charge you for it. You can let the money sit on my dresser. I’ll make sure you have plenty to eat.” He thought about it. He needed to get her clothes too. She needed a raincoat, sweatshirt, something. Come to think of it, she’d shown up in the same red shirt every time he’d seen her. It was nondescript, and he hadn’t really paid attention.
“Is that the only outfit you have?”
“What of it, Dixie?”
She really did remind him of a cat with its back up, claws out and hissing.
“People are bound to notice that you never change your clothes. Someone’s going to figure out what’s going on.”
“You’re just saying that, because you’re planning to tell someone, then you’re gonna tell me that people figured it out on their own. I’m not stupid. I knew I shouldn’t trust you.” She tried to get up again, but he didn’t allow her to push his arm off.
“Beckpet, calm down. Let me think. We need to get you some clothes so that people don’t figure out that you’re not changing. It’s not normal for a girl to wear the same outfit all the time. I can probably get you some T-shirts.” He might have a few things stuffed in the back of his closet that were too small for him. “But I can’t get you pants. No one’s going to believe that I need girl pants for anything.”
“I don’t have to wear girl pants, genius. They’re the same as boy pants anyway.”
He didn’t think so, but he didn’t argue with her. “I could probably get you shorts. I don’t know. When I get my driver’s license, I can go to the store without asking and buy whatever I want to.”
“I’m not taking your charity,” she said again, although her voice had started to sound sleepy. She must be getting warm.
“I’ll charge for them too. I’ll leave the price tags on so you know exactly how much you owe me.”
It wasn’t like he needed the money. He’d keep it somewhere and make sure she got it back. He wasn’t charging the homeless girl for food and clothes. That was ridiculous. But Becky could be as stubborn as the day was long. After all, it was eight long weeks that he’d known her before she finally confessed that she didn’t have a home.
