Page 81 of Fierce-Dane

“I’m not even talking about the fact she was probably six inches shorter than me. I think she looked like this soft angel. I’d be willing to bet you liked that about her too. That maybe you needed to protect her at times.”

“I did,” he said. “But at the same time sacrificed parts of myself.”

“Don’t do that with me,” she said. “I don’t need to be babied. I’ve been on my own for a long time. Not even just as an adult but mainly as a child. My life isn’t like anyone else’s I know. We can all boast we’ve had things happen to us that many don’t, but I think I win a few prizes.”

“Just a few,” he said, holding his hand up, his fingers in a pinch.

“It’s not a prize I want,” she said, “but it’s one I was given. Just have to make the best of it.”

“How about I show you how manly I am and win you a prize at your first festival?” he said, standing up.

“I’ll let you do that,” she said. “I’ve never had a stuffed animal either.”

“What?” he asked.

“Sorry,” she said. “We didn’t get things like that. What we had were things we made or re-purposed. My mother made me a doll, but it had no body on it. It was just a head that was stuffed with more fabric and had eyes sewn into it and then like a blanket as a body.”

“Which people buy now,” he said.

“Trust me when I tell you it was nothing like you buy. My mother was sixteen when she had me. Fifteen when she was pregnant. She ran away from home and I never knew why. But I’m positive she went from one shitty situation into another.”

His jaw dropped. Guess she hadn’t told him that part. She didn’t normally do that.

“How old was your father?”

“You mean the man that fathered me and God only knows how many other kids? He was probably in his thirties at the time. No clue. It’s not like he ever acknowledged me much other than as one of his kids. No one got special treatmentexcept a few wives. Most were just young girls he had kids with.”

“He raped them,” he said. He’d said that to her before too.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Though you never said that word there. Aside from my mother feeling as if someone was trying to poison her, I was at the age where I was being looked at when we left. I told you that part.”

“You did,” he said. “Jesus. I don’t even want to think of it. I’m so glad you got away.”

“Me too,” she said. “And now you can go win me that stuffed animal of your choice. I’ll even give it a funny name.”

“I’m going to do that,” he said. “Maybe I’ll win you two.”

“Or I can win you one and they can be a couple.”

“I think I like that thought even better.”

23

CLASSIC JEALOUSY

Dane pulled into his parents’ driveway on Thursday after work to pick the kids up.

The daycare closed at five thirty and it was hit or miss to get there on time. He knew he wasn’t going to make it and hated to call his mother but had no choice.

He parked and got out, walked to the front door and opened it.

“Hey,” he said loudly. “Come on, kids.”

“In the back,” his father shouted.

He smelled dinner cooking and knew he’d get stuck here when he wanted to get home and get the kids settled so he could talk to them about Sloane.

Mel had called him two days ago and then texted him yesterday asking when the kids would find out.

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