Page 13 of Holley Jolly Biker

And I wouldn’t.

Because she was growing like a weed, and I had to buy her new clothes. And a new pair of shoes because in her classroom yesterday, she had spilled red paint all over them.

And by the time I got the once-white shoes into the wash, there was no saving them.

My little girl sighed, looked at the doll in a somewhat dreamy state, lowered her shoulders, and said, “Okay, Monnie.”

I sighed as I watched my whole world slowly walk back to the shelf and place the toy back where she picked it up from.

I bent at the knees when she made it to me. Then I opened my arms.

Gone was the sad smile on her face, and in its place was a small smile.

I would take that.

The moment she was in my arms, I hugged her tightly.

Then, when I released her, I said, “I’ll do my best to get it for you for your birthday. Okay?”

She nodded, “Okay, Monnie.”

However, what neither of us saw was the big man in a leather kutte with his fist rubbing circles over his heart.

“Okay, pumpkin-head. Let’s go pay for all this, then get home and see if Mr. Robbins found us a tree. Okay?”

She nodded, then took one last look at the Barbie Doll, and then we went and paid.

We were headed to our car when suddenly, a deep, gravelly voice said from behind us, “Scuse me.”

Clutching Soraya’s hand even tighter, we kept on walking.

That was when I heard that same deep, gravelly voice say, “Lady, stop for a minute, yeah?”

I had every intention of not stopping, that was, until Soraya looked over her shoulder and stopped.

Which caused my arm to jerk back. My face winced at the pain, but we stopped.

That was when we both turned, and I caught sight of what the big man had in his hand.

It was the Barbie in Swan Lake doll.

I shook my head, knowing what he obviously had done.

But he opened his mouth before I could and made sure with each word he spoke that he was looking directly into my eyes.

“Seen you at the diner. We always sit in a different section. You work hard as fu... fudge. Saw some punk who didn’t tip you. Didn’t like that. So, this is my way of givin’ you your tip. Figured you wouldn’t mind spendin’ it on this for your daughter.” Well, if this man was a creeper, he had just earned himself a brownie point for curbing that f-bomb.

Something I had trained myself to do.

“What’s your name?” Soraya asked.

And that caused me to close my eyes, and I sighed.

She knew that she couldn’t accept anything from a stranger.

And she was doing what I taught her to do.

I opened my eyes in time to see the big man lower himself so he was closer to her height, and then he said, “Name’s Saint. What’s your’s?”

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