Page 11 of Jackass

“Keys. I’m driving,” I said, wiggling my fingers at her.

“Do you even know where we’re going?” she asked, handing them over.

She knew she wasn’t driving, but she had to give me shit.

“Nope, but you can give me directions. Why do we have to go out of town, anyway?”

“Because with the amount of stuff I need to get, I want to go to Walmart. It’s cheaper,” she asserted, shrugging her shoulder.

I walked across the lot and stopped at the car. Before I opened the door for her, I looked at her.

“You’re a fucking millionaire,” I challenged.

“That means I can’t be frugal? Besides, they have a few thingsI can’t find at Manny’s. I want Micah’s birthday to be special, and that means making his favorites.”

“Good thing you bought this monstrosity, then.” I opened the door for her to climb into her new Ford Expedition. Jogging around to the other side, I slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Although, pretty sure the only thing Blade’s gonna want to eat is you.”

Shaking her head at me, she laughed. “You really are a jackass.”

The drive to Walmart took just under an hour. Sometimes I missed the hustle of living in Little Rock, but I couldn’t deny that Diamond Creek had a charm all of its own.

We walked into Walmart and grabbed two shopping carts.

I stuck close to Beck. Walmart wasn’t like Manny’s. You couldn’t see from one end of the store to the other.

There wasn’t a chance in hell I would let her out of my sight in this huge ass store. Blade trusted me to keep her safe, and that was exactly what I planned to do.

We turned the corner into the bread aisle, our carts filled to almost overflowing, and came face-to-face with my woman.

Sammy stiffened when she saw us as the little girl with her smiled brightly.

I remembered borrowing her car to drive Beck home the day Grams died. She’d had a car seat in the backseat, and with everything that happened, I had forgotten to ask her about it.

I didn’t know she had a child.

I froze when the little girl called out, “Mommy, look, Daddy’s here!”

I couldn’t move or think. I was stuck on the little girl’s words.

She looked right at me when she said,‘Daddy’s here.’

I looked over at Sammy, down at the little girl, and then back at Sammy again.

“What the fuck, Sammy?” I rasped.

“Daddy said a bad word, Mommy,” she tattled, looking up at Sammy.

The little girl had done it again.

She called me daddy.

I looked down at the little girl, then back at Sammy. I couldn’t do anything but look between the two of them.

“Hi, Samantha,” Beck said.

I turned toward Beck. I still couldn’t say anything. My brain wouldn’t function.

“Hi, Beck,” Sammy croaked, never taking her eyes off me.

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