Page 47 of Big Daddy Mountain Man

Commotion broke out as the other Littles followed and soon the tent they’d built was collapsing all around the room. They scrambled to get free of the blankets that were now draped over them, but their vision was obscured and it ended up just looking like a covered mosh pit as they bumped into each other and knocked various things around the room over.

“Someone’s in here!” Janie yelled.

“Fucking cocksucker! Shit!” Amber screamed.

Everyone gasped as they stood still.

Now that they’d stopped moving, the women were able to pull the blankets from them and regain their composure, though they were all still breathing heavily, their faces white as a sheet.

“I’m sorry,” Amber said. “I say bad words when I get scared.”

Standing in the doorway, looking thoroughly perplexed, was Joe. “What in the world is going on in here?”

Now that the fort had collapsed, he had a view of the TV.

“Good Lord! What are you watching?”

It was his wife who answered. “Well, Daddy, you see… we were just… trying to be brave and watch a scary movie.”

“A scary movie?” he said, rearing his head back as a look of disgusted shaded his handsome face. “That crazy clown is eating someone’s leg! What the hell?” He shook his head and barreled into the room. “We’re turning that off right now.”

Amber watched as he shut the TV down. He then turned around to face the Littles. “I think it’s bedtime.”

Amber, Alyssa, Mindy, Belinda, Grace, and Janie just stood as still as statues. Noticing all their faces were still stark white, Amber assumed hers was, too.

“Y’all aren’t going to be able to sleep tonight, are you?” Joe asked.

One by one, they all shook their heads.

He sighed. “Okay. Start calling your Daddies.”

And with that, the slumber party was over.

Amber wasn’t upset by that fact, either. As scared as she was, there was only one person she wanted to be with.

Daddy.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“Are you okay?” Sawyer asked as he drove home.

Sitting in the passenger seat of the Bronco, Amber said, “Yeah. Sorry you had to come all the way back into town this late.”

“Don’t be,” he replied. “I’ll go anywhere, anytime, when my sweet girl needs me.”

He couldn’t help but smile as she groaned and said, “What was I thinking watching that movie?”

He shrugged. “The others wanted to. You went along with it.”

“But I shouldn’t have. I was already on edge.”

He wanted to look at her but didn’t dare take his eyes off the road. It was dark around those parts at night. And the mountains could be unforgiving.

“Why were you on edge, honey? What’s up?”

From his peripheral vision he saw her sink lower in her seat. “I thought I saw someone today at the diner. It wasn’t him. But he looked like a guy back in Oklahoma City…”

She didn’t finish the statement but Sawyer had heard enough to cause anger to flare inside him. His knuckles were white as he gripped the wheel tighter.

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