Page 96 of Healed
“Alrighty, then,” Havoc said. The conversation died down again, but only for moment before Havoc started singing at the top of his lungs sung to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.
“Aaaaaa, hunting we will go, a hunting we will go.
Professor’s a molester, he can’t keep it in his pants.
He’ll learn to stay away, from girls with angry ‘rents.
He has a psycho wife. The wife will cry tonight.
Castration hurts, we’ll cut off his nuts.
Revenge is really fun, maybe we should have brought a gun!”
“Rents?” Bane asked.
“Parents!” Havoc shouted, then went right back into the impromptu song again.
Then Lucien joined in, and they sang all the way across the Causeway Bridge. All 23 miles of it.
~~~
Bam pulled his beloved cherry-red, antique pickup truck into the parking lot at Daisy’s Art Studio. He got out of his truck, with his head still bobbing in rhythm to the last song he was listening to. He took a deep breath, his eyes closed, his face tilted toward the warmth of the sun, and smiled — life was good. Both of his girls had found their mates, he had a precocious, too smart for her own good granddaughter, and a new grandbaby on the way.
He whistled a little tune as he continued bobbing his head as he approached the art studio, reached out to turn the knob and walk inside, but instead, walked right into the door — because it was locked. Bam stood back and looked at the door, then over to where Daisy always parked her jeep just to be sure he did actually see it, then knocked on the door. He leaned over a little and pressed his eye to the peephole like he could actually see through it from the outside, then grinned when he wasn’t able to. He knocked on the door again, and waited.Nothing. No answer, no noise from inside. For just a split second he considered worrying, then decided that Daisy just forgot to unlock the door. But just to be sure, he walked over to her jeep and laid his hand on its hood. Ice cold. Which meant that it had been here a while.
Bam went back over to the building and made his way around the building, peeking into every window he passed. Eventually, he found her, sitting in her office with her head on her desk. He tapped gently on the window, smiling brightly as he waited for her to lift her head and look at him. But she didn’t lift her head. She continued to rest with her head on her desk. “Daisy!” he called.
She didn’t answer.
Getting worried now, he took a deep breath and bellowed her name while knocking on the window so hard, he stopped just short of breaking it. “Daisy!”
Daisy startled, her body jumping as she raised her head and pushed herself up in her chair suddenly. She blinked a few times and looked around the room, obviously disoriented.
When she finally noticed Bam, he smiled at her and pointed toward the front door.
Daisy didn’t smile. She didn’t even pretend, she just nodded, got up and started for the door.
Bam’s brows furrowed as he watched her. It was obvious to him that something was wrong. He hurried around the exterior of the studio until he got to the door, which Daisy had unlocked, and walked away from. He turned the knob, stepping inside, and looked around. “Daisy?” he called.
“I’m going to my office. I have some work I need to finish,” she answered, but didn’t come back into the main room of the studio.
Bam started toward her office, not even stopping at her door, but instead walking right in and taking one of the chairsfor when people came to see her about lessons and moving it around so he could sit right beside her behind her desk.
She looked at the chair, then at him. “What?” she asked.
“I don’t know. You tell me,” Bam said.
“I’m just busy, Uncle Bam. I promise,” Daisy said.
“Lie!” he shouted. “You have never lied to me. And now you have. I don’t know if I should cry or be angry!”
“It’s not a lie, exactly. I just don’t want to get into it,” Daisy said. “And it’s not that big of a deal anyway. I should have known better, it’s on me.”
Bam dropped his big body back into the chair and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “I’m not going away. So, you might as well tell me. I won’t tell anybody. I promise.”
“Yes, you will. Then I’ll end up with you and Daddy, and everybody else from your generation, and mine, terrorizing some poor guy because I read more into it than there really was.”
“You have to do better than that, Daisy. I’m not as quick as your Daddy,” he said, pointing to his temple.
