Page 61 of Freedom Ride

Chapter Twenty-Four

Snapper

“Two thousand and ninehundred dollars,” King thundered. “Twothousandand ninehundreddollars,” he repeated. He slammed his hand on the kitchen table and roared with anger. “What in the hell were you thinking?” he demanded.

Meg sat next to me with her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her lips. “I was thinking that the grandkids would string me from my toes if I didn’t come back with some mac and cheese.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty now since I just spent twenty-nine hundred dollars on over three thousand boxes of mac and cheese.”

Meg shrugged. “I won’t have to buy it for a few months. The grandkids will be happy.”

King threw his hands in the air. “Every time you do something crazy, I think this is it. It can’t get crazier than this.”

“And then she steals a forklift and wrecks a whole pallet of mac and cheese,” I drawled.

“I did not wreck the whole pallet, Jonas,” Meg snapped. “It was only thirty boxes. King just bought the whole pallet so they wouldn’t ban me from the store.”

“And the keys were left in the forklift,” Lennox added. “It’s not really stealing when the keys are in it, and she planned on putting it right back where she got it from.”

“My god,” King sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair. “Do we have a beacon set up for the crazies to find us?”

Meg flattened her lips.

“You’re the one who brought in the original crazy,” I chuckled.

Meg pointed her finger at me. “I should be offended by that, but I can overlook being offended because you’re helping my side here.” Then she looked at King and said, “You wanted me, and I can’t help it that I tend not to fully think things through.”

“You were doing so good, though,” Lennox interrupted. “If that guy wouldn’t have called you ma’am, everything would have been fine. He spooked us.”

“He spooked you?” King growled. “You’re not a damn horse, Meg.” He held up a long receipt, “though you’re getting to be as expensive as one.” He crumpled up the receipt and tossed it at the wall.

“Hey,” Meg called. “Don’t throw that away. We can write it off on our taxes.”

And that was when I saw smoke come out of King’s ears.

“Uh, I think Lennox and I are going to go for a sunset ride.” I stood and held my hand out to her. “Do you think you can keep an eye on Doc and Marty for us?” I asked Meg.

King glared at me, and I really knew it was time to hit the road for a bit.

Meg saluted. “I’m always available to watch my grandchildren.”

“Let’s go,” I called to Lennox. She put her hand in mine, and we scurried out of the clubhouse.

“Jonas,” she partly laughed and cried. “I’m so sorry.”

I pulled her into my arms and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Babe,” I whispered. “This is going to sound crazy to you, but I’m not upset. King wasn’t kidding when he said weird shit always happens to Meg. You just happened to be along for the ride.”

“But I should have told her no. King is so mad at her,” she cried.

“Pfft, I’ve seen King way more upset than that, Lennox. And he really should be used to these things happening.” I don’t know why he always was so surprised by the mischief Meg always seemed to get into.

She tipped her head to the side. “Does this really happen that often?”

“Normally nothing this big except for once or twice a year when she does a bang-up job of wrecking something or getting arrested.” I pulled her over to my bike and plopped her helmet on her head. “And don’t worry about King being mad. Meg knows how to handle him better than any of us. He’ll blow off some steam, and then Meg will make him a bowl of mac and cheese. All will be okay.” I buckled the strap under her chin and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I promise.”

“I’m moving her,” she blurted. She pursed her lips and nodded. “Yeah, I’m moving here.”

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