Page 6 of Wed By the Lumberjack

“So you were running away from an empty house?”

The silence that drifts between us is deafening as Dixie finds a corner of the room to stare at.

“Look,” I sigh. “If you don’t want to go home you don’t have to. But won’t your dad be worried? I mean you’ve been here since Sunday night.”

It pisses me off to even say that but I’m fishing for confirmation that Douglas really is the piece of shit my mind’s painting him out to be. Something tells me Dixie won’t reveal much though. Not tonight anyway.

She shakes her head. “It’s Tuesday,” she says as if that’s self-explanatory before adding, “The Watering Hole has two for one drinks on Tuesday.”

So her house would actually be empty tonight.

I nod slowly. The Watering Hole attracted a lot of animals, to say the least.

Outside, a bear howls, and Dixie instinctively leans closer to me.

“Weren’t you scared here all alone last night?”

“No. I guess my adrenaline was high.”

“And now?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit scared.” To prove her point a wolf howls and she inches even closer to me.

“Do you want me to stay?” I ask tentatively before quickly adding. “On the opposite side of the room.”

She nods slowly. “Won’t your parents worry though?”

“It’s just me and Dad and he’s already asleep. He had a bad accident at the lumber mill a few years back so he takes heavy meds that make him drowsy. As long as I’m there when he wakes up, he’ll never know.”

She nods again and snuggles down into the bean bag chair with a flinch when another howl– from the wind this time– rattles the windows of the treehouse.

Dang, she looks so small. So fragile.

“Dixie?”

“Yeah?”

“You can sleep here whenever you want.”

She looks apprehensively through the dark window that rattles again.

“It’ll always be safe here for you.”

Her eyes flicker to mine. “Promise?”

“I promise.”

Nothing bad will happen to you when I’m here, because I won’t allow it.

“Thank you, Heath.”

I don’t need a thank you. It’s the bare minimum of what she deserves.

We stare at each other for a long time and it isn’t until Dixie finally closes those tired, dark eyes, that I do the same.

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