Plumpy, plumpy, plumpy, plumpy.
As I found a spot for us to park, Naomi reached over. “Don’t worry, not all of the movies have songs like that in them. Plus, it’s not a bad song, it’s more about body positivity, which is important for kids to learn about.”
Undoing my belt, I leaned in closer to her. “The song’s messed up, but it’s more the fact she’s talking about getting married to anyone. No little maggot’s putting his hands on her body. If he’s old and dumb enough to notice it in the first place, he’s old enough to spend a night in one of our cells while he reconsiders his choices.”
Her eyes widened. “You can’t arrest boys who find Shanti attractive or who have a crush on her. That’s illegal and completely unnecessary.”
“It works for DB and Tabby.”
Her one-word response made it feel like my balls shriveled up inside my body. “Foreplay.”
Shooting her a glare, I got out and opened the door behind me, pushing the pillows to the side so I could get to the precious little girl who was torturing me.
“Where are we going, Carter?”
Shifting her so she was on my hip, I started walking us toward the entrance of the gas station. “I’m going to buy you some toys and candy while I explain how dirty boys are.”
So shoot me. I hadn’t foreseen this situation happening, especially not this soon, and Hubba Bubba was only little. If she wasn’t prepared now for how disgusting the male species were, what would she be like when she was older?
No, I’d been a kid once, I knew how their minds worked, and I wasn’t having any of that touching this little angel. And bribing her with candy and awesome shit was the only way to do it.
Coming home was a weird feeling. I couldn’t say Daphne was ever home to me, but neither was Fernandina Beach.
When my parents were alive, it’d felt like it was the only place in the world. After it, it was like all of my illusions and my stability was ripped away and that the house Mi-mi had rented there was just a ‘place.’
Mi-mi and June were my home wherever they were. That’s where my brain said my real home was until I’d moved to Piersville. The feeling hadn’t come to me overnight, it’d taken far longer than that, but now it felt like what I’d had with my parents, especially with Shanti and Naomi in my life.
Sure, we’d never had ‘the conversation’ that defined our relationship, but I don’t think it was a necessary one for either of us to have. We knew what we had, we knew what we were to each other, and because it’d happened gradually, it felt like our relationship was made out of titanium.
“It’s good to have you back,” Mi-mi muttered, watching as Shanti giggled at what June was telling her about one of the dogs. They’d bonded immediately over the Trolls bandage, and I wasn’t sure which one of them was more in love with the other now.
My grandmother hadn’t wanted ‘pure breeds’ when she’d decided on getting a dog. Instead, she wanted to rescue one that hadn’t received the love and care it deserved.
Unfortunately—as evidenced by how she’d uprooted her life for me—when she’d gone to the pound, she’d been hit by how pitiful four of the dogs had looked and had come home with all of them. She’d also saved two injured dogs from the road. One of them had been hit and had needed a leg amputated, and the other was paralyzed from the waist down, so she had a contraption with wheels fitted to her so she could get around. Not that her disability slowed her down. I swear she was faster than a racing dog when she was strapped in.
It was that dog—whose name I could never remember—that Shanti had fallen in love with as soon as we’d arrived.
“It’s good to be back, Mi-mi.” My response shocked me. I hadn’t realized how good it’d feel to bring the girls here to meet my family.
“Love that you brought your girls with you, too, sunshine.”
My mom had decided on my nickname. The second I’d been placed into her arms, she’d decided I was the sunshine in a dark world, given that they’d struggled to get pregnant for years. My parents couldn’t afford IVF or fertility treatment or even the bills from adopting a kid, so they’d resigned themselves to never having kids, even though it’d broken my mom’s heart.
Seven years after they’d gotten married, Mom had been admitted into hospital because of a pain in her side. They’d not only discovered a small stone in her kidney, but me sitting happily in her womb.
Yeah, she was one of the cases where the person didn’t know they were expecting until they were six months pregnant. She likely wouldn’t ever have known either, given that she apparently had her period every month and only had the slightest bump by the time I was born.