Chapter Fourteen
“That isso wrong! Are they feeding these velociraptors Miracle-Gro? They would not have been that big,” Heather laughed, gesturing to the screen, huddled next to Tyler in Blue Rocket with her knees tucked against his thighs beneath her crinkly crepe skirt that slung low on her hips like a belly dancer and a halter top. His arm was slung around her shoulders, his truck loaded down in the back with bundles of vitamins to mix into the cows’ silage, brackets to support the new posts reinforcing the damaged barn walls, and various bits of equipment he’d picked up at Tractor Feed. “Not to mention, three quarters of these dinosaurs would have been feathered.”
How he and Heather had ended up all the way in Ennis County, just south of Dallas, at an old-fashioned drive-in, he had no idea. She’d told him where to drive, he’d been floating on a high after learning Charlie was a she, and he’d done what he was told, finding himself in the concession line two hours later loading up on junk food and Dos Equis. A drive-in that sold beer. Now wasn’t that a dose of Texas irony.
This wasn’t breaking rule number two. They weren’t on a date. This was just two friends. With exclusive benefits. At a movie he’d paid for. And there’d probably be more sex afterward.
“Is this like when I watch Law and Order? Or when a doctor watches M.A.S.H.?” he teased. “You freak about all the inaccuracies?”
“It’s entirely like that,” she grinned, “but I haven’t met a paleontologist who doesn’t love these flicks. They’ve inspire a whole generation of students.” The lights from the screen flashed light across her face, bright with wonder. She exhaled with satisfaction. “I’ve always wanted to come here.”
“You’ve never been here?” His brow knitted. He’d assumed, since she’d given him directions.
“Nope. Driven past it a hundred times, though. Some friends from Ridgeport came here on a free weekend a long time ago, but I had a soccer game that day and a recital after that, so I couldn’t make it, and I didn’t have my own car at school like everyone else my age, so I couldn’t come on other free weekends.”
Something about the way she’d said that last line sounded…solemn?
“What was that like? Living at a boarding school?”
This closeness felt good. It would feel better with some semblance of permanence, he dared to think. If only his life and his obligations were different.
She shrugged. “Like I was an afterthought.”
Silence fell. He’d expected her to talk about the dorms, or describe some quad building that looked like a Harry Potter castle. Not that. His arm tightened around her instinctively. Her head rested to his shoulder. His pops had threatened to send Toby to the military academy more than once, if anything, to keep him contained somewhere since Toby’d made an art form of sneaking out at night, and to try to instill some discipline in him, but he’d never followed through and Tyler had always suspected their momma had played a big role in keeping him home. Perhaps she’d suspected Toby would have felt the way Heather said she felt now.
“Ugh, and now they have a herd of velociraptors all the size of giraffes. They were the size of Frodo,” she gestured, giving him a know-it-all smile. So she was avoiding the subject. The same way she’d avoided confiding about her scar when he’d told her about his. “I mean, your dog, but probably an actual hobbit, too. Good movie choice. I haven’t seen this since it released.”
His phone started buzzing on the dash. He swung his arm off Heather’s shoulders and snagged it, gaze flitting away from the film. Red River Summer Camp pulsated on the screen. His eyes flashed to the time on the radio: 8:54 p.m.
Something was wrong. He’d already talked to the boys for the night.
“What the hell…” Snapping to alertness, he extricated himself from Heather. “Gotta take this.” He swiped to answer and turned the car speaker down a degree. “Tyler Dixon speakin’.”
“Hi, Mister Dixon. I’m sorry to bother you this evening. This is Mandy from Red River? Seth and Steven’s camp counselor?” She said it like it was question, sweet and chipper. “We’ve got a bit of a situation.”
“Are my boys all right?” he clipped, the words harsh and demanding as he felt Heather’s gaze on him, sensed in his periphery that her smile had fallen, as alarm threaded through his stomach.
“They’re fine, sir. But, well, I have Seth here in the office at the lodge.”
“…this is…bullsh…” he thought he heard Seth pout sullenly in the background.
A sinking feeling dropped in Tyler’s gut. It sounded like his kid was in trouble. Again. It was one of the reasons he’d started homeschooling the boys, because Seth was treating the principal’s office like a revolving door. Seth would never tell him what happened, either. Just veered more and more out of control. Maybe he shouldn’t have sent him to camp this summer, but he’d sensed Seth wanted a break from him, and camp had always brought the kid in him out, when girls and sports were more and more on his mind these days. Camp was his only option, because they didn’t have grandparents living anymore to visit, and when they had, Tyler’s momma had been sick and too busy trying to hide it. As much as she’d wanted her grandbabies to visit, Tyler hadn’t been able to burden her with the work involved unless he could take the time off to help.
He frowned, eyes riveted on the big screen but no longer watching, lips pressed into a thin line as he felt a concerned hand rest on his forearm.
“What’s wrong?” Heather whispered, brow knitted as he spared a glance toward her, but quickly righted his vision as Mandy began speaking again, and held up a hand to silence her.
“He and another boy got into an altercation this evening down at the lake. Some punches were thrown, and Seth flipped the other boy’s canoe. We broke it up, but neither boy will tell us what happened or who started it, and both of them injured each other.”
Man, he was certain nature intended for parents to fall in love with their kids’ cherubic faces as babies so that they didn’t throttle them when they hit puberty. “Where’s he hurt?”
“Split lip. And some bruising, but he gave the other boy a black eye and sprained his pinky.”
“What?” Anger lanced through him. “Sprained finger? Shiner?”
Heather’s grip tensed on him. “Is he okay?” she asked.
Tyler scoured his face and shoved out of the truck door, breaking Heather’s touch. She didn’t need to hear him air his laundry.