Explosive Alliance (Wingmen Warriors 9)

"Nope. I'm not lost." She pushed to her feet and dusted off her bottom. "My mama's out front resting her tired pups."

"Good girl." He crouched in front of her. "You shouldn't wander off from your mother."

She didn't like him getting so close. She backed up and— ewww—stepped in the mud.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"That's right." He nodded. His big bushy eyebrows made him look kinda spooky, and kinda goofy, too. "But I'm not a stranger, Kirstie Adella Haugen."

Surprised, she stopped inching away. "How do you know my name?"

"I'm a friend of your daddy's."

Her tummy bumped again, harder this time. "I don't got a daddy anymore. He died of the polio."

"Polio, huh?"

"Yep. He got shots," she winced at the word shots, too close to a truth she didn't want to think about because it made her stomach hurt more. "But the medicine didn't help so he went to live in heaven. Hey, wait, if you knew him like you said then you would already know he got dead."

"I knew him a long time ago."

That made sense, sorta. And her mama didn't talk about it much, except for that one time she'd told her about what happened when her daddy got shot.

The kids in first grade talked about it though. A bunch. And they didn't think he went to heaven at all like Uncle Vic said.

She scratched her belly right over her tummy ache and backed all the way to the corner of the moonwalk. "I gotta go before my mama gets mad. Uncle Vic says she's a real pill when she gets her knickers in a knot."

Kirstie looked around into the crowd and aw, geez, Mama sure did look mad already. "I really gotta go."

"Who's that with her?" He pointed to Bo pushing through the people with his shoulder.

"That's Captain Bo. He flies airplanes."

"He's your mama's new boyfriend?"

Boyfriend? Kirstie's tummy stopped bumping and started rolling. She swallowed down her hot dog and the chips—and cotton candy Mama didn't know she'd shared with Bo while her mother had gone to the Porta Potti. Was he really a boyfriend? Emily at school said her mother's boyfriends always pretended to be nice then left her with a baby-sitter.

The thought of being alone made it tough to breathe.

She shook her head. "Nu-uh. It's just me and mama and Uncle Vic and Uncle Seth, 'cept Uncle Seth hurt his foot." That was more people than she used to have before her daddy died, but she was still scared at night. "You really knew my daddy before he died of the polio?"

"We used to race dirt bikes out there in the fields when we were supposed to be picking up rocks."

"Kirstie?" Her mother's mad voice reached her seconds before Mama raced over to her.

"Kirstie, honey, you were supposed to be out front."

Not a mad voice like she'd thought after all, but a scared voice. Her mother picked her up and backed away real fast from the man.

Bo stepped between them, and he was mad. "Would you like to explain what's going on here?"

"No harm meant." The man held up his hands. "I just wanted to make sure the little girl wasn't lost." The guy with bushy brows ran into the crowd so fast she already couldn't see him anymore.

Kirstie risked a quick peek at her mama. Uh-oh. She had that sucking-lemons look on her face.

It would probably be better not to say the man knew Daddy since talking about him made her mother even more sad. "I was watching you the whole time, Mama. I know to holler really loud if somebody tries to snatch me. I'm s'posed to shout 'No! You're not my parents.' Right?"

Bo tugged a curl on her head, his face not so mad anymore. "That's right, Cupcake. You sure scared your mom, though, running off and all."