Page 35 of Where You're Planted

The door squeaked open behind him, a burst of voices spilling out. “Hey,” Tansy said again, this time with an annoyed edge to her voice.

He clutched his hips and breathed deeply, looking up to the evening sky.

“Hi,” came a softer voice, and his face turned like a magnet to metal. Tansy’s daughter stood on the step next to her, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

“Hey.” His voice was raspy from stress. He cleared it and tried again. “Briar, right?”

She smiled shyly up at Tansy, whose severe expression softened for a beat of connection before hardening on him once more. There was something in her eyes, something imploring and tight and cautious. He didn’t get the exact message, buthe registered that it was a warning as much a plea.Don’t fuck with my kid, maybe.

“Are you leaving?” Briar whispered.

“Just getting some air.”

“Okay, good.”

“Yeah?” he asked.

She nodded, looked to Tansy again, and then stepped forward. “Because we came to say…” She closed her mouth, twisted her lips, scrunched up her nose.

He waited. He didn’t always know how to say things either.

She drew in a big breath, then blurted, “Thank you for making us safe from the flood.”

His hand lifted to the back of his neck. “Ah, you don’t have to—”

Tansy cleared her throat pointedly, and now her eyes were wide and even more intense as she pressed a protective hand to Briar’s back.

“Uh,” he said, releasing his neck. He lifted his brows at Tansy, uncertain what exactly she thought he was going to do here or what she wanted from him, and she dipped her chin down toward Briar. He squatted down and met the girl’s eyes, saying honestly, “I’m glad I was there.”

“Us, too.”

Tansy shifted her hips, but he didn’t look up to see if she was silently protesting that collective reply.

“How’s…uh, Beans, was it?”

Briar’s eyes lit up. “Good!”

“Good. That’s good to hear. And you’re back at your school now? It’s open again?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Good.”

“Okay,” Tansy cut in, sounding a little breathless. Her eyes were soft and warm on him. “We won’t keep you.”

He rose, his hand itching to massage the tension from his neck again. “Right. Sorry.”

“Mom, wait.” Briar lifted on her tiptoes and tugged down Tansy to whisper in her ear.

Tansy looked confused, then surprised, then wary. “Are you sure? You want to think about it more before you decide? Because if Dr. Sharon—”

“It’s my idea,” Briar insisted with a determined lift of her chin, an exact copy of what Tansy looked like when she did that, although otherwise, their features were opposites. Briar had dark, wild curls and bright blue irises to her mother’s golden-blonde hair and amber eyes.

“If you’re really sure,” Tansy said uncertainly to Briar and then fixed him with a warning glare that could freeze Lake Houston in August.

Briar shrugged off her backpack, dug around in it, and pulled out…his hat. She hugged it to her chest, maybe having second thoughts after all. Then she held it out to him. “This is yours.”

Jack looked to Tansy for some kind of direction. Take it? Don’t take it? All he was getting from her was a very clear, very scary message to not be an asshole.