Page 22 of A Cowboy Holiday
I frowned. Other than pre-K and after-school care where the staff was vetted by law, I hadn’t trusted Phoebe with anyone since we’d left Vegas. My hesitation was a palpable thing. To me, anyway. The girls were pleading while Josh dodged a grubby bop on the nose that sent his straw hat flying. His wife was quick with a wet-wipe while a bystander rescued the hat and the girls skipped in circles in the melee.
This was chaos, and it was a perfect example of why I rarely let Phee out of my sight. There was too much static in the world, too many ways to get hurt, and too many people who didn’t watch what they were doing or who just didn’t give a fuck. It was my job to stay with her, protect her, teach her, guide her?—
“She’ll be all right,” Tanner whispered, interrupting my spiraling thoughts. “Josh and Angie have three of their own. They’re pros at the kid thing.”
“I…uh…”
“Please, Daddy.”
The dual puppy dog eyes got me. I gave a curt nod and crouched to Phee’s eyeline. “You know the rules. Stay with Abby and her family, don’t talk to strangers, don’t?—”
She tilted my hat to kiss my cheek. “I know, I know. I’ll be careful.”
Tanner’s brow was knit with curious bemusement. “You’re protective.”
I grunted, and against my better judgment added, “She’s all I’ve got.”
He stared some more.
“I promise, I wouldn’t lead you astray.” Tanner nudged my elbow, more amused than insulted by my blank expression. “Besides, you know Josh. He’s a goofball. The good kind. C’mon, I see Hudson with Moody and Vicki. Let’s say hi.”
Vicki the Vixen was a statuesque woman with twinkling eyes and red hair gathered in a bun dotted with plastic eyeballs. She gave a wicked cackle, beckoning Tanner to join her in the open doorway between the Soup Cantina and Moody’s bookstore.
“Bwahaha, Tanner, you darling morsel. I’d eat you for dinner…and dessert, but you’re far too sweet. Who’s this?”
“This is Axel, our new vet.”
Vicki presented her hand like a member of the Addams family and fluttered her fake lashes. “Pleased to meet you, and welcome to our ghoulish town.”
“Thanks.” I shook her hand and greeted Hudson and his husband, Moody, a smallish blond man with glasses who owned the neighboring bookstore with a nod. “I like your um…costumes.”
Moody snickered breezily. “We’re M&M’s.”
“Spooky,” I commented.
Hudson glowered. “I lost a bet.”
“Rather spectacularly,” Moody agreed. “I don’t recall the terms, but if he’d won, we were going to be Batman and Robin.”
“Huh.” Tanner eyed Hudson. “I gotta say…being a large red M&M made of—what is this fabric?”
“Felt,” Moody supplied. “I made them myself.”
Tanner hummed. “Yep, this suits you, man. You look badass.”
Hudson pulled the oversized white glove from his hand and flipped Tanner off.
Vicki playfully ribbed Hudson for his costume and Tanner for not wearing one.
“Hey, the spider counts,” he huffed, pointed at his cheek. “And what exactly are you supposed to be?”
Ripped fabric hung from her arms in neat swaths as Vicki spread her arms like a tropical bird…or a Vegas showgirl stepping onstage in feathers and sequins. “I’m a mummy queen.”
Tanner tipped the brim of his hat. “I see it now. Love the eyeballs.”
“Why, thank you.” She cackled again, then pointed a long fingernail at me. “Hudson was telling us you have a little girl. Is she here?”
“Yeah, she made fast friends with Josh’s daughter,” I replied.