Chapter 233
Billie felt kind of achy and tired from all the crying, and she’d thought she’d stopped, but the tears started right back up as soon as she saw him. Her breath hitched and she tried to say, “Hi, Mr. D’ante,” but it came out all wobbly and weird.
“Oh, hey,” Mr. D’ante said. He sat on the moss with a thump next to her. “Did something bad happen?”
Billie’s lip quivered and she nodded, but it took her a couple of minutes to manage to talk again. “I hafta have a dad!”
“Well, most people do,” Mr. D’ante said. “It’s not such a bad thing most of the time. Don’t change nothin’. Your uncles are still your uncles. They find your dad, kiddo?”
She nodded. “An’ I’mma have to go live with him and I don’t wannaand they don’t even care!”
Mr. D’ante blinked at her, looking puzzled. “I would be willing to bet you an entire piethat that is not true.”
“Yuh-huh!” she protested. “Uncle Andy said they weren’t gonna keep me and Uncle Scooter said it wasn’t right! I heard!”
“Uh-huh. So, they were talking about you, but not to you?” He circled his arms around his knees and looked at her. Calm, quiet. Kinda like the lady Uncle Andy had her talking to sometimes.
She nodded. “They was in Uncle Scooter’s office.” She sniffed. “An’ they didn’t know I was there, so they didn’t hafta be nice.”
“Kiddo, I have known your Uncle Scooter for a great number of years now, an’ I’ll tell you one thing I know for sure about him. He’s nice. All the time. An’ I know he loves you just as much as he possibly can. Do you want t’ talk with him about this, get all the facts, before you go breakin’ his heart by running away?”
Another tear slipped down her face. “If he loves me, how come he don’t wanna keep me?”
“If your dad is trying to get custody of you, baby girl, they might be worried that there’s no choices. But there are always options. Your dad, he hasn’t been part of your life. An’ your mother, she put them in charge of you. And I think, if you have a strong opinion on it, that’ll matter, in a court. Can I call him? I’ll bet he’s awful worried about you.”
She bit her lip, then nodded. “I guess.”
Mr. D’ante pulled out his phone and tapped it a few times. He put it up to his ear. “Oh, hey Kat. Yeah, it’s D’ante. Is Scooter—yep. Yep. His princess is in Elaine’s castle.”
Elaine!That was the lady’s name!
“She just wandered in, th’ gate was unlocked when I came…yep. No, she’s fine. Little dirty and bedraggled. Probably hungry. Yeah, sure thing. We’ll wait for him here.” D’ante poked his phone and tucked it in his pocket. “Okay then. Kat says that he and your Uncle Andy are looking all over for you, and she’s goan call them an’ let them know where you are, okay? In the meanwhile, you wanna come inside and have a Coke with me?”
A Coke sounded really good. She nodded, and let Mr. D’ante help her up and pick up her shoes and socks, and brush the dirt off her dress a bit. “They’re really lookin’?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if your Uncle Scooter had roused th’ whole sandbar, looking for you.” Mr. D’ante pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the back door, letting her into the kitchen. “This is Elaine and me and Arthur’s home, but they’re both at work still. An’ I don’t cook, but I might be able to dig you up a granola bar, if you’re hungry?” He pulled two cans of soda out of the fridge and put one on the table for her, cracking it open with one hand.
She considered that while she pulled the can closer and took a long drink. Her stomach made that rumble again and it kind of hurt a bit. Ice cream seemed a very long time ago. “Yes please, Mr. D’ante. Thank you.”
Mr. D’ante had just placed a bar with chocolate chips in it next to her when someone banged on the door. “Bet that’s your uncle. I’ll just let him in, you can stay there.” Mr. D’ante walked out of the room.
For a moment, she could hear Mr. D’ante talking, quick and soft. And then her uncle. “Dammit, D’ante, get out of the way! That is my kid you are talking about and I want to see her right now.”
My kid? she thought, and then Uncle Scooter was there and he was hugging her almost too tight. Maybe he cared after all. And then Mr. D’ante came back into the kitchen and he smiled at her and lifted his eyebrows and Billie had to tuck her face into Uncle Scooter’s neck so she wasn’t looking at Mr. D’ante’s told-you-so face.