In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,105
phone so she could properly glare at him.
“Or do you prefer childfree?” Max asked.
“That was an accident,” their father lied.
“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. But we get it. We like to forget about you too.”
“Look,” he said, raising his hands, palms up. It was his “placating” maneuver. “Let’s discuss this later. At your house. Right now we’re here for Uncle . . . Uncle . . .”
“Pete,” Stevie said.
“Right. Uncle Pete.”
“Our house?” Charlie asked, finally looking away from her phone with an incredulous expression.
“Well . . . I don’t really have a place to stay right now and I know if I come in with you guys, those bears won’t be so bitchy about me being there this time.”
Max grinned. “You expect to stay at our house? Seriously?”
“I’m your father. It’s the least you can do for me.”
Stevie shook her head and sighed out softly, “Oh, Dad.”
Max faced Charlie. “You all right with that?” she asked. “Dad staying with us?”
Charlie’s gaze cut over to their father’s. She didn’t say anything at first, but she also didn’t reach for any of her weapons. She still could, though.
After a time, Charlie finally suggested, “Let’s just talk about this later.” She indicated a spot between her and Max. “Come here, Dad. Let’s just . . . get through this.”
Grinning, Freddy practically danced over to the spot near his daughters. Stevie knew what her father was thinking: that the slightest act of kindness from his daughters meant he’d get anything he wanted once he was in their house and could charm them. There was just one problem . . . her father was not nearly as charming as he believed himself to be.
Stevie looked across the open grave to see that Will and his sons continued to glower at Freddy, but so far none of them had attempted to climb over Pete’s moving casket to wring the life from him. That alone was impressive.
“Sorry about that, Father Jones,” Charlie prompted the priest who’d taken over for Father Malone. “You can go on.”
The priest did, pausing briefly when Freddy landed face-first on Pete’s coffin, pushed there by Charlie and Max as they stood behind him.
The priest even continued while most of the family laughed, including Will, and Freddy cursed violently trying to find a way out of the grave. No one helped. Not even Stevie.
She just couldn’t. He was being a total ass today.
* * *
Dee-Ann chuckled, finding herself enjoying this funeral way more than her great-granddaddy’s when a hungover Sissy Mae had thrown that punch at cousin Polly Mae, and all hell had broken loose right there in front of the minister who called them all “insolent whores!” which led directly to Sissy’s momma slapping that minister right across the face. True, Janie Mae had called her daughter and Sissy’s best friend Ronnie Lee “insolent whores” before, but it was a whole other thing coming from some man who wasn’t kin.
“What are you giggling about?” Malone asked.
“Just enjoying the funeral.”
“I’d call you a sick fuck, Smith, but the Malones are known for our amazing funerals. The whiskey flows, the brisket is tender—”
“Are there potatoes? Bet there are potatoes.”
“Such a bigot, Smith.”
Dee-Ann grinned until her ear twitched the slightest bit. Her wolf hearing had picked up a sound several hundred feet away. She tilted her head, sniffed.
“Malone?” she asked, moving her head slowly to look to her right.
“Yeah?”
“I’m seeing something that don’t look right.”
“We’ll be there in a few.”
* * *
Max sniffed the air again.
“Someone’s here,” she said to Charlie, keeping her voice low so that Stevie wouldn’t hear.
With her middle finger raised toward their yelling father, still in that grave, Charlie softly replied, “When we start moving back to the cars . . . check it out.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Stevie demanded. “What’s going on? I know that you two are up to something—Dad, would you please shut up!”
“They’re trying to bury me alive!” their father complained.
He was right. Will had given a few dollars to the men waiting to push the dirt back into the grave. They usually waited until the family left for that sort of thing, but everyone kind of wanted to see it happen now so Will pulled out a wad of cash to make it so.
But none of them were too worried—or too hopeful—because Freddy could burrow with the best of them.
“Is this your new medication?” Max asked, knowing the question would set her baby sister off. “Is this what’s making you so paranoid?”