applies.”
She twisted in his arms, pushing back, and he gave way, allowing her to turn, moving back until she lay on top of him, her hands on either side of his face, peering down. “I can show you bolder.”
“Go right ahead. Do it before the kids get here.”
DALLAS WALKED ALONG beside Houston, after getting out of Uncle Deacon’s pickup, kicking the ground and wishing they hadn’t done what they did.
He’d felt guilty all night for locking his parents in the shed.
Even though Uncle Deacon and even Grandma said it was okay, he’d never disrespected his parents like that.
Houston and he didn’t exactly disobey, but he knew they hadn’t been good kids.
He already had so much trouble sitting still, concentrating on his schoolwork, not talking when he was supposed to be listening, and giving both his dad and his mom such a hard time, without really meaning to, that he hadn’t meant to make things worse for them.
Uncle Deacon walked along beside them, answering a question Houston had asked about what the Bible meant about harvesting in his life.
Dallas wasn’t sure how Houston came up with those questions. He’d never even thought to question what kind of harvest a person had that wasn’t done with equipment and didn’t have an actual product to sell.
It made him feel like he wasn’t as smart as Houston. Although Houston assured him that Dallas had things he was good at that Houston wasn’t. Like driving. And running equipment. And sometimes he could talk their mom into doing stuff, while Houston said he never could. So maybe Dallas had what Grandma called the Hudson charm.
Grandma seemed to love him just fine, and so did his mom and dad.
Still, he felt kind of miserable because of what he’d done. His stomach knotted and twisted as they walked closer to the shed.
His parents knew that stuff like this was always his idea, and he would probably take the brunt of whatever anger they had.
“Do you think it worked?” he asked for about the thousandth time.
Uncle Deacon grinned and ruffled his hair. Uncle Deacon looked a lot like Dad, and his touch was just the same, a little rough, which Dallas liked, but he could tell when Uncle Deacon touched him that he really liked him.
“If that didn’t work, I don’t think anything will.” Uncle Deacon’s smile didn’t dim, but Dallas noted that his eyes didn’t smile with his mouth.
That made his stomach cramp even tighter.
As they approached the shed, Deacon said, “Okay, boys. You two stop here, and I’ll knock on the door.”
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Houston asked.
“I think we’d better knock.”
Houston looked over at Dallas, with his brows furrowed. Dallas shrugged. They had no idea why Uncle Deacon would knock on the door first.
“Maybe it has something to do with finding out how angry they are before he opens the door?” Dallas whispered.
Houston pursed his lips and nodded thoughtfully. “That’s probably it,” he whispered back.
They stood side by side as Deacon lifted his hand.
“What are you guys doing down there? Breakfast is up here on the table. Come on up and have yourself some. Bet you boys are hungry, unless Grandma fed you.”
“Dad?” Houston said, as they all three turned and looked at their dad standing on the porch.
Dallas swallowed. “Where’s Mom?” Surely Dad wouldn’t have done anything to her.
Surely he wouldn’t have escaped from the shed and somehow locked Mom in it? If that happened, they were both in really big trouble. Actually Dad was probably in really big trouble too.
But his fears eased when his mom stepped around from behind his dad and stood on the porch with him, her arm around him. Then, while Dallas watched, Dad’s arm went around Mom, and he hugged her to him.
Dallas’s mouth dropped, and he smiled at the same time. It was the exact same expression that Houston had on his face when Houston looked over at him.
It was funny, the way he could always tell what Houston was thinking. Even not having grown up with him, it didn’t matter. He could see the celebration coming over his face, and he lifted his own hands up, slapping them with a double high-five and shouting and jumping and grabbing each other and hugging and jumping and yelling until they had jumped and tripped over each other and fallen down, and then they rolled on the ground, hugging each other and laughing and yelling.
Until they both, at the exact same moment, scrambled to their feet and went running