Dempsey’s daddy didn’t agree with him about anything. Dang sure didn’t seem the type that would listen to his son over one of his loud, drunk friends. But the longer I watched Dempsey, the wider his smile became and just like that my worry didn’t feel like such a heavy thing.
“So, your daddy isn’t going to change his mind? They aren’t gonna come looking for me?”
Just then Dempsey’s smile went a little weak, like he’d only just realized how worried I’d been, how scared the threat of his daddy’s anger had made me. Until I spoke it, if I’m telling the truth, I didn’t know how worried I was myself. But Dempsey’s lowering smile and the way his tall body ate up the space between us as he stood in front of me had me not remembering that I’d been so scared.
“How many times do I have to say it, Sookie?” He moved closer still and I swore the air around us started to sizzle. There was a heat that I didn’t reckon came from the humidity in the spring air. The noise of the city fell away then, just with one look from the boy who didn’t care about things that were fittin’, things that those staring eyes would eat up like a juicy steak. “Long as I’m breathing, I’ll look after you.” He held my face, tilting my chin up, so close, just inches from his mouth. His breath was sweeter today than it had been Saturday and I wondered for a second what he’d eaten that made it seem so. “Promise,” he said, like a whisper only half-remembered.
And just when Dempsey pressed his lips against mine, the noise of the city and the stench of the alley came back, like the ripping of a bandage on a sore not healed.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
I’d never heard Dempsey scream so loud, all flustered and surprised. Not even when he wanted to kill his daddy for breaking one of his ribs, but just then it seemed his anger would bubble over.
Sylv pushed Dempsey away from me, standing between us like some sad buffer. “You need to get on, Dempsey. Right damn now.”
“The hell I do.”
They stood there squaring off like a dozen dumb men do in the city every night. But this wasn’t a fuss over a woman they both wanted or money won and lost in a round of dice. This was my brother, who had always liked Dempsey almost as much as me, wanting to keep us both safe. This was Dempsey thinking only he could do that job.
When Dempsey showed no real sign that he’d back down, Sylv shook his head, lowering his shoulders like some sign that he wasn’t really mad. “Man, I mean it now. This thing here between you two, it stops right now.”
I didn’t much like my brother making decisions for me and I gave him a look, mouth tight from the quick flash of irritation that rushed up inside me. “Don’t you tell me my business, Sylv.”
“Think I need to since you won’t listen.” He didn’t bother looking my way as he spoke, seemed too wrapped up in watching Dempsey like he needed to be ready for a tussle when it came.
Dempsey was honest. Always had been, even when his face was all bloody and his eye had swollen shut and my Bastie had asked how he’d gotten that way, his answer had come without him taking a breath to invent some lie. “My daddy beat me for helping mend your fence, Mrs. Bastie.” Part of me thought he didn’t know how to lie so when he looked right at Sylv, all the anger gone from his face, I believed him. I think so did Sylv and maybe that was the problem.
“Sylv, I’d never let anyone come near her. Not my blood… no one.”
My brother let out a long, slow breath, like he wanted everything Dempsey said to be true. They’d been friends a long time. Maybe they weren’t close like me and Dempsey were, but Sylv liked him fine. That’s why I knew it hurt Sylv to tell Dempsey he wanted him gone. Maybe he didn’t really want to see the back of Dempsey, but in Sylv’s mind, it was the only way to keep us all safe.
Our world wouldn’t understand. Not now, not a year from now, and with my brother shaking his head, with him giving Dempsey a look that seemed like good riddance, I realized