“Jesus, bitches,” Rush muttered as he closed the door and squeezed around us.
I grinned at Tack then dropped my head so my lips were at Tabby’s ear.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
“I’m stupid,” she sobbed into my neck.
“You aren’t. He was cute,” I told her, her body went still then her head jerked back and her watery eyes found mine. “He’s a complete and total jerk, but he was cute.”
“What?” she whispered.
“And too old for you,” I went on.
“I –”
“And he let me best him in, like, a second. So he’s also a loser.”
Tabby blinked.
“And, I’ll repeat, he’s a complete and total jerk.”
Tabby said nothing.
I placed one hand on the injured side of her head and slid my thumb close to her bruise.
Then I started talking and I did it quietly.
“I know we’re still getting to know each other. But I also know you’re a smart girl. I hate that you learned this lesson at all, much less that you did it at your age. But please, Tab, learn it. You can have family that makes you safe. You can have friends who’ll take your back. But the most important person and the one who’ll have the best shot at keeping you safe is you.”
She pulled her lips through her teeth and held my eyes but said nothing.
So I carried on.
“And the best way to do that is be smart.”
She let her lips go and whispered, “I was just havin’ fun.”
“You can have fun and be smart,” I replied.
She looked over her shoulder quickly then back at me but I thought it was a good sign she didn’t let me go.
“Can we not talk about this?” she requested softly.
“Darlin’,” Tack cut in and she looked back over her shoulder at her father as my eyes lifted to him, “if you think what happened last night could happen and you’d get off talkin’ about it, you best think again.”
“You and me are good,” she said to him. “You told me so last night and again not ten minutes ago.”
“That don’t mean we’re not talkin’ about it,” Tack returned, I felt her pull in a deep breath then she sighed.
I gave her a reassuring squeeze and let her go.
Her eyes came to me, they were timid before she let me go and stepped away.
“Sit your ass on a stool,” Tack ordered, “Tyra wants a word.”
I watched Tabby’s tongue run over her upper lip then she dropped her head and went to a stool.
There it was. She might be messed up but she was a good kid too.