palm shot out and ruffled Ollie’s hair setting the braids to bouncing. He swept her up into his arms and let her straddle his right shoulder. “You being good?”
Ollie seemed to weigh her answer carefully. “Uh, good as I get most times.”
Maddox chuckled and Bass was grateful the child’s words cooled the tempers that had been simmering moments ago.
“You got plenty to eat?” Maddox’s gaze swept over her as if examining her for good measure.
“Yep. Too much sometimes. Mama always says to clean my plate and not waste stuff, but I get Butler to help me if I can’t.”
“Butler?” Maddox frowned. “You still keeping that goat in the house?”
“Not since he ate Myrtle’s darnin’. She made me turn him loose in the barn a couple of days back. Says he needs to butt heads with somebody else but her. All he does is knock himself silly.”
“Is your mama doing right by you?” Maddox faced her mother.
Ollie didn’t hesitate, not looking threatened at all by Daisy’s intense expression. “She’s huggin’ on me a lot and I don’t like it much, but she could’ve taken a switch to me this mornin’ and she didn’t. Old Miz Jenkins will prob’ly pray about me tomorrow for sure.” Ollie proceeded to tell him about holding the men hostage.
Maddox chuckled as he set her down and bent on one knee to search her eyes. “Ya little wildcat. Guess ya can’t help yourself. Ya got your daddy’s fire in ya, don’tcha? You’d tell me if ya ever wanted to come live with me and your uncles instead, wouldn’t ya?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Y’all snore a bunch.”
Maddox snorted, wrinkling his nose into a twisted angle. She giggled. “See what I mean? Mama don’t snore like that. She snuggles me up when the lightnin’ comes. You uncles just snore it all away. I’m gonna stay with Mama, if that’s okay with you and God.”
Maddox tucked a thumb up under Ollie’s chin and raised it. “What’s God got to do with this, Little Britches?”
“He didn’t let Daddy stay with Mama. I’m just hopin’ He’ll hurry up and let me find her someone to hug on in case He don’t let me stay with her, too.”
* * *
Daisy’s heart tightened as if someone had struck her with a mallet. She never dreamed that the reason Ollie wanted to find a new daddy was because she feared leaving her mama alone. She’d assumed Ollie was tired of being smothered with affection and wanted it focused on someone else. At first, her interviewing and list-making seemed endearingly funny and sometimes frustrating, but now Daisy felt only selfish and unworthy of her daughter’s true concern. Ollie had lost a father and feared losing her as well to her uncles’ decisions.
“You’re not going anywhere, Ollie.” Daisy crossed the room to stand beside her. “So there’s no need to worry about that, is there, Uncle Maddox?”
Daisy stared at Maddox, hoping that her voice sounded more certain than she felt, praying it held no hint of begging. Surely he could see that Ollie needed the security of all she’d known, of a mother’s love, of living with someone who would never let her father’s name be dishonored. Even by the truth.
“I’ll chew on it for a while. No need to pick more bone for now.”
“What does ’zat mean?” Ollie looked puzzled.
Bass Parker chimed in. “That means he needs some time to make up his mind. Right, Mr. Trumbo?”
“If you’re gonna sleep under my brother’s roof you might as well call me Maddox.” Maddox rose to his six feet five inches of height. “And you’re right. I’ll hold off ’til you move to town. By then I’ll know more what I’m going to do about you and why you’re here. Ain’t decided if I’m gonna tolerate it yet. Can’t speak for the boys. They’ll decide for themselves.”
He held out his bear-paw-sized palm. “It’s been a waste of good boar-hunting weather meeting you, Parker. I can see by your knuckles you got more than good manners in ya and you can see by my nose I ain’t squeamish about shifting bones. So I hope we get through this without having to trade blows. We’ll be checking in on ya and making sure you’re healing good. People’ll get to gossiping and such if ya take too much time mending, being you’re under Daisy’s roof, ya know what I mean?”
Bass started to speak but Daisy interrupted him. “He’s hurt in the shoulder, Maddox. His ears are just fine. And don’t be threatening him if you want him out of here as soon as possible. The more he’s hurt, the longer he’ll have to stay.”
Her defense filled Bass with gratitude and more than a measure of surprise.
Ollie leaned over the side of the bed and took a good look at his knuckles. Her eyes softened as she studied him. “I better pray good and hard for ya tomorrow at church, Bass. Nobody, but nobody’s ever whupped Uncle Maddox. It would be the best fight ever, though, but you’d get hurt for sure.”
Maddox roared with laughter just as his brothers came running up the stairs and entered the already crowded room.
Jonas, the youngest of the three brothers, closest to Daisy’s age of twenty-four, ripped a bandanna from around his neck and handed it to Maddox. “What’s got ya gushing?”
Grabbing the bandanna and wiping his eyes, he also blew his crooked nose before handing the bandanna back to Jonas. Daisy almost withered with embarrassment right there on her planked flooring.
Maddox told his brothers what Ollie had said to set him to laughing so hard he’d cried.
Grissom, whose nose had fresh purple-and-yellowish hues that now wound into a second curve, looked down his odd-shaped snout. “I thought we came up here to kick him into the hereafter.”
Despite the fact that Bass looked as if he was struggling to stay awake, he spoke up and informed the newly arrived brothers what all had been said, discussed and judgment passed on concerning his reason for being here. He focused the conversation on himself, targeting the possible threats only at him and not at her custody of Ollie.
Daisy really took in the sight of her dark-haired patient. Though weak and obviously tiring more each moment that passed, his blue eyes were full of kindness and unspoken defense of her. A wounded knight in tarnished armor. Yet he guarded her. Though reluctant to admit it to herself, she appreciated him doing so and finally accepted something from Bass Parker gratefully.
“Maddox here said he’d give me time to heal my shoulder before he decides whether or not to adjust my nose,” Bass finished. “I hope you two gentlemen will do the same.”
“Maddox? All that true?” Grissom exhaled a long breath that revealed he had been holding in a readiness to add his fists to a fight.
“True as boogers on bandannas,” Ollie announced before Maddox could reply.
Male laughter erupted in the room.
“Lord help us, child.” Daisy tried to keep a straight face. She didn’t know whether to laugh or be exasperated yet again. She wasn’t even sure if she
