Page 32 of Daddy’s Fortitude

That was much more than she’d expected he would do. Definitely way more than Charlie ever would have done.

You’ve got to stop comparing everyone to Charlie. There are good people out there, good men out there. Not everyone is like him.

They drove around the block, and she realized that Mr. C. was gone. Good. Now she could go home, go to bed, and try to pretend that tonight had never happened.

Ammo pulled up outside her house and got out, coming around to open her door.

“Thanks for the ride, and thanks for sticking up for me.”

Even if she had lost her job, it wasn’t really his fault. He’d only been doing the right thing. Something that Danny should have done a long time ago.

He walked her to the door and waited for her to unlock it.

“Goodnight,” she told him.

He just nodded. Maybe she should invite him inside, but she’d had enough. She didn’t think she could deal with anything more.

So she walked in and shut the door behind her. Then she leaned against it with a sigh.

There was a knock on the door and she jumped, her heart racing. For a moment, she thought it was Yvonne. Then she realized the other woman wouldn’t be out and about at this time of night.

“Lock your door,” Ammo ordered.

Geez. Had he stood there and waited to hear if she’d lock the door? That was crazy. He was crazy.

But she couldn’t help but smile as she locked the door, because it also felt really nice to have someone actually care about her.

After she went to the bathroom, she moved into her bedroom and changed into her worn Garfield pajamas.

She loved Garfield. What wasn’t to love? A fat, lazy orange cat who loved lasagna?

Sign her up. And Odie was pretty cool as well. She’d once had a little stuffed Garfield that she’d carried around everywhere as a kid, but she’d lost it when they’d moved here. It had been devastating. When she’d told Charlie why she was crying, he hadn’t understood. He’d told her to just buy a new one, but it wasn’t the same. It wouldn’t be her Garfield.

But she guessed these things happened. At least she had the pajamas that she’d worn for years and years. They always cheered her up.

Climbing into bed, she grabbed Owly McOwlFace, her stuffed toy owl and hugged him tight.

He was something else that always kept her feeling safe and happy.

Everything would work out okay. She knew that Kirsten would let her go back to work at her day job tomorrow to try to make up what she’d lost tonight. But that wasn’t going to help with the next night after that. She usually worked at the bar Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. And then from Sunday to Wednesday, she packed shelves at night at the local grocery store.

Maybe she’d be able to increase her hours there or get another night job somewhere else.

She tried to push those thoughts out of her mind because she really needed to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to come quickly.

Ammo knocked on Aimee’s door, letting out a huff of frustration as he stared around the messy yard.

Where could she be when she didn’t even have a car? Maybe she’d gone to the grocery store or perhaps she’d something to arrange for the funeral. It was his own fault for not getting her phone number.

He just hoped that she hadn’t left in order to hide from him, since she seemed to have a habit of doing that.

Well, the yard wasn’t going to take care of itself, and that was something he could do for her. He’d seen an equipment rental place on the way to Greasy Knob. It seemed to be one of those great big stores that sold or rented out everything you could think of for the outdoors. He’d head over there and see what he could rent.

He pulled into the parking lot about twenty minutes later. It was a huge building that seemed to have lots of hiking, fishing, and mountaineering equipment in one area. Then landscaping material in the other. They even sold wood chips and mulch.

Glancing around, he saw someone coming toward him driving a small forklift. Through the carpark.

That wasn’t . . . it couldn’t be . . .