were worried when you didn’t come back last night. That’s why I called the boys together. It’s a dangerous world out there, you know.”
“I’ll protect her,” said Roger.
“When I need protecting,” added Mary.
CJ smiled at Mary and said, “Are you sure you don’t want a job on the sales side? Riding over here, I was wondering how I was going to explain to At that he needed a new President for the Dallas chapter, but you made the sale.”
He started the engine on the bike. “I’ll let At know you’re OK, but I’ll let you explain, uh, anything else to your dad yourself. I don’t think I have that kind of sales skill in me.” He gave a quick salute with his hand and buzzed out of the motel parking lot.
They stood there in silence for a few moments. Mary felt tears running down her face. She wasn’t sure if they were tears of joy, or relief, or sorrow. A part of her grieved for the little girl that used to ride so excitedly in the back of CJ’s bike. That little girl was now gone forever. She was all grown up.
“Let’s get inside,” Roger said quietly.
As they entered the room, her telephone began to ring.
She looked at the screen and it said, “Daddy.”
“Looks like CJ made his phone call,” she said as she pressed the answer button.
The first thing her father said was, “Put it on speaker.”
She did so and the voice of Atticus Taylor filled the room. “I assume that Speedy is there with you?”
It sounded like a question so Roger answered, “Good evening, sir.”
“CJ told me what happened last night. I’m not sure I agree with what they did, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done it just like that.”
Roger and Mary kept silent.
“And from what I hear tonight, Baby Girl, you probably would have told me off just like you told them off.”
There was another long silence, then Atticus continued, “I guess I have to accept the fact that my Baby Girl has grown up. You’ll always be Baby Girl to me, but you’re a woman now and I have to get used to that. Whatever you said or did, you put the fear of God in Crazy Jack and his boys last night, and that ain’t easy to do. And you got him to change his mind tonight, and believe me, that’s even harder.” There was a long pause. “So, it sounds like you can take care of yourself.”
They could hear him take a deep breath. “Speedy, you still there?”
“Yes, sir,” Roger replied immediately.
“Cut that ‘sir’ shit. I had enough of that with your dad in ‘Nam. You got balls, son, ‘cause I know that you know how I feel about my Baby Girl. So you know that you’d better treat her right or I’ll kick your ass all the way back to Texas and then halfway across Mexico.”
“Don’t worry, At,” Roger responded. “I love her. I’ll treat her right.”
“I’ll be back day after tomorrow for the meeting of the chapter heads. We can talk about things then. Looks like I either have to arrange for a service manager to move to Texas or a Chapter President to move up to the main headquarters. I’ll let you two figure out which of those options you want to try. Meantime, Baby Girl, take tomorrow off. CJ said he’d get someone to cover the shop. You two probably still need to talk... or something.”
A beep indicated that the connection was cut from the other end of the call.
“We did a lot of talking last night,” Roger said with a grin.
Mary snuggled against Roger’s chest and said, “I guess that leaves the ‘or something.’”
“I guess it does,” he replied, and covered her mouth with his own.
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