Keeping the pedal down, Wendy looked ahead and glanced in the mirror for any sign of pursuit. She could feel the tiny trailer almost floating behind them. “Cow in the road,” Sally said.
Wendy was looking ahead and didn’t see anything, but took her foot off the accelerator and then saw a dot in the distance. Tapping the brakes, Wendy was down to fifty by the time they’d reached the cow and she continued to slow down. More than once, one of her dumb ass cows had jumped out in front of her for no reason as she’d driven across the pasture.
Going past the cow, Wendy saw it was just standing in the road and chewing its cud.
Hitting ‘Resume’, Wendy let the Tahoe get back to forty-five. Seeing a sign for Oak Ridge, Wendy knew they had been hauling ass. They had covered ten miles in four minutes. “We are a long way from them, Sally,” Wendy assured her softly, but couldn’t glance over as she turned onto another road.
“They were being mean to kids,” Sally whimpered in a small voice, still looking ahead through the thermal.
Just hearing that made Wendy want to turn around. “You did a good job,” Wendy told her and then reached over to squeeze Sally’s leg. “You gave us warning and I was able to take off. They never had a chance to get close.”
Finally, Sally lowered the thermal and wiped her eyes. “I’ll stay awake until we get home,” she sniffled.
Looking in the mirror, Wendy saw Jo Ann was holding a sleeping Ryan. “Can you put him down and come up here with your sister for a little bit?” Wendy asked.
“Noah’s awake,” Jo Ann said and put Ryan down on the pillows in the floorboard behind the passenger seat.
“Noah, come sit in my lap,” Wendy called out and Noah bounced between the seats and over the center console and climbed into Wendy’s lap. He tried to curl up, but the magazines on her vest kept digging into him. “Here,” Wendy said, spinning him around and putting his hands on the steering wheel. “Hold it right there,” Wendy said, tapping the brakes to slow down.
Jo Ann climbed in the front seat with Sally and held her hand as Sally laid her head on Jo Ann’s shoulder. Sally pushed the thermal over into Jo Ann’s lap and Jo Ann struggled to lift it up with one hand. Still holding Sally’s hand, she moved her hand up and helped support the thermal as she looked ahead.
Undoing the side straps, Wendy folded the front of the vest over her head letting it rest over the headrest. “There we go,” Wendy said, taking the steering wheel and Noah curled up against her chest.
“Momma,” he said, snuggling into Wendy.
Tilting her head down, Wendy kissed the top of Noah’s head. “Sally, if I knew you and the others would be okay, I would go back there and kill those bad guys for scaring you,” Wendy admitted as she wrapped her arm around Noah.
With her head still on Jo Ann’s shoulder, “I know,” Sally said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
Lowering the thermal, Jo Ann looked down at her twin. “Wow, she really is,” she said to Sally.
Wendy glanced over, never having heard Sally speak. “I know, but you’re right,” Jo Ann said and Wendy felt jealous that they could have a conversation without words.
“Can I ask what you guys were talking about?” Wendy asked, glad the sun was setting.
Lifting her head up, Sally stared at Jo Ann and then they both looked over at Wendy. “You’re our momma now,” they told Wendy and Wendy turned to the girls with a serious face.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve always looked at you two like my daughters,” Wendy said with a sigh. “I always hoped you wouldn’t get mad, but I see all of you as mine. I love you guys so much it hurts.”
The twins climbed over the center console to cover Wendy’s face with kisses and Wendy had to struggle to see the road until she could stop. Be damned if she was telling them to wait until she stopped. Finally stopped, Wendy held all three tight.
For several minutes, they just held a group hug. “Guys, let’s do this at home,” Wendy said regrettably. “I don’t like stopping in plain sight.”
“Okay,” the twins said and Sally had a cheerful face again.
“You okay now?” Jo Ann asked and Sally nodded with her customary smile.
After Jo Ann climbed into the backseat, Wendy kissed Noah on the head and squeezed him tight. “Noah, I need you to get in the back, so we can get home,” Wendy told him, pressing the accelerator.
After kissing Wendy on the cheek, Noah climbed in the back and Wendy reached over her head and pulled the vest back on. Tightening the side straps down, Wendy glanced over and saw Sally looking ahead. “Okay, the city of Bastrop is ahead and it is the biggest city we will go through. All the rest are very tiny,” Wendy told them.
“Can we go fast?” Jo Ann asked.
“Not unless we have to, baby. We only went fast for like ten miles, but we used some gas to do it. Besides the fact that we could have a wreck really easy. I don’t want to risk it unless we have to,” Wendy explained.
They settled in and started looking around. When they reached the outskirts, they saw a truck pass them going the opposite way. Feeling something on her thigh, Wendy looked down and saw Sally had put the Glock in her lap. “It fell on your floorboard when we hugged you,”
