“Sure. What do you want? Bison? Gazelle? Zebra’s always good. Oh . . . and with cheese or without?” When Dani simply stared, Tock nodded as she walked off. “Right. For the baby cat, beef it is.”
Dani carefully closed her notebook and textbooks and slipped them into her backpack. She put her pencils and eraser into the pink case her father had given her, taking a moment to organize them by size, and zipped it into the backpack’s front pocket. When she was sure everything was secure inside the bag, she put it on the floor against her chair, bending at the waist to make certain she placed it exactly, perfectly on the—
The sound of the crate being opened had Dani sitting up straight in the plastic chair. Some kid she didn’t know was holding one of the puppies. He stared at her with dark gold eyes; wild blond hair that appeared to have never been touched by a comb hung in his face. He kept jerking his head to get the strands out of his eyes. Two other boys with matching eyes and hair stood behind him, watching.
Princess snarled a little and Dani pressed her hand against the back of the dog’s neck to calm her.
“Cute,” he said, lifting the pup. “How much?”
“How much for what?”
“To buy. I want to buy a puppy.”
“They’re not for sale.”
“Then let us play with them. Just for a little while. We’ll be right over there. You can even watch us.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
Dani was getting angry. She hated when boys got pushy. It happened all the time at school, and more than once her mother or father had to go in to talk to her teacher about “Dani’s aggression problem.” It seemed her aggression problem was the fact that she didn’t let boys her age push her around.
“I don’t know why you’re being this way,” the boy argued.
“He said he’d pay for it,” one of the other boys told her. “Just give it to him.”
“No.” She tried logic. “They’re too young to be away from their mother.”
Practically snarling at her, the boy holding the puppy asked, “Why you gotta be so difficult?”
Okay. She was done with logic. It was really making her mad that the kid kept pushing, expecting her to give in. Except. . . Dani didn’t give in. Ever. She was a Malone.
“Put the puppy back in the crate,” Dani ordered.
He snorted. “Or what?”
“Or”—Dani slammed her hands against the table and stood—“I’m going to climb over this table and rip your face off!”
The three boys reared back at her bellow, but before they could bolt off with the puppy, Tock was there. She didn’t run over either. It was as if she just . . . appeared.
Standing between Dani and the boys, arms straight out to hold them away from each other if that became necessary, Tock asked Dani, “What’s going on?”
“He—” was all Dani got out before Tock cut her off by asking, without turning around, “Where do you think you’re going with that puppy?”
The three boys froze in the midst of walking away, and the one holding Princess’s pup then proceeded to outright lie! “She said I could have him.”
“You lying little—”
One upheld finger silenced Dani immediately. She didn’t know why she responded like that to her father’s friend. Because, by now, Dani’s mother would have torn someone’s arm off and ripped apart most of the building. Tock, however, remained calm and soft spoken. It was kind of underwhelming.
“We both know,” Tock said to the boys, “that she didn’t give you that puppy. So put it back in the crate and walk away.”
“It’s mine,” the boy insisted. “She gave it to me.”
With her finger still raised to keep Dani quiet and her head turned so she could keep the boys within sight, Tock said in the same calm tone, “Put the puppy back in the crate and walk. Away.”
Then Tock smiled. It was just teeth and gums. No fangs. If Dani saw someone walking down the street with a smile like that, she wouldn’t think anything of it. But coming from Tock the smile seemed . . . weird. Really, really weird.
Dani wasn’t the only one who thought so. With his gaze locked on Tock’s face, the boy slowly walked forward and put the puppy back into the crate. He started to move away, not bothering to close and secure the crate door. Still smiling, Tock tilted her head just a bit and he stopped, waited a beat, then secured the crate. After taking a few steps back, he and the two other boys turned around and took off running.
When Tock faced her, she asked Dani, “Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, Tock. I didn’t mean to get you into that.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
Dani frowned. “For . . . for starting that fight.”
“You didn’t start anything. I heard the entire conversation while I was ordering the food. You were clear, concise, and very direct. And he ignored what you said. That was unacceptable, and you have absolutely no reason to apologize for a damn thing. Understand?”
“Yeah . . . ? I guess.” She shrugged, not really wanting to discuss it anymore. “At least it’s over.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Tock sighed, actually looking sad. “It’s far from over.”
Tock turned away from her just as five women stomped around a nearby wall. They were all tall, had dark blond hair, a lot of makeup, and a lot of big gold jewelry. They also had dark gold eyes like the boys who stood just behind them. But they were adults and very angry.
“Was it you?” the one wearing the New York Rangers jersey and three thick gold chains demanded, pointing at Tock with her forefinger angled from a fist. “Was it you that put your hands on my son?”
Oh, my God! That kid was such a liar!
Still calm, Tock said, “I didn’t do anything to your son. But you should have a talk with him about respecting boundaries. When a girl tells him ‘no,’ he should learn to respect that. Or you’ll be talking to his big lion head through plexiglass.”
The woman took in a breath. “You got something to say about my son?” she wanted to know.
“Yeah.” Tock walked over to the woman until she stood right next to her, tilting her head up so she could look directly into her face. That’s when Dani realized that Tock had her hand behind her back and with the same finger that had silenced her earlier, she now motioned Dani away. It was just a twitch, but she knew what Tock was telling her.
Tock was sending her away because she thought things might get bad with that woman, and she wanted Dani to be safe. And it would be all Dani’s fault because she didn’t know how to be nice to idiot boys.
*