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Chapter 8 Aaron and Jeffrey

Aaron picked me up and started to bring me over to my mom.

"Ohh, Jeffrey." Her laugh sounded strange. "You are quite the charmer."

She was leaning towards the man with her hand on his chest like she was trying to hold herself up.

Aaron made a coughing sound "Excuse me ma'am."

She put her hands on her hips and turned to look at us. "Aaron, right?" He gave a nod. "Now I just finished telling Jeffrey here, that when someone calls me ma'am it makes me feel like an old lady."

Aaron said "My apologies ma'am um, miss we were trained to call all women ma'am as a show of respect."

She made that funny sounding laugh again " Oh that's ok. I also told him that with that drawl, you two have you could get away with calling me anything. Say, are you, gentleman from around here?"

Aaron answered "No ma'am um..." He closed his mouth and looked at my mom.

"Renee, Aaron just say my name." My mom's lips turned up in a half smile. She ducked her head down and used her eyes to look up at him.

"Um, okay. We're from South Carolina. We're just on leave for a few days here." He seemed to be uncomfortable.

"Ohh! Military men!"

Jeffrey had come up behind her and put his hand on her back. He leaned in close to her. "Yes ma'am. We went from a couple of country boys, to a couple of military men, but there's one thing that will never change."

She leaned into his arm and slowly said, "oh really, and what might that be?" She made the same face at Jeffrey she made at Aaron, but Jeffrey didn't look uncomfortable.

He answered her just as slow. "We still enjoy a good time with a pretty lady."

She laughed again and swatted at his chest. "Ohh, Jeffrey."

Aaron coughed uncomfortably. "Umm, ma... um, Renee, perhaps you should get anything you might need or want from your car before they come and take it. Just in case they keep it for a couple of days."

When she was gone Aaron whispered toward Jeffrey. "What are you doing?"

Jeffrey shrugged his shoulders "What? Just having a little fun." Aaron narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

I pulled on his shirt to get his attention. "Yes, little darlin?"

I frowned for a moment wondering why he didn't call me ma'am. Then decided to ask the more important question."Why someone takes my car? Where they take it?"

He smiled and explained "Well, you know when you're not feeling good and your mommy takes you to the doctor to get better. Right now your car isn't feeling good. So someone is going to take it to the mechanic so it can get better."

I thought about this. When I didn't feel good and coughed or complained too much mommy would just make me take yucky medicine. "Why not just give it medicine?"

He explained "Because cars don't take medicine. You also have to find out what's wrong with it before it can get better."

Jeffrey now leaning against their car and looking at his phone said "Aaron we're meeting up at a bar tonight. Do you think Renee will want to join us?"

Aaron looked surprised. "Are you missing the fact that she has a kid?"

Jeffrey shrugged again "So what. She can drop it off with the baby daddy."

Aaron huffed. "First off she's a her, not an it. Second, what if he isn't around here?"

Jeffrey looked at me and asked, "Hey kid, where's your daddy?"

I said the only thing I can think of. "Mac's in Mexico."

They looked at me strangely. Then Jeffrey said to Aaron "Or you can play daddy for a little while. You seem to be enjoying it."

He smirked and pointed at the way Aaron was holding me in his arms. He had one arm under my legs and the other around my back. He was swaying slightly like I've seen mommies do with babies. "You know Jeff. Sometimes I really wonder about you."

My mom came back over with a couple of overstuffed bags. While Mommy and Jeffrey waited by their car. Aaron stepped over the little fence and put me down. He was telling me about all the cool things you can find when you look around.

"There are all different kinds of rocks. Different shapes, sizes, and colors. There are pretty flowers and trees. Now if you look at the ground you might see bugs or worms. If you're really quiet and still. Looking into the trees you might just see an animal like a deer or a rabbit. You want to try?" I nodded my head.

We didn't have to wait very long before a large animal and two similar yet smaller animals showed themselves. It looked like they were jumping. They moved quickly and were gone just as fast as they arrived.

"Did you see little darlin'? That was a momma deer and her two babies." I nodded my head excitedly.

He held up his hand. He waited a moment like that then said " high five" when I still just looked at him he spoke again. "You don't know how to high five?" I shook my head "Ok well. When someone holds their hand up like this. You take your hand and do the same thing." I held my hand up as he did. "That's right then you do this." He took my arm and made my hand hit his. "Do you want to try again?" I was hesitant, not wanting to get in trouble for hitting, but I said yes and did it again. "That's it. Good job."

After a few more high fives, he asked me about my books. We sat on the ground talking about them till a truck pulled over by the cars. The driver pulled out a big hook and put it under the front of the car. Then mommy and I got into the truck and waved goodbye to Aaron and Jeffrey