“Yes, sir,” Daisy said. “Thank yousomuch.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” hegrumbled.
When they arrived back at the ranch, Greg’s dad motioned for them to wait outsidethebarn.
“You stay here. I’ll be back.” He was halfway to the house when he turned and glared at Greg. “Youcoming?”
“Yes, dad.” He jogged to catch up with him. Before they stepped into the house, he turned and smiled at Daisy. His mom would be easier to convince than his dad, so maybe this would work outafterall.
Inside the house, they turned right and walked into the kitchen where she stood over a steaming potofstew.
“You’re in early,”shesaid.
Greg crossed the room to give her a kiss on the cheek. He might as well start buttering herupnow.
“What was that for?” sheasked.
“No reason,” Gregmumbled.
“Oh, he’s got one hell of a reason,” hisdadsaid.
“What’s going on?” she asked as she set a bowl on the table. She opened the cupboard and pulled out a canister offlour.
“Your son found a gaggle of hippies stranded up on the edge of our property. Their car broke down and they can’t afford the parts. So Greg decided to invite them to stay at thehouse.”
“You did what?” His mom shot him anincredulouslook.
Greg flashed a lopsided smile. Maybe this was going to be harder than he’dthought.
Chapter6
Daisy paced backand forth along the side of the barn. Worst case scenario, Greg’s parents would refuse to help them and they’d have to hitchhike up to Canada. Or maybe they could try to get a job in town. They’d only have to work a few months to save up for the car parts. It might work. Maybe a job wasn’t such a terrible ideaafterall.
“Don’t worry,” Andy said as he joined her. “We’ll figuresomethingout.”
“I’m getting tired of being broke,”shesaid.
“Me too. When I get to Canada, I’m going to findajob.”
“Seriously?” She stopped and looked upathim.
“Yeah. I know it’s not anything I’ve really talked about before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about where I want my lifetogo.”
“Screw that, man,” River said. “Live in the moment. You don’t want to give up your freedom. None of us do. We should just bail on this place. We don’t need their help. RightMeadow?”
Everyone turned to look at her. She shrugged hershoulders.
“If they’re going to feed us and all we have to do is pick some vegetables, I could dig it.” Meadow shuffled her feet throughthedirt.
“Don’t tell me you’re ready to sell out too, babe,”Riversaid.
“Asking for help isn’t selling out,” Meadow said. “What else are we going to do? Just ditch the bus? It took us a couple of years to save up enough to buy it. I don’t want to leave it on the side of the road out in the middle ofnowhere.”
“How much farther do we have to go?” River asked. “We could just jackacar.”
“We’re not jacking anything,” Andy said. “Do you really want to go to jail instead of doing alittlework?”
“You too?” River arched ashaggybrow.
