20. Absolutely Adorable
20
ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE
Diana
A buzzer was buzzing.
I half-woke, not in the position I normally did, spooning Hugger or tucked to his back.
No , this time he was spooning me.
Nice .
The buzzing stopped.
My eyes opened then drooped as I fell back to sleep in the warm curve of Hugger’s body.
The buzzer went again and this time it stayed pressed.
My eyes popped open.
“ What the fuck?” Hugger groused.
My man, I’d noticed, was not a morning guy. I’d learned a blowjob or sex could stave off his haze, but it returned after his orgasm and stayed until he was at least halfway through his first cup of coffee.
It was adorable.
So as he threw back the covers and angled out of bed, I glanced at the bedside clock to see it was barely seven thirty, which was early for a Saturday , especially since we stayed out late last night, and as such, total Haze Time for Hugger .
I saw him stop at the wall panel beside the bedroom door.
Stark naked (hot!), he hit a button and demanded, “ What ?”
“ Who’s this?” my mother’s voice came through the panel.
I shot to sitting in bed.
“ It’s me you’re buzzin’, woman. Who’s this?” Hugger growled.
“ Mom ,” I whispered.
Hugger’s head whipped my way, and truly, with all that was holy, I hoped to God I never personally earned that look on his face.
“ I’m looking for Diana Armitage ,” Mom said.
“ Someone will be down,” Hugger grunted, hit the button to let her into the elevator vestibule, but not the one to let her up to my unit, then he prowled to his jeans on the floor.
“ Harlan —”
Bent to get his jeans, his head snapped back, and he skewered me with his eyes.
“ Fuck no, baby. Fuck no .”
That was all he said before he stepped into his jeans and yanked them up.
He’d buttoned his fly and was pulling on his tee when I realized I needed to get my ass in gear.
I flew from the bed.
We slept naked, not something I’d ever done. It was just something that happened with us.
So I had to race to the hooks in my closet where I’d put my PJs while Hugger prowled to the hall.
“ Shit , shit, shit, shit, shit ,” I chanted as I tugged on my sleep shorts commando, nabbed the bralette (because the girl below could be free and breezy for a spell, but the girls up top needed contained) and struggled to put it on, then grabbed the tee.
I was pulling it over my head as I left the closet and heard a knock at the door.
Hang on.
How did Mom get up the elevator? She didn’t have a fob.
I sprinted down the hall.
Hugger wasn’t in the living room, so I dashed to the dining room just in time to see him opening the door.
Mom was there, with Gram (explaining the fob, since Gram had one, and a key), probably because Mom made Gram get up early to come pick her up and bring her to my place.
I knew then she didn’t change her flight plans, she just enlisted Gram to play chauffeur and tour guide.
Both of them were staring up at Hugger in shock, but it was only Mom who spoke.
“ Who’re you?”
“ Your worst nightmare,” Hugger replied.
Eek !
Mom’s face froze.
Gram’s head ticked in surprise.
“ Do not do shit to piss me off,” Hugger warned them, then walked away from the door so it started closing and Mom had to throw out a hand to catch it before it slammed in her face.
Hugger stalked to me and right beyond me.
Woodenly , I turned so I could watch as he kept going down the hall and disappeared in the bedroom.
“ Diana ! Who is that man?” Mom demanded.
I turned to see her and Gram both standing inside the door.
Mom was blonde (fake, she’d had my color hair, but I suspected she was silver or gray now). We had the same body type and height, but she was a good thirty pounds lighter than me, if not more. She was wearing slim-fit brown trousers, a white blouse with a pretty brown leaf design on it and billowy bell sleeves. She was holding a suede jacket, even if the temperatures had cooled, but it was still ninety-eight degrees during the day. And on her feet were suede, high, block-heeled sandals with a wide crisscross at the front.
Gram’s hair was all silver, so it was glorious. We got our frames from her, but she was probably thirty pounds heavier than me, and as far as I was concerned, she worked it. And she was wearing cropped jeans and a man-style button-down, French tucked (go Gram !) in a soft peach.
“ Diana !” Mom called sharply. “ I asked you a question.”
“ That’s Harlan , my boyfriend.”
“ You have a boyfriend, doll?” Gram asked, her confusion clearing and her eyes lighting with happiness.
“ Yes , you have a boyfriend that you didn’t tell your mother about?” Mom demanded, her eyes flat with rebuke.
“ Listen , you woke us up and?—”
“ So is that what was really happening?” Mom cut me off to ask. “ And it wasn’t some girl who was harmed. You have a man in your life and you drop everything, including your mother, so you can give him all your attention?”
Could heads explode?
I needed to know so I could warn Hugger to get out the mop.
“ Maggie ,” Gram whispered, now a startled expression was falling over her face as she gazed at Mom .
“ How could you make up a story like that?” Mom snapped at me.
But Hugger was there, he had his phone in his hand and murder in his expression.
“ You’re gonna go downstairs and have a coffee and wait until Di calls to say you can come back up,” he commanded my mother and grandmother.
“ Of course,” Gram agreed.
“ I think not,” Mom retorted.
“ This isn’t gonna happen until Di and I have a second to shake the sleep off,” Hugger returned.
“ I’m sorry, I don’t even know you, so I’m not going to take orders from you,” Mom shot back.
“ Maggie ,” Gram whispered again, but it was sharper, more alarmed. “ It’s obvious we woke them up. I told you it was too early to surprise Diana on a Saturday . Let’s give them some time.”
Mom slung an arm in our direction and said to Gram , “ They’re awake now.”
Gram’s head jerked yet again in surprise.
“ Mom , really, just half an hour. Okay ?” I requested.
“ I think it’s my due to know what’s going on with my daughter!” Mom’s voice was rising.
Hugger made a scary noise that had to come from deep in his chest.
But I demanded, “ Are you joking?”
Mom pointed straight-armed at Hugger . “ A man I do not know opened my daughter’s door.”
“ Get your ass to the coffee joint,” Hugger growled.
“ No !” Mom bit. “ Maybe you can absent yourself while I have a chat with my daughter .”
“ Not gonna fuckin’ happen, lady,” Hugger returned.
Mom’s torso swung back in affront. “ You speak to me with that language?”
Hugger opened his mouth…
But I was done.
“ This is my home where I pay the mortgage, so it’s me who says what happens here, and what does not happen is you getting into my man’s shit.”
“ Diana ,” Mom breathed in injured astonishment.
“ You wanna do this now, we will,” I clipped.
“ Baby ,” Hugger murmured.
“ But I suggest you go have a coffee so I can cool off,” I finished.
“ Let’s go get a latte, hon,” Gram urged.
“ Cool off from what?” Mom ignored Gram and asked me.
Had she not been here the last five minutes?
And had she not listened to my voicemail or actually read my texts?
“ We can talk about that when you get back,” I stated. “ And by the way, when you come back, you can bring me a dirty chai made with oat milk, Hugger a double espresso, and bring up two cheese Danishes .”
“ I’m not a waitress,” Mom hissed.
“ You’re not much of anything,” Hugger said under his breath.
“ What did you say?” Mom demanded to know.
“ You don’t wanna know,” Hugger told her the truth.
She glared at him then turned that to me.
“ I can’t believe you’re letting your boyfriend disrespect me, Diana ,” Mom said. “ But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, since he clearly lacks even the most basic of hygiene.”
“ Maggie !” Gram cried.
But I was seeing red.
No .
Scarlet
No .
Vermillion .
I started to launch myself at her, for what purpose, I had no clue, but Hugger caught me around my belly and pulled me to his front.
“ Take a breath,” he said in my ear.
I opened my mouth.
“ Take a breath,” he repeated.
Fuck !
I took a breath.
“ Maggie , I could use a coffee,” Gram said cajolingly, the way she talked to my mom a lot. “ Let’s give them some time to get dressed. It’s just downstairs.”
“ You better be in a different frame of mind when I get back, missy,” Mom threatened me, then she flounced to the door, tugged it open, and flounced out without holding it open for her own mother.
“ I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll talk to her, doll,” Gram said to me.
I just nodded my head jerkily.
The door closed behind Gram .
It was then Hugger frog-marched me, still held to his front, to the living room and only let me go when he got me there.
“ I’ll make coffee,” he said when I turned to him. “ You go do your thing so you’ll be ready.”
“ Did you call someone?” I asked.
“ Yeah ,” he answered.
“ Who’d you call?”
“ I called Pete , and told him to haul ass here, but before he did, I told him to get your dad’s number and tell him your mom is here so he should haul his ass here too.”
“ How’s he going to find Dad’s cell phone number?”
“ Trust me, he’ll find it.”
With the way he said that, I believed Big Petey would.
But I deflated. “ Hugger , I don’t know?—”
He took my jaw in both hands and dipped down to me. “ This showdown is gonna happen, baby, because you need it. But you need to have your family at your back when you do.”
Oh my God !
I was so falling in love with this guy!
I face-planted in his chest.
He wrapped his hand around the back of my head, kissed my hair, and said there, “ Go . Brush your teeth. Do what you gotta do.”
Needless to say, after I relieved my bladder, and halfway through my tooth brushing, Hugger showed in the bathroom with a mug of coffee.
He set the mug beside mine and went to his own sink.
I mentally went through my wardrobe to see if I had a Showdown with My Mother Outfit .
I did not.
While adding a thin veneer of armor to my face, including foundation, concealer, powder, blush, highlighter, single-toned eyeshadow and mascara, I figured it out.
So once I spritzed and deodorized, I hit the closet and put on my rosy-pink T -shirt dress with the wide V -neck. It hit right below the knee, had kickass pockets, and a wide same-color satin ribbon belt that elevated it, gave it shape and made it feminine.
I felt good in it, comfy and together.
So it was perfect.
I went back to the bathroom to fashion a messy bun in my hair with some tendrils falling around my face.
I headed back to the closet to put in the diamond earrings Dad bought me for high school graduation, and in my other piercings, some little bars with baby diamonds along the line that the girls gave me for my birthday a couple of years before. I added the diamond drop necklace Dad gave me for my sweet sixteen for the final touch on my moral jewelry support.
I walked out barefoot to find Dad in my kitchen with Hugger , both of them sipping coffee.
Dad looked unhappy.
Hugger’s eyes did a top to toe and he smirked.
Proof I called it right with the outfit.
Glad I put some panties on.
A knock came at the door.
“ That’ll be Pete ,” Hugger said, put his mug down and moved to the door.
I moved to Dad .
“ I like your man,” Dad said.
This surprised the heck out of me, but I loved that he did.
“ Are you missing a tee time to be here?” I asked.
“ The course isn’t going anywhere.”
That meant yes.
I moved again, right into his arms.
“ Harlan told me what’s already happened,” Dad said into my hair.
“ Yeah , it wasn’t good.”
“ If you don’t want to do this, I can go down and send her away,” Dad offered.
I tipped my head back. “ She’s here. Face to face is probably better.”
“ I don’t want this for you, Buttercup ,” he murmured.
“ Well , it is what is it is. And I have to say, with all the garbage that’s been going on, I’m glad for the chance to just get it done.”
Dad nodded, then turned us both, keeping an arm around me, because Hugger was back with Big Petey .
“ Nolan , this is Pete Waite , brother of mine, friend to Diana ,” Hugger introduced.
Big Petey came forward, shook Dad’s hand then looked at me.
“ You doin’ okay, sweetheart?” he asked.
I nodded (nonverbally lying).
“ You ready?” Hugger asked me.
I nodded again (still nonverbally lying).
“ Text your grandma, baby,” he murmured.
Shit .
I went back to my room and grabbed my phone.
I texted Gram on the return trip to the kitchen.
When I got there, I got a reply from Gram , Just getting your coffees and be right up!
The chipper bent to her text said Gram was doing what Gram did a lot for Mom . Trying to smooth things over.
I wondered if Gram had calmed Mom down and talked some sense into her.
I doubted Gram calmed Mom down or talked any sense into her.
“ They’re coming up,” I announced.
Pete got himself some coffee, topped Dad up, Dad watched with unhidden interest as Pete moved around my kitchen with open familiarity, and fifteen minutes later, the knock came at the door.
Hugger went to open it.
I tensed.
He walked in first, but when Mom followed him, she stopped dead so Gram , holding a bag that probably had the Danishes , and paper coffee cups in each hand (because of course Mom didn’t help her carry the stuff up—how was I so blind for so long?) ran into her as she came in after.
“ Oh , so I see this is going to be an ambush,” she accused, scowling at Dad .
“ Margaret , I suggest you keep quiet and listen to what our daughter has to say,” Dad advised.
“ The time you get to tell me what to do is long gone, Nolan ,” Mom bit back.
Dad sighed.
Gram looked about ready to cry.
Then again, she was all love and goodness, wasn’t comfortable around confrontation, and she adored me and her daughter. Thus , this open enmity that would seem very sudden to her was undoubtedly killing her. She probably thought they were showing up to take me along on their day. And I could see Mom hadn’t explained while they were having lattes that she’d been getting some peevish communications from me.
It sucked huge I couldn’t help her with that, but at that moment, I couldn’t help her with it except to suggest, “ Gram , maybe you might want to go out on the balcony for a little bit?”
“ I think I’ll stay here, doll,” Gram replied uncertainly.
Mom ignored this exchange and pointed to Big Petey . “ Who’s this man?”
“ A friend of mine,” I stated.
She regarded Pete derisively and mumbled loudly, “ Why am I not surprised?”
Patience , Diana , patience , I told myself.
“ I don’t know, since you don’t know me at all, so how you could be surprised about anything about me is, in itself, surprising,” I said.
Mom homed in on me as I walked around the kitchen bar to the living room.
We were going to have a showdown?
Time to take my position.
“ I can’t believe you just said that to me,” Mom whispered, full of hurt.
“ What’s my favorite color?” I asked.
“ I —” She cut herself off, and to save face about the fact she didn’t know, she demanded, “ Is this going to be some kind of test?”
But … damn , that cut to the quick.
It was a test, and she failed.
My mother didn’t know my favorite color.
“ What color is it?” I pushed.
“ Blue , doll, it’s all over the place,” Gram chipped in fake perkily.
“ Don’t help her, Shannon ,” Dad said.
Before Mom or Gram could say anything, I did.
“ Dad never told you to do anything, did he?” I asked. “ At least, not successfully.”
“ What are you—?” Mom began.
“ Though , he tried, so that’s why you turned to Brendon ,” I stated.
I watched the color drain from Mom’s face.
I’d believed Dad when he told me, but seeing that, I knew.
I knew .
“ What ?” Gram asked.
“ So many questions,” I said. “ The normal ones, like how could you cheat on your husband and the father of your child? And the unusual ones, like how could you have the audacity to tell everyone he was the one who cheated on you?”
Gram rounded Mom . “ What’s Di talking about, Maggie ?”
“ I see he’s telling you lies,” Mom said.
Before I could reply, Dad did.
“ You broke my heart.”
At the frank emotion in his voice, my stomach clenched so hard, I thought I’d hurl.
Gram’s eyes flew to Dad .
Mom’s face got color, and fast, but this time it was red.
Dad moved out of the kitchen and did it talking.
“ I loved you so much. I was so immensely destroyed by what you did to me, I found a good woman after you and messed it up. Lost her too. But that was my doing.”
“ Hardly after,” Mom said shakily, because the jig was up.
“ Should we call Nicole ?” Dad suggested. “ See how her timeline matches up?”
“ She’d lie too,” Mom snapped, finding her groove and sticking there.
“ Margaret , what’s going on here?” Gram asked.
“ Nothing , Mom . Nolan’s at his games again,” Mom stated.
“ So you didn’t cheat on Dad with Brendon ?” I requested clarity. “ Dad hadn’t asked you for a divorce before Nicole and he became a thing? That didn’t happen? Even though you married Brendon within a few months of the divorce being final.”
“ It was a whirlwind romance,” Mom said.
“ You are honestly standing there lying to me in my own damned house?” I asked.
“ Of course you believe him,” she complained. “ It was always him and you against me.”
“ No , it was always you and me against him, because you made it that way. What I failed to realize was that he was there for me and you were not !”
Okay , dang.
I was shouting.
But I couldn’t stop.
“ You didn’t fight for custody! You didn’t help me pick my prom dress! You were never there for me! So I’m supposed to believe you were true to Dad ?”
“ He ruined our family!” Mom shouted back.
“ Then why was he the one who kept us together after you left? Why were he and I still a family without you?”
“ I didn’t have the means to look after you,” Mom sniped.
“ You had healthy alimony. It would have been more with child support. You weren’t incapable of finding a job. You were in your thirties. You could build a life with your daughter.”
“ It’s seems so easy when you say it, Diana ,” she retorted. “ It’s never that easy.”
I swung an arm out. “ Look around, Mom . Do you think what I built here was easy ? Newsflash , it wasn’t . But I did it anyway. Answer Dad . Should we call Nic and ask her how it went down? Maybe call Brendon , ask him?”
“ Don’t you dare speak to that man,” Mom snapped.
“ Why , because you hate him because he figured you out and scraped you off, or because he’ll verify Dad’s story? Or both?”
“ I don’t need to put up with this,” Mom declared, turned on her expensive heel, and saw Hugger blocking the entrance to the dining room. “ Step aside,” she demanded.
“ Not until Di’s done with you,” Hugger replied.
“ Step aside! ” she shrieked.
“ Margaret , look at me,” Gram demanded.
She did, to whine, “ Tell this man to move, Mom .”
“ Did you do what Diana said?” Gram asked.
Mom threw up both her hands. “ Not you too.”
“ Answer ,” Gram demanded.
“ Of course not,” Mom returned, not quite meeting Gram’s eyes.
“ Dear Lord ,” Gram gasped, and now the color was draining from her face. “ You did.”
“ I didn’t,” Mom bit off.
But Gram’s attention was slowly moving toward Dad .
“ Nolan ,” she whispered, and it hurt like hell to hear the utter disappointment, regret and sadness in her voice.
Mom turned again to the room. “ So now everyone is against me? As usual. My ex-husband takes my daughter from me when she was just a baby and then he does it again?—”
Fuck that noise.
I cut her off, “ I wasn’t a baby. I was cognizant at the time, Mom , speaking full sentences, reading, doing math. I remember you didn’t fight for me.”
“ I didn’t have the means,” Mom retorted.
“ Excuse me, Margaret Ann , your father and I offered you those means,” Gram stated.
This was news.
Interesting .
“ I couldn’t ask you for money, Mom ,” my mother replied.
“ Why not? You did it a lot while you were growing up,” Gram shot back. “ And this particular time, it would have been for something important. My granddaughter .”
Mom put her hand to her chest. “ It was me who was destroyed by what Nolan did to me.”
“ You got over that quickly, marrying that sonuvabitch,” Gram retorted.
Whoa .
I felt my eyes get big.
Gram never cursed.
She also never stood up to Mom .
Maybe she was pissed she had to get up early to play chauffeur.
Or maybe she was fed up, like me.
“ You can’t help when you fall in love,” Mom said.
“ Hogwash ,” Gram hissed, and God bless him, I didn’t know how he did it, but Big Petey sidled in and took the coffee and Danishes from Gram even as Gram ranted on. “ I cannot believe you’re standing there, humiliating yourself, and me, again . Twice in one morning . Rude to Di’s young man. Rude to Di , your own child. Rude when you returned after I spent forty-five minutes talking to you at the coffee place.”
Mom pointed at me. “ Well she lied about some poor girl who was gang-raped in order to spend more time with her new boyfriend.”
“ Watch it,” Hugger warned.
Mom whirled on him. “ You are not in this.”
“ Her name is Madison ,” Big Petey said, and Mom whirled again, this time on Pete , where he was standing at the kitchen bar, the coffees and Danish bag on the counter in front of him. Gram turned to him too. “ She was abducted from her home in Texas , sold to traffickers, and assaulted by three men. Your daughter provided her safe harbor, found a way in to get her talking to the police and FBI , and got her into protective custody.”
“ That’s preposterous,” Mom decreed.
“ Perhaps you’d allow me to escort you to the police station to talk to Detective Rayne Scott ,” Dad offered. “ He can corroborate Pete’s story.”
“ How are you even here?” Mom demanded. “ For years, Diana wasn’t even talking to you.”
I got there before Dad did. “ That’s not your business.”
“ How is it not my business? I’m your mother!” Mom shouted.
“ It’s not your business, because Dad and I had a thing after I got sexually assaulted in my dorm room.”
Gram gasped, then moaned, and finally reeled, throwing out a hand to catch the kitchen counter.
Big Petey got close to spot her.
Mom stared at me.
Dad moved nearer to me.
But as much as I felt for Gram , and it was a lot, I was in this too deep, so I was all about Mom .
“ But I didn’t even tell you about it, Mom , because you’re so goddamned fragile, I knew you couldn’t handle it,” I went on. “ Except I realized the truth recently. I didn’t tell you about my assault because I knew deep down inside somehow, you’d twist it, and you’d make it about you.”
“ That’s a terrible thing to say,” Mom whispered.
“ I know it is. I even feel it is, because it’s true,” I returned.
“ Diana ,” Gram choked.
I looked to my grandmother, and the expression on her face wrecked me.
“ I’m okay, Gram . It was ten years ago. I’m good,” I promised.
“ Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
And …yeah.
I didn’t tell her and Gramps either, because Gramps wouldn’t have been able to handle it (he was super protective of all his girls, a boon (for me), what would become a burden (because… Mom )) and Gram would have told Mom .
“ Because you would tell Mom , and I couldn’t handle dealing with what had happened and dealing with her too.” Tears filled her eyes, so I said softly, “ I’m sorry.”
“ That’s why you quit school,” she surmised.
“ Part of it, yes.”
“ You don’t have to apologize to me, doll. It was me and your grandfather who let you down,” Gram said.
“ No , you didn’t. You let me move in with you.”
“ We could have done more.”
“ There wasn’t more,” I told her. “ You did what I needed.”
“ Well isn’t this marvelous?” Mom cut in sarcastically. “ Everyone is all good and cozy, except you all are angry at me when I didn’t even know what was happening.”
“ Maggie , your daughter just shared—” Gram began.
“ Save it, Mom ! ” my mother screeched.
“ Do not talk to her that way,” I warned.
“ Speaking like that to your own mother,” she bit at me, like she hadn’t just screeched at hers.
Seriously .
I’d had enough.
“ Are you actually my mother?” I asked.
It was a low blow, and it landed.
Mom let out a noise like she’d been gut punched.
Gram flinched.
Dad whispered, “ Diana .”
But Hugger ?
Hugger grinned at me.
And Pete ?
He winked.
“ I see how it is,” Mom said, her voice mortally wounded.
But no.
Oh no.
She wasn’t the victim here.
“ In essence, you took my father from me,” I said with deceptive quiet. “ You lied to me and made me believe things that weren’t true about my own father. You drove a wedge between us when he loved me, he provided for me, he was there for me. But your lie was always between us. He knew it, and he sacrificed what we could have had to give me you.”
Gram made a sobbing sound.
Mom stared at me.
“ I don’t know if I can forgive you for that,” I stated honestly. “ What I do know is you coming to my home, speaking like you did to me, Harlan , Pete , Dad , Gram , is not the way to guide me to that.”
“ I suppose you can go to Nicole , who’s always been there for you, and cry on her shoulder,” Mom returned.
“ I know I can, because you’re right, she’s always been there for me,” I replied.
Gram made another weeping noise.
Mom turned to Gram . “ I want to go back to the Biltmore . I need to rest and process all of this before I go to my spa appointments.”
Good God .
“ Do you hear yourself, Margaret ?” Gram asked, clearly so shocked by her daughter’s statement, it shocked the tears right out of her eyes.
Which was not shocking because Mom was a huge-ass brat . And not the good kind.
“ I think I’ve been treated abysmally, so you can’t be surprised I need some time to?—”
“ For goodness’ sakes, stop talking,” Gram sighed. “ And order up one of those Ubers . I’m not taking you back to the Biltmore .”
“ Mom !” my mother snapped.
“ Loved you to bits, did you wrong,” Gram muttered.
“ Mother !” Mom shouted.
“ I’m shattered, Maggie ,” Gram whispered. “ You might not have been here for all that just happened, choosing, as ever, to live in the fantasy world in that head of yours, but I was . Order a damned Uber .”
“ I’ll call for one,” Dad offered.
“ I don’t want anything from you,” Mom snapped at him.
“ Fine ,” Dad murmured.
“ So this is it?” Mom asked me.
“ That’s up to you,” I said.
“ Well , I certainly won’t come all the way down from Idaho to be treated like this again,” Mom warned.
“ I think all that needed to be said was said,” I stated. “ It’s up to you to apologize and?—”
Mom interrupted me. “ Apologize ?”
“ Call the Uber , Maggie ,” Gram ordered, still my mother’s mother, and even as shattered as she was, she was trying to stem the flow of disaster.
“ I won’t be coming to visit you either,” Mom sniped at her.
Gram’s face fell.
“ Christ , you’re a piece of work,” Hugger muttered loudly.
“ Like I give a shit what a man like you thinks about me,” Mom retorted.
Uh -oh.
Hugger just shrugged and moved out of the way to her exit.
By the time I got used to the fire burning in my belly and searing its way through my veins, Mom was moving.
“ Stop ,” I demanded.
Mom turned to me.
“ No contact,” I said.
Dad made an alarmed noise.
Hugger started moving to me.
“ What ?” Mom asked.
“ That’s the term they use when you cut yourself off from a member of your family. You go no contact. I’m blocking you on my phone. We’re done.”
Hugger stood at my back as Mom stared and whispered, “ What ?”
I shook my head. “ You don’t get it. None of it. You never will. And your finale was to talk shit to my guy, again , like that’s quite all right. Well , it isn’t. You talked shit to Dad , to Gram , to Big Petey , and I let it slide. Hugger , no. Absolutely no. That was the last straw. Like I said, we’re done.”
Mom’s face grew haggard before she asked, “ You can’t be serious.”
“ Deadly ,” I replied, my stomach sinking and twisting.
But we were here.
This was going to suck. I loved her. I really did. Even with all of this.
But she was by no means healthy for me.
Or anybody.
She kept staring awhile before she straightened her shoulders and said, “ You did the same thing with your father, so I don’t suppose this will last.”
“ We’ll see in ten years,” I remarked.
Mom went pale again.
“ Do you have the Uber app? Because going now would be good,” I prompted.
“ I cannot believe you’re doing this to me,” Mom whispered.
“ And that’s the problem,” I returned. “ I’m not doing anything to you. You brought this all on yourself.”
She looked at me. She looked at Dad . She looked at Gram .
Then she sniffed, and pure Mom , no matter what was going down, she’d perfected the art of the flounce, and that was what she did into the dining room, disappearing.
No one said anything as we waited to hear the front door open and close.
And no one said anything after it did.
I broke the silence.
“ Gram , you okay?”
“ N -no,” Gram stammered.
I walked to her and gathered her in my arms.
“ I’m so sorry you had to be here for all of that,” I said softly.
“ I’m sorry for you, doll,” she replied, holding tight. “ Your mom?—”
“ Please don’t make excuses,” I whispered my plea.
“ Okay , Di ,” she whispered back.
I gave her a squeeze, kissed the side of her head, then moved to her side, still with an arm around her, and looked at Hugger .
“ I guess our fun Saturday is a wash,” I remarked.
“ Oh no,” Gram mumbled.
But Hugger just stared hard at me.
And then he said, “ Don’t know, babe. Your family is here. I think we can figure a way to rally.”
So …
Totally …
Falling for my guy .
I smiled at him.
His beard moved as he blew me a kiss.
First time for that.
And oh yeah.
It was absolutely adorable.