14. #2
I rolled my eyes but figured she was probably right.
With so many family members and friends living in Lonestar Terrace that more than one person had suggested the HOA change the neighborhood’s name to something more fitting.
Of course Mom knew what went on there. Petra lived near me, my niece Amethyst lived two doors down, and Lexi–whose parents still lived next to mine–lived at the end of my block.
Mom probably knew more about my life than I did at this point, and she’d likely already formed an opinion or two on how I should live it.
I couldn’t wait to hear them. She was one of the few people who could change my mind once I set it, which said a lot since I respected all the older women in my family and most of the younger ones too.
“He broke into my house, cooked me dinner, helped me run Robert off, and threatened him when he raised his voice to me.”
Mom’s left eye twitched. “When are you going to tell me about Max?”
Just like when I was a kid, my heart lurched. I’d been busted. Finally, I admitted, “He hit Max and blacked his eye. Spruce took pictures, and I sent them to my lawyer after making a police report.”
“Has anything come of the report?” When I shook my head, Mom said, “We have to get ahead of this, because your father hasn’t found out the truth yet. He thinks Max got that black eye wrestling around with the guys while playing ball at the park.”
“Who told him that lie?” Mom raised an eyebrow. “You lied to Dad?”
“I did not lie to him. I voiced a theory other than the truth, and he assumed that’s what happened.
” When I just stared at her, she rolled her eyes.
“Okay, yes, I lied to him. You’ve been married, so you know that happens on occasion–especially when you aren’t prepared to deal with the fallout the truth will create. ”
“You can’t handle the truth!” I yelled, slapping my hand on the table.
“Exactly. We’ll circle back to your Ziggy situation in a second, but first I need to ask what you’d like to happen to Robert when your dad finds out–or God forbid Lout hears what happened.
You know how he feels about things like that.
And then there are the other men in the family to consider and what they’ll do when they get wind of it. ”
“As much as it pains me to say this, no matter what, Robert needs to stay alive and functional. There is a silver lining to that edict, though, not that the men in the family will listen when they’re out for blood.
My evil plan is coming to fruition, slowly but surely, and Robert will suffer a punishment much more permanent than a few broken bones and scars. ”
“He’s digging his own grave, huh?”
“Lately he’s been working overtime. It’s like he’s trying to make the boys hate him.
Robby hasn’t spoken to him in weeks, and Max is doing everything he can to avoid him.
Honestly, when Max said his father was acting strange, I thought it was just regular teen angst. The boys have been pissed at me before, but we worked through it together.
The same thing has happened with Robert, but I guess he’s forgotten how to do that. ”
“Smacking the shit out of your son is more than just acting strange, Jewel.”
“I know that, but Max has been saying that, or some version of it, for months now. He’s mentioned that Robert is stressed, jumpy, and even paranoid on occasion. Robert is obsessed with knowing where the boys are every second of every day–so much so that he’s smothering them and making them revolt.”
“More than normal teenage revolt? Is it becoming dangerous?”
I laughed. “The boys are on Robert’s cell plan.
That was one of the bills we split during the divorce.
But Robby and Max got so sick of Robert tracking their every move that they went and bought their own phones so he couldn’t access their information.
He went ballistic when he figured it out, and I laughed my ass off when he called me and told me to insist they carry around the phone he was paying for.
Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that, buddy. ”
“Paranoia, erratic behavior, high stress can signal a few different things.”
“His skin was clear, his color looked good–though he went bright red when Ziggy stepped up–his eyes were alert, his pupils reacted normally, and I couldn’t smell any alcohol or pick up any sign of drugs from anything I saw or smelled.”
“Hmm,” Mom hummed before flicking her lighter to take a long drag off her freshly rolled joint.
She held the smoke in, raising her brows at me.
When I nodded and blew out a breath, she pursed her lips and aimed her exhale in my direction.
What little secondhand smoke I inhaled wouldn’t impair me when I drove home later, but it might take the edge off my stress and anger.
Mom took a cleansing breath. “Now, talk to me about Ziggy.”
Instead of answering, I asked, “How did you know the love you felt was the forever kind?”
“Which time?” she asked. She must have sensed my confusion because she added, “I’ve been in love more than once, and each time was the long-lasting forever kind.
My first marriage was a shitshow, and looking back I’m actually glad that he left when he did.
With your father, the forever was yanked away when he died so suddenly, but it’s still going strong with your dad. ”
“How did you know it was right?”
“With which one?”
“Mom! Stop making this more difficult than it already is. Tell me about . . .”
“I’m not making anything difficult, honey, I’m pointing out that you’ve had two loves already and wondering when you’ll realize that just because those weren’t right doesn’t mean every other one might be wrong.”
“I still love Micah.”
“But not in the ‘willing to pick up his dirty underwear off the bathroom floor because he can’t manage to put them in the hamper for the rest of my life’ kind of way.”
I shuddered. “Surely he’s learned how to do that by now.”
“Even if he didn’t, you did. You learned what you were willing–and not willing–to put up with, and you used that when you fell in love with Robert.”
“He was so anal retentive about shit that there was no way in hell he’d ever leave his dirty clothes anywhere but sorted into the proper baskets,” I said with a quiet laugh. “At first I thought it was a total perk, but then I realized he was just an asshole about things like that.”
“Exactly. So you learned you can’t live with a man who won’t do simple things even when they’re easy as pie, and you can’t live with a man who makes things harder than they have to be and has a stick up his ass about everything being just right.
Now you have to learn which way Ziggy leans on certain issues.
If he’s right where he needs to be, then you open your arms and free-fall with the knowledge that he’ll catch you because he feels the same way. ”
“Holy shit.”
“Am I wrong?”
“No, but you simplified my relationships with a laundry analogy and turned it into an eye-opening learning experience.”
“You and the others didn’t get all your brains from your father, sweetheart.”