Leandra
~
Now, while I couldn’t be sure of how much Dalton had overheard, I was certain that he’d heard enough to bring about a bit of embarrassment. I mean, what guy wanted to spend their morning-after dealing with the girl’s mentally unstable mother?
Plus, after last night, I could admit that I was emotional enough to want to just cut my mother off altogether.
Dalton had spent hours proving to me how I was enough, and my mother’s visit this morning was ruining that for me.
Granted, all of her unexpected visits had a way of ruining my day, but she was doing a great job of it this morning.
“Dal...Dalton, what...may I ask what you’re doing here?” my mother sputtered, though the answer was obvious enough.
I also couldn’t help but smirk at how casual Dalton was behaving.
Now, while I hadn’t ever poured my heart out to him about my mother, he knew enough to know that she was awful.
There’d been countless conversations between me and Rya about the woman, and Dalton had been around for a few of them.
So, he knew enough, but I still wasn’t sure of how much he’d overheard.
“Good morning, Mrs. Rollins,” he repeated. “As far as what I’m doing here, right now, I’m just trying to get a pot of coffee going.”
Now, while I wasn’t a big coffee drinker, there were times when you just needed the shot of caffeine to get your day started, and I refused to spend a million dollars on some whipped up contraption from a coffee shop.
Plus, I also considered it polite to have coffee available for whatever coffee-drinking guest that may stop by to visit, Dalton being one of them.
Unlike me and Rya, between Precious Pets and Blood & Ink, Dalton worked all kinds of crazy hours, so I understood his need for coffee most days.
I looked back at my mother just as she glanced towards the bedroom. “I’m just curious as to where Rya is,” she remarked frostily. “I’ve never known you to be here without Rya.”
“Rya’s not here,” I told her, and her head whipped back towards me in such a way that she might need a neck brace in the morning.
“Did...did she run out to get brunch or something?” she asked, her back stiff, her voice hard.
“No, Mother,” I answered. “It’s just me and Dalton here.”
“And when were you going to tell me about this?” she bit out, though I could tell that she was itching to scream the house down.
Now, while I had no problem standing up to my mother, having Dalton here helped add to that. Dalton and I were finally in a good place, and I needed to let my mother know that I was serious about him, and that it was pointless to fight me on this one.
“If memory serves me correctly, I don’t usually speak to you about the guys I date,” I pointed out coolly.
“But this is hardly the same thing,” she shot back, and that was the problem. She knew that Dalton wasn’t temporary, and she was pissed. “Or have you two been sleeping together all these years?”
Before I could answer her, Dalton was walking back out of the kitchen, saying, “This is a new development, Mrs. Rollins. Though you should know that it’s very serious, despite its newness.”
It didn’t take long for her nastiness to show once he’d said that. “And how do you know that he’s not just with you for your inheritance?”
Anger hit me hard and swiftly. “The only person in this room that’s with me for my inheritance is you, Mother,” I snapped. “Dalton works two jobs and has absolutely no need for that money.”
“If you really believe that, then I feel sorry for you,” she said, refusing to acknowledge my accusation referring to her own greed.
“Mrs. Rollins, since I care absolutely nothing about what you think of me, I have no problem letting you stand there and assassinate my character until you run out of breath,” Dalton told her, sounding bored as hell.
“However, I won’t stand for you upsetting Leandra over something that’s clearly none of your business.
Leandra is a grown woman and can clearly make her own decisions. ”
Now, while I was very used to my mother’s venom, having Dalton shut her down had her unable to control whatever shred of decorum that she usually reserved for when she was in public.
Knowing that Dalton and I had been friends for years, she viewed him as a real threat to her plans for my future, and desperation had her claws coming out, sharpened and ready.
“If you think that I’m going to just stand by and let Leandra throw her life away on a nobody like you, you’re wrong,” she spat viciously. “She deserves better.”
Dalton just laughed at that, making me look up at him.
“Oh, on that we agree,” he said, a huge grin on his face.
“Leandra is definitely too good for me. Nonetheless, since there’s no man on this earth who is worthy of her, I’m keeping her.
I’m keeping her, and there’s nothing that you or your nastiness can do about it. ”
“Just you wait until her father hears about this,” my mother threatened, lifting her chin. “He’ll put an end to this nonsense right away.”
I was about to laugh at that myself when Dalton asked, “And what is it that you think Mr. Rollins will be able to accomplish that you can’t?”
“Whatever do you mean?” she asked, adjusting her purse over her shoulder, a clear sign of weakness.
“Is he going to cut her off financially?” Dalton taunted.
“Is he going to ground her? Disown her? Are you going to have him come over here to try to beat me up? Or do you think that we’re living in one of those godawful made-for-television movies with your husband writing a check to try to buy me off? ”
“How dare you mock me,” she hissed, and I could honestly say that I’d never seen my mother so angry before, but that’s what happened when bullies weren’t allowed to bully anymore.
“I’m not mocking you,” Dalton denied. “I’m merely pointing out that you don’t have the influence that you wished you did.”
Refusing to acknowledge that truth, my mother looked my way, ire making her eyes shine bright. “We will talk about this later, young lady.”
Before I could agree or disagree, she was storming out of my apartment, and while her theatrics were entertaining, they were also exhausting and rather heartbreaking.
I hadn’t ever imagined that inheriting that money would turn her into such a horrible person, but it’d had, and I just didn’t know how to fix what we’d become.
As for my father, like most husbands/fathers, he chose to stay out of it.
Though we spoke often throughout the week, he didn’t meddle like my mother did.
He checked on me to make sure that I was okay, but with him being so busy at work, that’s where his focus was.
After all, I was a grown adult, so why would he need to hover at this point in my life?
Of course, because my mother was his responsibility, I could see him coming by to talk if she really did make good on her threat to get him involved, but what would be the point?
Since I’d never told either of my parents about my tumultuous friendship with Dalton, neither of them had any reason to dislike him, so my father would really just be getting involved to appease my mother.
However, before I could think to call my father and warn him that my mother was losing it, a pounding at the door had both me and Dalton sharing a what-the-fuck glance. Luckily, we were both dressed decently enough, but if it was my mother again, I wasn’t so sure that I’d answer the door.
“Make your coffee,” I told him. “I’ll go see who it is.”
“While I appreciate that, there’s no way in hell that I’m letting you answer the door with someone pounding on it like that,” he drawled out, and my heart swooned a bit.
Used to Dalton’s protective ways, I leaned up against the couch as the man went to answer the front door, and when he did, a very frazzled-looking Elena Ruiz came barreling through, completely ignoring a stunned Dalton Summit.
“Oh, my...” she rushed out. “Oh, my...”
Immediately concerned, I reached for her as soon as she was standing in front of me. “Ms. Elena, are you okay?”
“Dear, I was going to ask you the same thing,” she said, tugging at the collar of her yellow track suit.
“I was coming out of the elevator after sending Ruben on his way, and I ran into that awful mother of yours.” My lips twitched as I heard Dalton shut the door, and I crossed my arms over my chest. “She was muttering the most unflattering things under her breath, and when I said hello to her, she had the audacity not to greet me in return. I mean, really...how rude.”
“We just had a minor disagreement,” I told her. “Nothing to get alarmed about, Ms. Elena.”
She immediately let out a huff. “Well, what on earth would she have reason to be upset? You’re an absolute delight.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Dalton remarked, and that’s when Ms. Elena finally stopped to acknowledge that we weren’t alone.
It also took everything in me not to laugh when she got all breathless, saying, “Oh, well...what do we have here?”