AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t bring women in here,” Meg argued immediately. Breakneck waved her answer away, but I was intrigued and wanted to hear more. How was it possible that he never took a woman to his favorite spot to eat?
“Then, she said it looked like you wanted to grill her about her intentions for your big brother.” That made Meg smile and warm to me.
“I see.” She bounced her shoulders up and down and then admitted to her curiosity, despite the bloom of red that tipped her ears and cheeks. “She’s not wrong. You have everyone in here wondering about the girl.”
“Well, they can all keep wondering for now. She’s mine and this is our first date. I plan on enjoying it, not humoring every Tom, Dick, and Sally,” he added the last after looking at Meg and making sure her gender was included.
“Fair enough. I’ll go see if your food’s up yet.”
“Have you ever had any pets?” I asked after Meg walked away.
“Not the kind you’re talking about,” he shot back. At the disgusted look on my face, he seemed to feel a moment’s regret, but never openly apologized. “Never had any dogs or cats or whatever you’re referring to. My old man was always on the road and Mom worked too much to take care of much more than herself.”
I didn’t miss the hint that maybe they hadn’t taken care of him. “Are your parents still around?”
He shook his head. “No, they’re both gone now.”
“I guess mine are too, just in a different way.”
“Honest to fuck, sweetness, say the word and I’ll hand them the karma they’ve earned for fucking you over.”
I smiled at him and grabbed a messy chili cheese fry to pop in my mouth. I moaned instantly; it was that good. “Oh, ma gawd, so mmm,” I managed around the mouthful of food.
“Fuck, woman. What is it with you and fries?”
I swallowed that time before answering. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing, never mind,” he insisted as he popped some into his own mouth.
“They’re really good. I’ve never had them with all this mess on top.”
“All this mess,” he laughed as he repeated what I said. “You can tell rich people raised you. Bet you used a fork and knife to eat ribs.”
I nodded. “Is there another way to eat them?”
“Shit, are you kidding me?”
I laughed. “My dad, well Jeremy, used to make them at least once a month and we’d gorge ourselves on them. It was always when my mother was gone for the day because she couldn’t stand to see us eating them with our fingers and getting the sauce everywhere.”
“Sounds like Jeremy was the better of the two parents you grew up with.”
“He was everything.”
“Was your mom abusive?”
“Only in the neglectful way. She didn’t really have time for me unless it involved parading me around like a show pony of her excellent parenting. She didn’t deserve any credit, though. It was all Jeremy. He was my hero growing up.”
“Makes me want to beat the shit out of him even more for abandoning you when you needed him most.”
I stopped eating and took a sip of my water. “I’ve always wondered, if he had time to process everything without me standing there learning the truth at the same time, if he would have handled things differently. Everything that happened with his family taking all my stuff and kicking me out, I don’t think that was Jeremy. If I had to bet my life on it, he would have never done those things. He might have been hurt enough not to want to speak to me for a while, but he wouldn’t have purposely set out to destroy me. His parents were always cruel. You would think they were the ones who raised my mother and not him.”
“My dad was in the club. He wasn’t a good guy though. He was gone more than he was home and when I say gone, I don’t just mean at the clubhouse. He might as well have been a nomad for all the time he spent traveling the country.”
“I take it your mom didn’t ever go with him?”
“No, when I was younger, he insisted her place was with me. And she did her best there, but my dad also failed to send money home a lot. More than likely he blew it on poker, drugs, other women, and who knows what else. He died on the road.”
“What about your mom?”
