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“You didn’t raise me at all.” I moved in beside her, zeroing in on the painted nails picking up her martini glass. “Where’s Patrick?”
“You mean your father?”
“Don’t you mean my sperm donor?”
Claudia’s head whipped around and her dark eyes turned as cold and steely as mine—it was about the only thing we had in common.
“Don’t talk about him like that.”
“Why not? You never bothered to marry him.”
“Marriage is an archaic tradition—we don’t think like that.”
“Riiight.” I nodded, wondering if she actually believed the bullshit that came out of her mouth. “You both prefer to be able to sleep aroundwithoutthe guilty conscience. Whatever makes you happy.”
Claudia took a sip of her drink, her eyes narrowing on me over the rim. But if she thought I was about to apologize or make shit easy on her, she had another thing coming.
“You plannin’ to call me while you were here, or is that also an archaic tradition?”
She took another sip of her drink, and I almost kicked myself for asking. I already knew the answer. If I hadn’t run into her, I wouldn’t have even known she was in town.
“Why do you need me to call? You seem fine to me.”
“Do I?”
“Yes. And it’s not like you want for anything.”Except maybe some kind of motherly love or affection.“Your father and I made sure of that.”
“Yeah, my bank account keeps me all warm and fuzzy at night.”
“Stop being so glib.” She shook her dark hair down her back, straightening her spine. “You could have nothing. You’re lucky I even give?—”
When she cut her words off, I scoffed and leaned in closer to her. “I’m lucky you even give me what? Money? Food? A warm place to sleep at night?”I picked up her glass and drained her drink. “Funny, but somehow I think it would’ve been warmer if you’d thrown me out in the fucking streets compared to what you’ve ‘given’ of your cold heart.”
“You ungrateful little?—”
I shifted to my full height, towering over her, and she immediately swallowed her words.
“Yeah, not so little anymore.”
“You’re still ungrateful.”
“And you’re still a lousy excuse for a mother.”
Claudia’s cheeks flushed with anger, but before she could respond, I turned to get the fuck out of there. The last thing I needed was to run into Patrick, and now Ireallyneeded to hit something.
I was about to make a beeline for the door when my eyes landed on a shock of platinum hair a couple of feet away. From the look of utter bewilderment on Gavin’s face, I figured he’d caught every damn bit of my interaction with Mommy Dearest.
Great. All I needed was a witness to the shit-fest that was my life.
He started toward me, but I wasn’t doing this. I carved a path through the crowd and punched out the door onto the street, but before I could disappear into the night, I heard him call out my name.
Choosing to ignore it, I kept walking. Eventually, he stopped yelling, and I figured he’d given up and gone back inside. Until a shove from behind me sent me stumbling, and I whirled around, arm already reared back to lay out whoever had dared to touch me.
Gavin’s eyes widened, and I caught myself just in time to save his pretty face from a broken nose.
“Jesus, Daire, what the hell,” he said, holding up his hands and breathing hard like he’d run after me.
I lowered my arm, but every muscle in my body remained tense. “Get lost.”
