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“My mother lives here,” the man said. “Where is she?”
No ‘hi, how are you’ or ‘good morning’ from this guy.
“Are you talking about Grans?” I asked, wishing I’d at least gotten her real name even if I agreed to call her Grans.
“Yes,” he snapped. “Grans.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Grans is living in the mother-in-law suite around back. You can access her house from the…”
They both left without another word, turning around mid-sentence.
I watched them walk away for about two point five seconds before I decided it was too early to deal with other people’s shit and shut the door.
I’d just let Axe into the house and had started back toward my bedroom when there was another knock at the door, and I couldn’t help but groan.
What would I have to say to convince them?
Only, when I opened the door, it wasn’t Grans’ children that I found, but my father.
I narrowed my eyes.
“What are you doing here?” I asked shortly.
He was the last person that I wanted to deal with today.
My father’s eyes narrowed, looking a lot like, I was sure, mine did.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were in a wreck?” he asked.
“What, am I supposed to call you and tell you stuff when you don’t do me the same courtesy?” I asked curiously. “Because, I had to hear it from Hastings that you had to go to the doctor yesterday. And I didn’t even get a call about it.”
My father’s head tilted back and he looked ready to pull his hair out.
“I didn’t even want Hastings to know!” he yelled. “Can’t a man go to the doctor in peace?”
I frowned. “No.”
“It was for a goddamn boil on my ass, Sierra. Was that really something that you wanted to know? They had to drain the goddamn thing. It was gross. End of story.” He growled. “When my life is in danger, like yours fucking was, then I’ll tell you.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You let Mom kick me out. Why would I call you?”
Dad sighed. “I learned a long time ago, when it comes to you and your mother, to just let y’all deal with it. Because when I try to insert myself into y’all’s fights, things always go worse than if I’d just have left it alone for y’all to deal with on your own.”
That was true. Like, for real.
I loved the hell out of my mother, but we were two peas from the same pod.
We fought like cats and dogs, and always had.
When three very opinionated females lived under the same roof, things were bound to turn shitty.
“Why didn’t you tell us that you were breaking up with Mark?” he asked softly. “If you’d have just shared that you weren’t sure things were going to work out with him, things would’ve probably gone better. It was like, one week he was having dinner with us and everything was great, you and your mother were talking wedding plans, and the next y’all are broken up and you’re pregnant by someone else. Can you not see how that’s not a shock?”
Okay, well when he put it that way…
“Sammy is good friends with him. They grew up together. It’s hard to trash someone that your brother likes. That y’all like. That grew up coming to our house when he was a teenager. I don’t totally hate the guy, I just don’t like him.” I paused.
I totally didn’t address the pregnancy issue.
Like, for real, I should have, but I was too much of a chickenshit.
My family knew I was impulsive.
And hell, this time, I think I really was impulsive—I mean who the hell ordered sperm and impregnated themselves with it because they wanted a baby and didn’t want to wait to do it the ‘correct’ way?
Me, that’s who.
Then, without totally thinking things through, I said stuff that I shouldn’t have said.
“I’m seeing someone,” I blurted. “It’s new. We’re new. I don’t want you to scare him off.”
My father’s frown was ferocious.
Why the hell was I lying? What had I just done?
What would it accomplish other than to piss my family off when they finally found out the truth?
Because I did, at one point, plan to tell them the truth.
When they were looking at me more clearly.
“As for Mark…” I said. “Mark and I have been done for a while. I just didn’t want to tell you because y’all are so gung ho on him. Y’all expected wedding bells and babies and a new house. Meanwhile, he doesn’t even want to stay in Texas. Did you know that he wants to move up north?”
Dad’s eyebrows climbed high. “No shit?”
“He doesn’t like working down here. Dad, he wants to move to New York. He wants to move and ‘make a difference’ where it’ll matter. Apparently, he can’t make a difference down here. That’s why he bought the electric car. He’s trying to leave a better ‘carbon footprint.’” I paused because my father’s eyes glazed over a bit. “And he said that he doesn’t want to be down here anymore because we’re all a bunch of people that don’t care about the environment.” I paused. “And he’s a vegan now. Did you not notice how he didn’t eat the last few times he came over?”
