AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hi, baby. How are you?” She kissed my cheek when I paused beside her, and I kissed hers.
“I’m good, Mom. How are you?” I asked sleepily and headed for the coffee pot.
“I’m good, too. I may, uh, may be late tonight.”
“That’s good.” I turned to grin at her with a cup of coffee in my hand. “I might not be at home at all tonight.”
“Oh?” She gave me this ‘do tell’ kind of look and I grinned even more.
“Well, I’ll be in a hotel in Charlotte, my, um, boyfriend is going off to Spain tomorrow and won’t be back for a month.”
“I see.” She paused, thought something over, then frowned. “He’s not married, is he?” She frowned and looked at me closely.
“No!” I said with a burst of laughter. “Not at all. Just busy.”
“Okay. I hope you’re right. If not, I’ll cut his balls off and feed them to him.” She growled a little as she said it.
“Rawr, Momma!” I kissed her cheek and headed for the fridge. My coffee needed cream.
“You’re my little girl, even if you are all grown up, honey.” She looked at me with all the love she could feel in her eyes. “I’ll always worry for you and protect you when I can.”
“I know you will, and I love you for it.” I hugged her and put the cream away. “I’ll be okay with this, I think.”
I wasn’t sure I would be because I’d already become attached to the Rome brothers, in more ways than one.
“You can deal with anything, baby, you’re strong. You’ve always had to be.”
“So, have you. I’m glad things are working out with your dentist.” He seemed like a decent guy, wasn’t married, and made my mom smile. I couldn’t object to that.
“I’m glad you are, Nic. It means a lot to me. It’s been so long since your dad passed away, and well, it just seemed like the right time.”
“As long as you’re happy, Mom, I can’t object, can I? You need a life outside of me. You worked hard to make sure I had a roof over my head and food in my belly. You deserve to take a break now, enjoy life for a bit.”
“Thanks, baby. Oops, I better be off. Don’t want to be late!” She pushed away from the counter she’d leaned against and stood up straight. “I’ll see you sometime tomorrow then? I’ll be home tomorrow night.”
“Yeah, I’ll be home. We can catch up then,” I said, which only made me tense. I wanted to tell her my secret so much, but it wasn’t a drive-by kind of conversation. I could picture it as she left.
“Oh, hi, Mom. Good morning, by the way, I’m fucking four guys at once. Oh, and they’re brothers too!”
“Good for you, baby, have a good day.”
More like she’d slap me and ask me what the hell was wrong with me. I didn’t want to think about that right now. Maybe I’d put it off for a while longer.
I went into the bathroom, fought with wax that wanted to rip off my skin but nothing else, until I found a video online that said to shake baby powder on my skin first, then went back to it. I had a shower after that, then dried my hair. A little eye makeup, some lipstick, and I was ready to put the dress on.
Mom had it dry-cleaned, so when I slipped it on it was as good as new. She’d been very careful with it, anyway. Apparently, it had made an impression because the good doctor took Mom on a mini-shopping spree of her own. She now had quite a few lovely dresses in her closet.
I put on my heels, went out to my car, and started the car. I plugged my phone into the radio, found the playlist I wanted and headed for the interstate. I blasted down the road at 70 mph, some old school jams blaring out of my speakers. It was something I’d never admitted to anyone, my love of driving down the road, deafening myself to bands that had albums older than me.
I rocked out until I got to the exit for the hotel and turned off. I turned the radio down then to look for the hotel, one of those silly things it seemed we all did and pulled it when I found it. I stopped the car and looked around. I saw a black Bentley, a white Audi, and a red Porsche that I wanted to drive desperately. That little beauty would fly down the road. Maybe one day I’d be able to drive down the Autobahn in Germany in a car like that, with my favorite German band playing along.
I had a feeling that, if I mentioned it to one of the boys, I’d get that trip sooner rather than later. If they went along with their Dad’s wishes. If not, we’d all have to work very hard to get a trip like that. It was up to them, what they decided, and I wasn’t money-hungry, so I wasn’t going to try to convince them to do something they didn’t want to for my own benefit.
