“Have you had time to mourn Crystal yet?”
I snapped my head up to meet her gaze. She raised an eyebrow.
"What's there to mourn? She abandoned her life in New York to move back to the place that she hated and had a kid with God knows who. And in case you haven't noticed, I'm too busy cleaning up her messes to have time to mourn her."
"What do you mean when you say messes?"
Shit. My mother is a human bullshit detector, and I was too tired to school my words. I decided transparency was the best course of action. It would save time. Mom always ended up finding out what she wanted to know anyway, so there was no point in trying to hide it.
“I think there are some things about the accident that aren’t adding up.”
“Like what?”
I grabbed the envelope with the original copies of the reports and handed it to her. I explained the odd placement of the bruises, the stain on the seat, the lipstick…
"Your mother did love her red lipstick." She smiled. "I used to send her cases of it when she was…away." She sighed and gathered the papers and stacked them in her lap.
“This is serious, Cole. What’s your plan?”
I shrugged. “I gave a friend a copy of the reports. He’s going to look into it for me and let me know if it’s something more definitive.”
“You should talk to your dad about this.”
I nodded. "I'll talk to Dad tomorrow."
“Good.” She patted my hand. “Your mother’s ashes are still in my study. Do you have a plan for those?”
I had her cremated like she wanted, and her ashes shipped to my parents’ house where there was always someone home to sign for them. That was my excuse, at least.
I shook my head. “I wanna think about it.”
“Okay,” she sighed again. “And what’s your plan for yourself?”
“What?”
"Cole, you can't keep this up. You're burning the candle from both ends and in the middle. You deserve better, and most of all, CJ deserves better."
“Mom, I don’t—”
"Listen," she cut me off. "Monday through Friday, I will come over at seven thirty and help you with the baby for a few hours."
I stared at her, afraid to move in case this offer was too good to be true.
“For two weeks.”
There it was, but I would take what I could get.
"You need to hire someone to help you." She stood and bent over to kiss me on the forehead. I opened my mouth to protest. "Figure it out." She raised her eyebrows at me, and I closed my mouth. "Now, where do you keep your extra sheets?"
I furrowed my brow at her.
“I’m gonna sleep on the couch so you can get a decent night’s sleep. You look like the walking dead.”
“Is there a chance of talking you out of this?”
“Nope.”
"Well, first, thank you, and second, you should sleep upstairs in my room, and I'll take the couch. Not up for debate." I smiled.
