She asked Roland?
She rolled her eyes.“I couldn’t get two nickels out of him about it that made sense.”
I folded the ladder and dragged it to the garage wall.“Erika isn’t here to seeme.She’s here to sort out her family’s affairs.It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her.I barely remember her.”
“Right.”She said the word slowly.Her eyebrows rose into her bangs.“Timothy stomped in fit to be tied a few hours ago.Erika threatened him with a blade, I heard.”
“A scalpel, not a knife.He barged into surgery when she was elbow deep in a dog’s chest.He put the patient at risk, which she didn’t like.”I crossed my arms and stood in front of Mom.“She was badass in that surgery today; on a whole other level than any of us around here.”
“I would’ve loved to have seen her threaten Tim,” Mom muttered.
“What?”Who was this woman who seemed to be on Erika’s side?
“Your brother deserves to get his frogs boxed once in a while.He struts around here like he’s king of the village.The little snit stole the rest of my York patties out of the fridge yesterday.He said they were bad for my stomach.”
I kept my lips firmly smashed together.If a single snicker escaped, I’d be the one getting my ears boxed.No one got between Lisa Hurst and her York peppermint patties without expecting retaliation.
“He wanted them for himself.”Mom scooted to the edge of the salt pile.“You’re not at all bothered about Erika being here?”
“I’m good.”
“You’re a crappy liar, Joshua Holston Hurst, but just remember, I’m on your side.”She pulled me into a hug.My mom’s head barely came to my armpits.The smell of her floral skin cream flooded me with a sense of homecoming.
“There aren’t sides here, Mom.”
She smiled mischievously and stalked to the refrigerator in the corner of the garage, reached into the far back behind the case of beer, and retrieved a new bag of peppermint patties.“Want one?”
“Sure.”I took the offering, which made me feel as if I’d just won the “best son” award.
She unwrapped one for herself.“Your father used to behave like Timothy.He used to butt into people’s business like a real son-of-a-bacon-bit.”
“He’s not like that anymore.”
“He learned to keep his mitts off my Yorks.”Her face shifted intothatlook—the one that meant she was winding up to say something I absolutely didnotneed in my brain.“And he learned how to be a god in the bedroom,” she added, all casual.“Not the ho-hum stuff either.The knock-your-socks-off, see-God kind.If you don’t have that, then…” She shrugged like this was grocery-store small talk.
“Mom, stop.Seriously.I don’t need visuals.”
“Why not?It’s my secret to surviving that man’s baloney for years.Timothy couldn’t find it in his marriage.It’s why he failed.”She bit into her chocolate, chewed in silence, and then said, “Don’t you go doing anything stupid to Erika like flapping your mouth when you’re running hot.She just lost her father, the poor dear.You use that brain God gave you.Just remember, she makes you want to lose your clothes faster than a farmer in a tornado.”
“Jesus, Mom.It’s not like that.”I pinched my nose.“I have a date with Milly tonight.”
Her face scrunched up like she’d eaten a sour grape.“Don’t you be using the Lord Jesus’s name in vain in my garage just ’cause you realized your knickers are wadded over the girl you’re not dating.It’s always been that way with Erika.Maybe take her a peppermint.Her being Erika.It might make her smile.Sounds like she might need one this week after handling the likes of you and Timothy.”She slapped a foil-wrapped candy in my hand and stalked away.She paused at the door into the house.“Who’s this Milly and why does she matter now that Erika’s back?”
“She’s notback, Mom!”I yelled out, but she pretended not to hear before she went inside.
ChapterTwelve
JOSH
“You’ve talkedabout Erika since we got here.”Milly looked at her phone.“For almost ten minutes.”
“Sorry.”I’d been caught up in rehashing Erika’s surgical moment.I hadn’t been enthused about something related to my job in a long, long time.Usually, I spent my off-time trying to forget the disappointments, the deaths, and the clients angry about things I couldn’t control.
Erika’s confidence even when the dog’s chest filled with blood after removing the arrow wasn’t the Erika I remembered.As Sarah so aptly put it, the second blood started gushing into the dog’s chest cavity, my ass puckered.I kept my mouth shut, though.Erika didn’t show any distress, nor did she vocalize a single complaint.She got busy and fixed the dog.
It’d been…just…incredible.
Milly didn’t seem impressed.
