“Or Devin can, sincehe’s the father.” Mom sighs, but she doesn’t pursue it.
“Can you make the salad? Make the kind your brother likes.”
Since I have no idea what kind that is, I’m going to make the kind thatIlike. I pull out everything I’ll need from the fridge. “Where’s Daddy?” I ask.
“He had a meeting. He’ll be home soon, though.”
“He’s working on a Sunday?” It’s not atypical, but he hasn’t done it in a while.
“You know Shadow Cove’s mayor has no set hours. The man works all the time. After you make the salad, can you straighten the living room a bit?”
I hear crying in the back of the house. I don’t reply. I’ll do it to help my mom, but I’m getting out of here as soon as I eat.
“Have you sold any dresses lately?” Mom asks from the stove.
“I sold a couple of bridesmaid dresses last week. I shipped them out on Thursday.” Thank goodness I did before that maniac got his hands on me. “I think I’m going to put my favorite one for sale. I’ll need the money to start my own P.I. business.” I plan to work for myself and leave my job behind. In a year or two, I hope to have employees do the work while I manage them and focus on making more dresses.
“We’ll need extra money for the baby now,” Mom adds. “Do you think Mr. Armstrong will give Devin your job when you leave?”
I shove a piece of cucumber in my mouth to stop from laughing. I don’t bother asking whywewould need more money for the baby, when the baby doesn’t belong to us, but I already know. We all pull in to help the fuck up. It will be a cold day in hell before I lift a finger to do anything for his ass.
“Devin has never held a job longer than six months. Everyone in this town knows that,” I add. “He also knows nothing about being an investigator.”
“Maybe you can train him?” Not gonna happen.
“He will have to look outside of Shadow Cove.”
“Why are you so hard on him?”
“Why are you so easy on him?” I challenge.
“Because he needs us.”
“I’m not his parent, Mom. If he needs you and Daddy, fine, but please stop trying to pull me in. He’s an adult, and I don’t remember a single time when you called on him to help me.”
Her head rolls back as if I just slapped her. She gasps and looks away.
“That’s not fair, Cori.”
“But is it untrue? And not fair to whom?”
“You know your father and I love you. We don’t know what we would have done without you.” As usual, she has unshed tears in her eyes. This is when I would apologize or change the subject so her feelings won’t be hurt, but I’m done doing that.
“Who said anything about you loving me? I said you’ve never called on Devin a single time to help me with anything. You’ve never counted on him to help you either, but if you and Daddy want to help him now, go ahead. All I’m asking is that I don’t get dragged into it because I have nothing to give him.”
“This isn’t even about Devin. This is about an innocent baby.”
“Well, Mom, if he wasn’t ready to have a baby, he shouldn’t have had sex.”
“Cori, Ruby is already here. He can’t return her, honey. She needs us.”
“I’m done with this conversation.” I mumble something under my breath, but Mom doesn’t hear.
Moments later, my phone buzzes from across the room, but I don’t make any moves to get it. Only, it doesn’t shut up. It keeps buzzing. Annoyed, I leave my salad and pull the damn thing out of my purse.
Unknown number: I can still taste you on my tongue
I don’t know how he got my number, but I should not be surprised.
