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Carter scoffed. “You said that about Josh, and he was sleeping with his stepmom.”
Mom gasped. “Was he?”
“She also said that about Keith, and he was collecting porcelain dolls and hoped Courtney would dress like one if she lost some weight.” My brothers, and even my dad, grumbled about some of my dating attempts that were epic fails.
In fairness, I hadn’t seen Keith’s collection until he took me to his place after we’d been dating a month. He had been nice and never pressured me into anything. Not until he confessed I was too big and needed to resemble one of “his girls.” I’d never run out of a house so fast. It was lucky Calvin had been in the area and picked me up. After he’d told Keith to never call me again, or if he did, they’d have issues, a pale Keith had nodded and stepped into his house, engaging all his locks.
“Can we not talk about them?” I pleaded.
Mom patted my hand. “Tell me later.”
“Not fair,” Casper complained. “At least give us a name.”
I took a mouthful of peas and corn and mumbled around it.
“Boys, leave your sister alone. Besides, I’ll tell you later when I have the information off your mom.”
“Dad!” I yelled. “Mom?”
“Sweetie, I won’t tell him anything.” I watched her mouth to Dad, “I’ll tell you later.”
Pointing my fork at her and then Dad, I reprimanded, “You know I can see you.”
Mom just smiled and patted my arm. “I have only one question. Does he want children?”
“First date, Mom. This will be ourfirstdate.”
“All right, fine. Now, Carter?”
“I’m not seeing anyone, Mom.”
“Calvin, have you and Jena talked about—”
“She dumped me because she was more in love with her job than with me.” Calvin hunched over his plate and shoveled food into his mouth.
“Oh” was Mom’s wise reply.
“Do you need me to beat her up?” I offered.
“Courtney,” Mom exclaimed.
Calvin gave me a soft smile. “Nah, I just don’t want to talk about it.”
“I mean, she’s a trollop for leaving my son, but what do you mean, more in love with her job?”
We loved our mom, but sometimes she didn’t know when to leave things alone, and I could really tell Calvin didn’t want to talk about it. He’d go to Dad later. Alone. So I took one for the team.
“His name’s State. Well, that’s his club name. I don’t know his real name yet. I do know I like him, because when I met him at the compound, and after Isla left me to fend for myself, he spent the time talking to me. Then I ghosted him, letting myself sink into my doubts. However, he made an appointment at the salon to get his nails done just so he could talk to me and ask me out. He told me that when I walked into the compound, he knew that he wanted to get to know me because I took his whole attention like no one else has before.” I took a deep breath and then went on. “He also shut Margot down”—they all knew about her—“when she told him he could do better. He called her haggy and told her if she ever said anything about me again, they were going to have problems.” My hand shook when I took a sip of water.
Mom sniffed.
“Mom,” I whispered, amused.
She waved a hand around. “Hormones.”
I looked at Dad, worried about his opinion since I’d outed State as being in a motorcycle club. I didn’t care, and I hoped he wouldn’t.
He smiled warmly. “Good luck on your date, princess.”
