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Maeve backed up an inch or two on the sofa. I knew I was scary when I got angry. I’d always been a big guy. It was one of the reasons I’d learned to control my temper. My words. My reactions. But I didn’t give a flying fuck right now. This was something beyond anger that I felt. This was deep. This was dark.
Mom continued, “Maeve is worried about you. And so am I. And I totally understand you might have wanted to protect me from dredging up old feelings, but honestly, maybe it’s just time you hear what happened.”
Her words did nothing to put the fire out. “I don’t want to hear a word out of either of your mouths. But especially you, Maeve! How dare you actually come to me, ask my opinion, I say no, and you just do it anyway? With something so fucking monumental?”
My mom tried to interrupt again, and I held a hand up to stop her. “We can talk later. Maybe you should leave, Mom.”
“Drake…”
“Just leave!”
She did. I’d never spoken to her this way before. But all my ethics and morals and everything went out the door. If Maeve brought anarchy to our relationship, there were no rules. I was completely and utterly fuming.
I seethed. “I don’t even know why I’m giving you a chance to speak right now.”
With that, her fear shifted into something else.
“Babe…”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me…”
“Drake, I know what I did was wrong. Maybe we should just take a minute because you have to know that what you’re saying, not wanting to see if your dad is a match, is actually translating as you not wanting to live.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She finally found her feet. That little body became a hundred times bigger as she raised her voice back to me. “This whole thing is ridiculous! And if you’re telling me that you’re going to be so angry with me that you’d punish me with your anger? So be it. Dump me! Never speak to me again! If you’re alive, I’ll have done my job.”
“Don’t be such a martyr. It’s not attractive.” I hissed.
“Don’t try to hurt me on purpose.”
“You did it first.” I stood to step away from the tension. This was getting heated. And loud. Maybe Dixie could even hear it in her wing. The last thing I wanted to do was to have her running down here to Maeve’s rescue.
I lowered my tone. “Here’s the deal. I’m moving out. I can’t have you running my life in the background. I’ve lost enough…”
“Drake, you haven’t lost anything yet.”
“Just…” I shook my head and took a few steps toward the doors to the backyard. “I’m going to stay at mine tonight. I need a breather from all this drama. All of you meddling…” I kept it in. I knew better than to keep talking. “Just give me a couple days.”
I started to walk off. Maeve’s voice found me. Not only between my ears, but in my heart.
“He said he’d do it,” she called.
I didn’t turn.
“He said he’d get tested.”
I wasn’t opening any further. I couldn’t. Even though in just a few words, she made me want to.
Maeve didn’t followme to the pool house. As I packed up my bag, I wondered if it’d been a good or a bad thing. Maybe I should have given the conversation more time. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone off the deep end. Maybe I was being pig-headed, but my life was mine. It belonged to me, and I really didn’t appreciate being manipulaaa…
“Drake?”
There was only one Southern drawl in my life. I turned around. Dixie stood in the doorframe.
“Hey.” I threw the shirt in my hand into a duffle bag. “Sorry if I shouted in your house. Sorry I shouted at your daughter…”
“I’m not here to talk about that.”
