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“My wonderful son, what a surprise!” Her chipper voice usually brings me peace, knowing she’s happy but today, I’m suspicious of everything. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise call?”
“What are you doing right now?” I skip the formalities I should be giving my mother the courtesy of having, yet I’m too impatient.
“Well, hello to you too,” she huffs out, irritated by my lack of manners.
I sigh. “Hello, mom.”
“Much better.” I can hear the smirk in her voice from her triumphant win of taming me.
“What are you doing right now?” I repeat my previous question.
“Just some gardening. What are you doing right now?”
I ignore her question. “Can you come over?”
“Is everything okay? You sound off.” I can hear her moving around in the background, likely putting away her gardening shears and cleaning up.
“Everything’s fine, but I need you to come over.” I can’t tell her what it’s about because I don’t want her to avoid telling me the truth. My mother is lovely and incredible, but when she doesn’t want to talk about certain things, she avoids it like the plague.
“Is it Tara? Oh, that sweet girl! I haven’t seen her in way too long.”
“Tara’s fine, mom. She’ll be here when you get here,” I rush out.
“Oh, good! In that case, of course, I’ll come over for whatever it is that you’re so impatient about.” That stubborn woman just wanted to hear that Tara would be here and force the information out of me.
“Gee, thanks. Glad you want to see me too.” I roll my eyes even though she can’t see them.
“Your ego is too big anyway. Don’t need to give you a bigger head,” she laughs. It’s a sound I’m not sure I’m going to be hearing again after I do a surprise attack on her. “Give me about thirty minutes and I’ll be there. Do I get any hints on what's so important that you need my presence?”
“It’s a surprise.” God, I feel like an asshole right now, but this is a conversation we need to have in person. I need to see her body language and how she reacts to me asking her why the hell this bank account is in Reilly’s name.
“Okay then, keep your secrets. I’ll see you soon.” She hangs up and I finally feel like I can breathe again. The idea of springing this on her puts a sour taste in my mouth, but it has to be done.
“What did she say?” Tara asks from beside me.
“She’ll be here.”
“It will be okay. No matter what she says, it’s probably not as bad as whatever's going through your mind right now.” Tara comes up to me and squeezes my hand. Her touch alone is enough to keep me from calling my mom and spilling it all to her right now. I’m not good at being patient and I don’t like not knowing the answers to my questions.
“It can’t be good either.” I try to rein in the emotion that I’m feeling, but Tara can see right through my bullshit. Hell, they all can. Rush, Reilly, and Tara are all looking at me like I’m going to blow a gasket or break down at any second.
“Just hear what she has to say and actually listen to her.” She’s saying those words with purpose. She wants me to learn from my previous mistakes, and I’m going to do my best to do right by her this time.
“I will.” She gives me a knowing look. “Fine, I’ll try.” She cracks a smile at that one, before wrapping herself tighter in her beach towel and taking a step back from me, moving closer to Rush and Reilly. We all stand around in the foyer waiting for my mom to arrive.
“Maybe we should go sit down while we’re waiting? How long did she say she was going to be?” Reilly asks. He’s just as nervous as I am. This involves both of our lives and I need to know why my father was putting money in this account. He never liked Reilly, which is why this is so damn confusing.
Why would he do that? The number of things that it could be is endless when it comes to my father. He was an asshole, but he always did things with a purpose, usually to benefit him so it had to be something serious.
“She said she’ll be about thirty minutes, but I’m not sure I can sit still right now.” I’m too fidgety to sit down. Instead, I pace the area. I’m not sure how long I’ve been lost in my thoughts, trying to go through every possible scenario in my head. Before I know it, the doorbell is ringing, and I notice I’m the only one still standing here. Everyone else must’ve moved to sit down as Reilly suggested.
I move toward the door as quickly as my feet will carry me and open it to my mother’s smiling face. “Nix!” She cheerfully hugs me before stepping back to look up at me. “Now, where is Tara? I miss that gorgeous girl. You keep her hidden away from me.” She might love Tara more than she loves me at this point. I don’t blame her, though, Tara is amazing.
“She’s in the dining room. Let’s head in there.” I lead her where I assume everyone else is at.
“Are you okay? You’re acting weird.” Concern etches across her face, sensing the tightness in my body.
“I will be. I just need to talk to you about some things.” We finally make it into the dining room and everyone else stops talking. It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Tara finally breaks the silence by getting out of her chair and rushing to my mother.
