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“Hardy-har-har. You get me anything?” In addition to being a chain smoker, Misty had been on and off every diet known to man since Alice was a little girl. When Alice had been about Liv’s age, her mother had enrolled them in Weight Watchers together, saying Alice was getting a bit hefty. Ever since, Alice had been hyperaware of her weight. Once she’d popped out a kid, though, her body lost interest in being stick thin. She’d had to learn to accept the curves that came along with motherhood the same way she’d accepted the baby.
“I got you a regular burger, no cheese, and a small fries.” She lay the dinner out on the kitchen table where Liv was already devouring her Chicken McNuggets with the zest of a starvation victim. “I’m going out again once Liv gets to bed.” She didn’t ask permission because that would give Misty an opportunity to say no.
“Oh.” The older woman wrinkled up her nose. “Do you think that’s a good idea?” She cast a meaningful glance towards Olivia.
“I think it’s a fine idea.”
“She’s going to see her boyfriend,” Liv announced.
How on earth the kid could have known that was beyond Alice, but apparently her daughter paid better attention to things than she’d given her credit for.
“I’m sorry, your what?” Misty’s tone was halfway between horrified and gossip hungry.
“He’s not my boyfriend. It’s just a…just someone.”
“Someone who?”
“Alex,” Liv supplied when Alice hesitated. “He’s a baseball player like Dad.”
If looks could kill, Alice would have exploded into a fiery ball of flame under her mother’s withering scrutiny.
“He’s a what?”
“A base…ball…player,” Liv said slowly, thinking her grandmother might not have heard her properly. With a mouthful of nuggets, the enunciation was extra ridiculous.
“Didn’t you learn anything from the whole Matt debacle?” Misty scolded.
“Mom.” Alice cut a glance to Liv and shook her head once. “This isn’t the time. And besides which, it’s really none of your business.”
Misty sniffed indignantly and crossed her bony arms across her chest. “I don’t approve of this.”
“Well, you don’t approve of much. But thankfully I’m not looking for your approval.”
“But you want me to stay here while you run off and have some silly tryst? With a guy who will run away and leave you here just like Matt did? And what, have another baby? Want to hedge your bets by getting a couple different millionaires to knock you up?”
Heat flooded Alice’s face, and she wasn’t sure what stung more, the embarrassment of her mistakes being trotted out in front of Liv, or her mother’s assumption she was stupid enough to let history repeat itself.
“I’m not nineteen anymore,” she replied, setting her Big Mac down. “And Alex isn’t Matt.”
“They’re all the same.”
Wasn’t that exactly what Alice herself had thought? Yet hearing the words from someone else made her blood boil. She pushed her chair back from the table and looked at her daughter. “Liv, honey, you be good for Grandma, and I want you in bed by nine, okay?”
Olivia nodded, a smear of honey mustard sauce covering her cheek, the yellow blending almost seamlessly with the bruises. “Okay.”
Alice faced her mother with a cool stare. “I’ll be home later.”
“Fine. But don’t you come crying to me when you find out I’m right. All you’ll get here are I told you so’s.”
Alice said nothing. If Misty was right and Alex turned out to be the same brand of scumbag as Matt, all the I told you so’s in the world wouldn’t matter.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
When it came to loving the wrong men, it was a two-strikes-you’re-out rule, and Alice hoped Alex’s batting average was starting to look up.
Chapter Twenty-Four
