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“You are so screwed, dude,” Ben said. “If you fu—” He looked at Ma. “F this up, I’ll kick your ass.”
“He already did,” Mike said.
How’d he know? Did he suddenly have a fortune-telling gift I didn’t know anything about?
“I hate to argue, but no, he didn’t,” Beau said.
Brows went up around the kitchen. Beau held her chin up.
Bobby smirked. “She fits in around here.”
“Don’t you boys give her a hard time,” Ma said. “You know I want more daughters.” She narrowed her gaze at Mike who held his hands up.
“I can’t handle any more kids, Ma.”
“You only have two,” she pouted.
“Point made.”
“He thought we didn’t know he was sneaking off way back when. I saw you two going up to the station house rooftop all the time.” Mike gave me a triumphant look.
“Is this the broad you were doing that with?” Bobby asked. “We wondered what happened to her.”
“Is nothing sacred around here?” I grumbled.
“You should’ve introduced us back then. Maybe you wouldn’t have screwed it all up,” Ben said.
I couldn’t argue. Didn’t want to.
“I’d love to see the groveling you had to do to get her back.” Bobby thumped me on the head.
Michelle thumped him. “I wish you would so you could take a lesson.” She squeezed Aaron’s shoulder. “You good for now? We need to get back to the kids.”
“I’m good.”
“Call us when you need us.” She hugged him.
I stood and Beau did the same.
Michelle embraced us both, along with everyone else until only Ma, Aaron, Beau, and I remained.
“Cal . . .” Ma said carefully in that voice that made me want to shrink to the floor. “Did you pay off this house?”
I stared at my feet. It had taken me until last year, and every time I made one of those payments, it eased a little of my worry about Ma, knowing she was taken care of.
“Garrett Calhoun, you answer me this minute.” Her hands were on her hips now.
“I needed to do it. For you. And Pop,” I said quietly.
“That’s not your responsibility, baby boy.” She reached for my hand.
“He took care of all that stuff. I didn’t want you to worry about it.”
“Don’t you dare tell me you’ve been paying the light bill, the insurance, and everything else.”
I clamped my mouth closed in obedience. I hadn’t wanted her to know. Pop had been the one to take care of the bills. Ma was perfectly capable, but I needed to do it. In a weird way, it made me feel closer to him.
“How much, Cal?”
