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Cat swirled around and faced her mother, standing, toe to toe. Mama was a little thinner than she might have expected, but the stern look of disappointment was still etched on her face.
“Far be it from me to think that you might want an update on your granddaughter.” Cat pursed her lips.
“She got sick at your place. Picked up an illness from that den of sin you work at, no doubt.”
Cat bit the skin of her lips. “I thought you might think that. Mike is the one who wanted to come. Remember him? The one you made everyone not say anything to me about? Andie’s father?”
Mike stood to meet her. “Ma’am.”
“Don’t you ma’am me. You’ve done nothing but cause trouble here. It’s why I don’t like associating with your kind.”
Her mother’s boldness, took her breath away. Literally. For the second time in a few days, a lightheaded buzzing invaded her head, but Mike stepped forward and grabbed her by the waist.
“We don’t want to stay long, ma’am. We just want to let you know. We’ll be taking care of Andie from now on. You don’t need to worry about her anymore.”
“And what can you do for a child? After you abandoned my daughter?
As if you didn’t.
Cat couldn’t stop the thought from invading her mind, but she didn’t want to.
Mike kept on. “We’ll be happy to have her visit her grandparents, but I’m purchasing a home for them both. If Cat will have me, I would be honored to live there as her husband, but if not, I fully intend to be in their lives.”
The buzzing didn’t stop. She turned around and stared Mike in the face.
Well, here it was. The very ending she wanted. The very thing she had dreamed of. He had come to save them, in all kinds of ways she hadn’t expected. Yet, she didn’t know exactly what to say.
Mama Bennett snorted. “Well, if she doesn’t marry you, then she’s no better than a prostitute.”
What??? Did her mother never know where to stop? Mike’s hold tightened about her.
“I was injured in the war. So I’m a cripple too.” Mike bent down and lifted his pants’ leg. The perfectly matched shoe held a leg of wood.
The growing horror was about to cut off the air in her lungs. When had that happened?
“So, I think Mr. Bennett’s solution of meeting you on your lovely porch without having me, a darky and a cripple, step foot in your house is a perfect one. Thank you, sir.”
Mike shifted his attention to her mother, glaring. “So, ma’am. You don’t have to worry about having this darky darken your doorstep, ever. Literally. However, that goes for my daughter as well, given her dark skin color and her polio condition. You don’t have to worry about seeing her ever again. She’ll be well taken care of. I just wanted you to know. Cat, let’s go.”
Was she more shocked at his leg? Or at the way he just told off her mother? In the most respectful way possible? Maybe it was the stricken look on Mama Bennett’s face. In her mother’s face she saw pure love for her grandchild, reflected as pure terror as her eyes filled with tears.
She could never recall seeing Mama Bennett cry. Over anyone.
It almost made Cat feel sorry for her.
But now she knew what it was to be cast out.
Mike’s hand held her up. Giving her the strength and permission to be held up. So she picked her way down her mother’s front steps, down the city steps, with new strength to face the future and her heart filled with joy the further she went from her childhood home.
Chapter Nine
Harder going down stairs than climbing up. Especially since the Pittsburgh city stairs were made of hard stone. The combination of the hot August day and the walk made the sweat pour down his face. He had thought he looked nice in his pressed beige pants and white shirtwaist with a tie, but by the time he got down to the bottom of the stairs and to the van, his shirt was soaked through to his undershirt with sweat.
“Are you alright?” Cat peered at him.
“This is exactly what I feared. When I told you about my leg, you would want to pity me instead of seeing me as a man.”
“I’m not pitying you, I just want to know.”
