AllFreeNovel
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I almost laugh. “You know of another blonde who dressed up as Black Widow in our neighborhood last night?”
“That could’ve been anybody.”
With those curves?No one in our neighborhood looks like her.
I slip my phone back into my pocket. “I could say the same for the person who ran off with your candy bowl. Could’ve been another brown-haired teen.”
She balls her fists at her sides. “I saw your daughter in broad daylight—with my own two eyes, not some blurry camera. And why do you have a surveillance camera anyway? That’s majorly creepy.”
“Comes in handy when I need to catch a five-foot-nothing gnome thief.”
She snorts. “I’m five two and a half.”
“I’ll be sure to tell the police that when I give them your description.”
Her eyes roll. “Yes, because they’ll send their whole search team over here just to look for a lawn ornament.”
I clench my jaw, my patience wearing thin. “Just give up the damn gnome.”
She pushes up onto her toes, yet she still doesn’t come eye-to-eye with me. “Give me back my bowl.”
I could go back to the house, ask Noah for the bowl, and put an end to this whole stupid thing. But there’s something about this woman’s self-righteous attitude that’s tap-dancing on my last nerve.
I dip my head, closing the distance between us, bringing us nose to nose. “I don’t have your damn bowl.”
“Then I don’t have your gnome.”
We’re at a stalemate, glaring at each other over inanimate objects.
“This is typical ignorant parent bullshit, you know.” She shakes her head, and even though she’s shorter, it feels like she’s looking down her nose at me. “Everyone’s allnot mykid instead of talking to them about what they did wrong. It creates little brats who can’t take accountability for their actions.”
My patience snaps like a twig. “My daughter is not a brat.”
“You’re an enabler. You’re not helping her in the long run.”
“Doyouhave kids?”
She flinches like the words hit her in the face. “No. But I’m a teacher and—”
“Then you couldn’t possibly understand what it feels like to have someone accuse your daughter of something. I don’t care what yousayshe did—that’s my kid, and I’ll defend her until the day I die. I reprimand her how I see fit, and I raise her how I think she should be raised. And it’s none of your goddamn business how I do it. So until you have kids of your own one day, stop tossing around insults at other people’s kids.”
Her eyes glisten and the angry façade falters.
Her voice shakes when she mutters a weak, “Fuck you.”
Then she steps back and slams the door in my face.
What the hell just happened?
I’m two for two with women slamming doors on me today.
“Go away.”
I rest my forehead on Noah’s bedroom door. “Just open the door, please. I need to talk to you.”
The door cracks open enough for Romeo to stick his nose into her room, his tail thumping against my leg.
“What?”
