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Christ.
I really don’t have the patience for her bullshit right now.
“Where’s Nova?” I ask, moving toward her, barely resisting the urge to shake her.
My mom looks up, tears clinging to her lashes. “You m-mean your live-in girlfriend that you haven’t t-told me about?” She clamps a hand to her chest, sniffs loudly.
“Yeah, Mom. My live-in girlfriend who you don’t know about because you flit into my life with your bullshit”—she gasps—“then you flit right back out again after you’ve drained me dry and have to move on to someone else to play emotional vampire with.”
She starts crying, even louder than before.
I shake my head, not buying it this time, not having the patience for it, just extending my hand. “Give me the spare key.”
The one I forgot to relocate all those weeks before.
The one she knows about because I’ve had it in the same spot in every single house I’ve lived in.
Her tears dry up in an instant, and she scowls at me. “Why?”
“Because I’m done catering to you. I’m done walking on eggshells. I’m done feeling guilty for being borne and putting up with your bullshit because you want to punish me again and again andagain.Now tell me,” I grit out, stepping closer, holding her gaze, not giving in to her crap, not this fucking time.
This is too important.
I lean in, roar, “Where. The. Fuck. Is. The. Woman. I. Love?”
“Woof!”
I jump, head whipping to the side, seeing Nova standing in the kitchen, eyes wide, Steve in her arms.
Fuck.
She heard that.
She’s going to run.
She has her boots and coat on.
And Steve.
And—
I’m moving away from my mom before I even process it, crossing to her, and doing it hurrying.
Because she can’t leave.
Because I love her too fucking much to allow her to go.
But she doesn’t retreat as I move toward her, doesn’t turn and flee out the door like I half expect.
She just stays there and lets me approach and—
“Butterfly,” I rasp.
She blinks once. Twice. Then, “You love me?”
Fuck.
“Don’t leave,” I beg. “Just pretend you didn’t hear that. We’ll keep moving like we are—slow and steady and together.”
