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I didn’t look at Tristan. I didn’t want to see him standing in the rain, pathetic and alone. He’d made his choice. So had Greer. They were each other’s mess now.
21
PURE AND BEAUTIFUL AND UGLY
We got insideand I leaned against the closed front door. “Let them live with what they’ve done.”
Drew prowled before the wide front window, hands fisted, watching Tristan. “What’s that prick waiting for, an ass kicking?” His agitation kept my back to the door, though I didn’t think I could stop him if he went after Tristan.
Aithan handed me a bath towel. I dried my face and glanced out the window as I rubbed my hair. Pea-sized hail pinged off the gutters and bounced on the driveway. It collected in white, icy piles in the grass and the garden verge.
Tristan was a dark shadow hunched beneath the eaves, waiting for Greer, or maybe for the storm to pass.
I turned away. Best not to care.
Aithan asked, “What’s the count?”
Drew didn’t seem to hear him. He curled his lip at Tristan, like a dog watching an intruder, eyes hard, hackles raised. “Fuck off, Douche Canoe.”
Aithan grabbed his shoulder. “Drew. The count?”
That dragged his focus away from my sodden ex. His gaze rolled over me to Aithan. “Twenty-five.”
Aithan puffed out his cheeks, then exhaled. “That bad?Kurde. I owe Babcia fifty bucks.”
The door to my parents’ house slammed, and moments later a car engine revved. Headlights raced shadows across the guesthouse’s dim front room, then faded, plunging us back into gloom. Aithan turned on the downstairs lights.
“Good fuckin’ riddance,” Drew snarled.
A light knock on the door made me push away and open it.
Mom stood on the doormat. The hail had stopped, and the rain had lessened. “Zel? Honey? Are you okay?” She stepped inside and I closed the door.
Well, fuck. Nothing like my mother’s sweet sympathy to start the waterworks flowing again. “I don’t know,” I whispered and started sobbing.
“Oh, sweetie.” She wrapped her arms around me and held on as I ugly cried on her narrow shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” I squeaked out through a sob. I straightened, grateful for the tissues Aithan and Drew held out to me. “You didn’t do anything.”
“That’s why I’m sorry. You told me she was awful to you, but I didn’t want to believe it.” Mom sighed. “I turned a blind eye to her behavior. You told me my eldest daughter was cruel to my youngest and I denied it.” She brushed my hair back and wiped my face with another tissue. “And your suffering is the result.”
All I could do was nod, afraid to speak ’cause I’d start sobbing all over again.
“I’ve never seen your father so angry, and not just with Greer. He’s angry with me and, especially, with himself.”
That helped me find my voice. “He shouldn’t blame you or himself. It’s not wrong to believe the best of your daughters. And Dad’s done everything to be the father Prentice never was for her. Greer’s an adult. A fucking marital and family therapist! Holy shit, Mom, sheknowsbetter than to pull this crap.” I shook my head. “She needs her own therapist. But I’m done taking her shit. So don’t make excuses for her behavior anymore.”
“But Prentice—”
“Is the richest cheapskate, the biggest control freak, and the shittiest father. And he’s an excuse she clings to. It’s bullshit, Mom.Dadraised her. He set an amazing example. But Greer’s just like Prentice. Controlling and manipulative and self-centered.”
“I’m sorry to say this, Undine, but she and Tristan deserve each other,” Aithan remarked.
Drew nodded. He’d calmed with my mother’s arrival and Tristan’s departure.
Mom sighed and squeezed Aithan’s arm. “You’re right. All of you. Greer is an adult and she needs to find her own happiness.” She wiped my face again. “Your father made that painfully clear.” She kissed my forehead. “Rest for a little while, then join us for dinner.”
“I’m really not hungry.”
