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“If you needed Mom, you could have called her. If she doesn’t pick up, then I guess you need to just deal with it. Now, go, Steph.” Madison begins dragging her sister toward the door.
Stephanie glares at Sunday as she is dragged away.
Yelling follows in their wake.
“Are you okay?”
There is so much hurt on Sunday’s face. How much can one person handle? An abusive ex who won’t sign the papers to end their marriage, who also has a crazy current girlfriend?
Sunday looks down at the floor. “Noah, I’m sorry, but once the coast is clear, I’m going to call it a day. We had good intentions coming here, but I’m afraid maybe we’ve made your day worse,” Sunday says with deep sadness in her voice.
I wrap her in my arms, and she tenses for a brief moment before she relaxes and returns the gesture.
“Thank you for coming. No matter the outcome of today, your kind gesture means more to me than any altercation with a bratty girl. You made nothing worse for me. Take care of yourself.”
“Check on Brazen for me once I go. He won’t be happy when he hears Stephanie showed.”
“I will.”
I nod, and she cracks a tight smile.
Benson steps into the hall as Sunday walks away.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
“Madison’s family caused some drama. Her sister showed up,” I answer, suddenly not so blue about being without family of my own today.
“Gotcha.” He gives me a tight smile as his eyes flick to the door Stephanie stormed out of a few minutes ago.
“Hey, thanks for tipping Brazen off about this weekend.”
“That man is a sight to be seen. I did it as much for you as I did for me.”
I can’t argue with that.
“Look but don’t touch, Benson.”
That earns me a smile, which I think I’ve only ever seen him do once.
“Where is Brazen anyway?”
“He’s in Madison’s room, taking care of her mom. Do you want to tell me what that look was all about when I mentioned Madison’s sister?”
“Let’s go find your man. What you’re asking isn’t some big secret, but I think you should be talking to him and not me about it.” Benson takes my hand, and we head toward Madison’s room.
Madison’s mother lies slumped on the floor with her head bobbing, and Brazen stands, watching her intently while still unaware of our presence.
“Can I do anything?”
When Brazen hears my voice, he leaves the woman behind and comes to my side. His warmth fills me as he takes my hand, and our fingers interlock.
“No, she just needs to sleep it off. Where’s Sunday?”
“She had to leave.” Subconsciously, my vision goes to the floor, not wanting to tell him about our uninvited visitor.
“I should get back to my parents,” Benson says, already heading out of the room.
“Noah, what ran Sunday off?” he says it like he already knows.
