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“Why were you around so much when Dustin and I first started seeing each other? He still lived at home with your stepmom. I know his father was dead, but you weren’t related to his mother. She married your father after your parents divorced, if Dustin told me right.”
“He did. I moved back to my father’s home after he passed, because his widow couldn’t manage on her own. He married her for her looks. Not her brains.”
“So… what? Were you interested in her?”
I barked out a laugh. “No. Honestly, I couldn’t stand her. At least at first. She was sleeping with my father while he was still married to my mother. I moved back into the house because I didn’t have another place to live in the city. I’d moved to Montana and was working on a ranch when he died. I went to the funeral and found out how bad things were financially with my father and Deb.”
“Wasn’t there a suspicion he’d committed suicide?”
“Yeah. Though he was drunk as a mule and fell into the swimming pool. I have no idea why the suicide thing was thrown in other than for the insurance company to not have to pay. I hired a lawyer to fight with the company, and Deb and Dustin each got their share of the policy, but Deb was pretty simple. She’d married Dad because he’d had money. Or, rather, he told her he did. Any money he had was my mother’s. When she found out about his affair and divorced him, all he had left was that insurance policy. Which Mom had paid for and kept up after their divorce because she knew Dustin would need help burying his father if something happened to him.”
“Not many women would do that. Your mother must be a remarkable woman.”
I smiled. “Yeah. She is. Anyway, at the funeral, I found out my father told Deb he wasn’t married. Told her his wife had died. She didn’t find out otherwise until right before the funeral and was humiliated when she found out. She’d lived with him for nineteen years and never realized my mom was still alive. Probably because my mother cut herself off from my dad completely, and I’d moved to Montana.” I shrugged. “She wasn’t a bad person. Just had big tits and wasn’t very smart. Just the way Dad liked ‘em.”
“Doesn’t sound like that fit your mother.”
“Not at all. She’s highly intelligent. She didn’t see through my father’s deception because she didn’t want to. She loved him more than anything other than me.”
“How old were you when she found out?”
I didn’t really want to talk about all this, but I needed for Pepper to get to know me. The fact she was asking questions and seemed genuinely interested in my answers was good for me. It meant she stayed in my arms that little bit longer, as well as giving her some insight into my past behavior and my expectations going forward.
“Sixteen. He married Deb the day his divorce was final.”
“If your mother had money, didn’t he try to get it during the divorce?”
“Oh, yeah. But like I said. My mom was wicked smart. She shut that shit down even before her lawyer could. I have no idea what she said to him, but whatever it was, he let her have the divorce with no alimony for either of them. She got full custody of me and didn’t demand child support of any kind.”
“That must’ve hurt. For him not to fight to get to see you.”
That surprised me. I should have expected Pepper’d get to the emotional part of that time in my life. She was nothing if not sensitive. “It did. A lot. Mom never said how she did it, but when I asked her why Dad didn’t want me, she told me it wasn’t his choice. She forced him to drop his custody petition. She also told me that if I wanted to see him, she’d reach out and arrange something with him, but she wasn’t going to have it forced on me.”
“You were sixteen. I doubt the court would have made you if you didn’t want to.”
“No, baby. They probably wouldn’t have. But my mother was fiercely protective of me. Even when I was more than capable of looking out for her and myself. Still is.” I smiled. “Yeah. I love my mother to the moon and back. Because of that, I didn’t speak to my father until I turned eighteen. By then, Deb was pregnant with Dustin and had realized things weren’t all roses and sunshine.”
“He wasn’t good to her?” Pepper’s eyes widened, like she couldn’t believe it, even after I’d told her how he’d cheated on my mother.
“Well, he didn’t beat her or yell at her. As far as I knew he was as good to her as he could be. Though he had multiple affairs with ever-younger women. He preferred them in their early twenties or late teens.” I winced, considering Pepper was only twenty. “Sorry. Pepper. Guess I’m more like my old man than I want to admit.”
