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“Ohhhhh, you full named me. I’m in real trouble.”
She gives me that mom look again. “Stop it.”
“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands up in surrender. “I’ll stop.”
She gets up and flounces toward the kitchen. “Call Caden and tell him to come for dinner!”
“Make sure you wear something revealing!” I yell back.
“You’re impossible!”
I’ve heard that before.
“Party’s here!” Caden’s voice carries from the living room when he walks in.
“In the dining room!”
“It smells like freaking heaven in here, Mama S.” He pops a kiss on Mom's cheek before he flops in the chair beside mine. “Thanks for having me.” It always makes me giggle that he’s so polite when he comes to my mom's house.Who said gang members don’t have manners?
“You’re always welcome here.” Mom smiles, and I waggle my eyebrows at her, making her eyes narrow again. “Dig in.”
We load up our plates with pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, and Mom’s homemade bread.
“What did you do today?” I ask Caden between bites. His fork stops midway to his mouth, and he shoots me a panicked look.What the fuck?
“Uh. We made some plans for later. That’s it.”
“Alrighty then,” I reply, deciding not to push him in front of Mom. “Everything good?”
“Oh? Yep. Uh-huh.” He shovels more food into his mouth before he can answer any more questions.
The rest of dinner is filled with easy conversation. Caden always fits in nicely around here. I didn’t know what Mom would think when I started bringing him around because I knew she knew who he was. But she instantly fell in love with him and not in the way I was joking with her about. She took him in as a surrogate son.
Caden and I start clearing the dishes since Mom cooked, and as soon as I get him in the kitchen alone, I corner him. “What happened today?” I whisper.
Caden looks over his shoulder for Mom before looking back at me. “I kissed Ghost.”
“Uh fucking what?” I say, a little too loud.
“Shut up,” he hisses. “It just happened. And then Mercy walked in, and he acted like he couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
Oh, that wasn’t going to do. “I’ll kick his ass.”
Caden snorts a laugh. “I’m sure you could, Firefly. But don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry about it? Caden….”
“No. Stop. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I went for it, and it backfired. It’s all good.” He hip checks me out of the way to start loading the dishwasher. “Besides, it’s for the best.”
“It’s for the best? Are you fucking kidding me?!”
“What do you want me to say?” he asks, shutting the dishwasher with his hip. “It was a stupid fucking thought anyway.”
“Caden,” I sigh. “I can see the look on your face. Maybe he didn’t mean what you think.”
“What else would it mean?”
“You need to talk to him because I don’t see Ghost being like that. He’s too accepting of everyone else around here.” Mind made up, I grab his hand and start pulling him to the door.
