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Olive held on tighter than usual and when she pulled back, there were tears in her eyes again. I stood there and bounced on my feet as I waited for Jack and Andrew to hug her. Then I pulled her with me to the couch and pulled her down on my lap. She curled into my chest and sighed. “It’s been a day.”
Lydie sat beside us and held Olive’s hands. “Tell me everything.”
Andrew sat on her other side and Jack pulled the coffee table close to sit on it. We all leaned in and waited, unsure of where she was going to go with her bad day.
“First, I’m so sorry, Lydie. This is a terrible reception. You came early.” Olive sniffed. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
Lydie shrugged. “I’m family. I don’t require a big reception.”
“I had to pick Jesse up from school early today because he called his teacher a name.”
Jack frowned. “Ms. Emily?”
“Yeah. He called her a dirty whore.” Olive rested her head on my chest and blew out a shaky breath. “He was upset last night before Taylor left. He wouldn’t tell me why until we got home today. Taylor called me names and told him I was the reason he didn’t get to see his dad. He even brought y’all up and when Jesse said he liked y’all, Taylor called him dumb. Jesse wanted to know why his dad doesn’t like me. I only left them alone together for that little bit of time I came outside to tell y’all you couldn’t come in. It was less than two minutes, but I shouldn’t have done it. I should’ve known that Taylor would do something so disgusting.”
“I should’ve hit him harder.” I pressed my face into her hair and inhaled in an effort to calm the rage brewing inside me.
“Hey, that’s exactly what I keep thinking.” She seemed to realize she let a secret slip and sighed. “He cornered me in the kitchen last night and I punched him in the throat.”
Lydie was shaking and she’d gone completely red. “I want to cheer for that but I’m so furious right now that I think it would just come out as a neverending scream.”
Olive looked up at me. “You hit him, too?”
I nodded. “He stole a pair of your panties.”
She shuddered and pressed her face into my neck. “I hate that. I hate that so much.”
“I can probably focus on criminal law in prison if I get sent to the right prison.” Andrew unclenched his fists and stood up. “I need to destroy something.”
33
***Olive***
“Thisisthegoodlife.” Lydie reached over and swatted my arm. “You’re one lucky bitch. All the other bullshit aside, look at this.”
I’d been looking. I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene before us. I fanned myself and sighed dreamily. “How is this the same day that I was told my son called his teacher a dirty whore?”
Andrew was sitting with Jesse on the floor, reading him a book and telling him all about the characters in fun voices. Jack was in the kitchen, putting away the leftovers from the dinner he’d cooked. He’d also cleaned everything in the house until it looked like a different place. Caleb had utilized his own special skills by ordering in dessert and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He’d also brought in bags of other things that he hadn’t let me see.
They’d pampered me. They’d taken care of my son, fed my sister while she fought them every step of the way, and stopped to kiss me so many times that I felt good and truly spoiled. I’d gone from crying to feeling like I’d won the lottery.
“If you don’t give them anal, I’ll denounce you as my sister.”
I’d just taken a drink of water and promptly choked on it. Coughing, I sat up and glared at Lydie. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
She pointed her finger at me. “I’m just saying. You’d better not be a prude. These men deserve anal if any man ever has.”
“Stop saying anal.”
“Anal, anal, anal!”
Jesse looked up and laughed at Lydie. “What’s anal, Aunt Lydie?”
“Something your mom is going to give-”
I slapped my hand over her mouth and squeezed her cheeks. “Oh, Aunt Lydie is just a nut, isn’t she? Why don’t you go get into your pjs, bud?”
Andrew was staring at me with his mouth slightly ajar and his eyebrows creeping up his forehead. Jack had stopped what he was doing in the kitchen to poke his head out and stare. Caleb came running out of my bedroom with a giant grin on his face. He opened his mouth to say something and then froze when Jesse grabbed his hand.
