AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When Callum doesn’t respond, my mother looks carefully at Weston and in a calculating voice asks him, “How did you come by such a nice, big house like this on your own? Did you get the house in your divorce settlement or something?”
“Mom! That’s unbelievably rude!”
Weston eyes her with a flat expression and answers simply. “No. I am not and have never been married. Good night, Ms. Feeney.”
“I told you to call me Maggie, cutie pie.” Her voice is saccharine.
“That’s okay, Ms. Feeney. You can call me Dr. Alister, and we’ll be even.”
“Oh! Adoctor. Now I understand.”
“That’s doubtful. Good night,” he retorts and heads up the stairs. His footsteps are a little clompy-er than usual. She seems to really get under Weston’s skin in the worst way. I can hardly blame him.
I start to follow Weston as I call, “Good night, Mom,” over my shoulder, but as I look back, she is reaching for Callum’s arm.
“Feel free to come back down, handsome, and we’ll get better acquainted,”she whispers to him none-too-quietly. I get the feeling she wants me to hear but wants to make the appearance of being sly about it.
Shaking loose from her, he answers clearly, “Thanks anyway. My dance card is already booked for the whole night. Sleep tight,ma’am.”
She makes an audible gasp, and I try my best to suppress the fit of giggles about to choke me.
Callum and the dogs scurry up the steps behind me.
Twenty-Six
Weston
After dealingwith Petra’s annoying mother, we’re all in grumpy moods, and it’s still relatively early anyway. So Callum and I snuggle into the big bed with Petra in the middle to stream a movie on my laptop. “I’ll take the dogs out one last time when this is over,” I tell them.
Unfortunately, the movie turns out to be boring, and Petra falls asleep before we make it halfway through. Then Callum zones out well before it ends. They look so peaceful I can’t bring myself to disturb them. It’s been a long-ass day with Maggie showing up and demanding attention from everyone. I wonder what her real story is. She seems as fake as Petra is real. If they didn't look a lot alike, I’d swear they were from completely different gene pools.
I turn off the movie and ditch the laptop, slide out of bed, and grab a pair of shorts. Then I pat my thigh quietly to get the dogs’ attention. On the way to the back door, I check and see that it’s all dark and quiet in the lower level, so I assume Maggie isfast asleep. With the dogs taken care of, we make our way back upstairs where I slip back into bed.
But I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking about how Petra grew up with this infuriating woman for a mother. She comes across as self-serving, fake, and clueless. She doesn’t seem to have an affectionate bone in her body, so why would a woman like that even want to be a mother? Hours go by as I ponder their strange family dynamics and decide I’m actually quite impressed with Petra’s resiliency and ability to show affection given her upbringing.
Suddenly, I hear soft growls coming from across the room. In the darkness, I see the form of Goliath rise up from his dog bed and prowl toward the bedroom door. The growling becomes louder, and then Gus is also on his feet and flanking Goliath, who is now scratching at the door. Dave is still sound asleep with his head thrown back, his belly bared, and all four feet in the air. Once again, I slip out of bed and into a pair of shorts.
Ever so quietly, I open the bedroom door and see a crack of dim light appearing under Petra’s bedroom door—a door that is usually left open when Petra’s not in the room. Turning around, I confirm that Petra is still in my bed with Callum, so I know I didn’t nod off and miss her leaving somehow. I signal the dogs to go ahead of me and close my bedroom door as silently as possible behind us. As we get closer to Petra’s room, I can hear faint sounds of exasperated swearing.
I open the door and discover—much to my total lack of surprise—that Maggie is sitting at Petra’s computer and the screen is open to a banking site. She does not seem to have been able to break in, however, as there is a large error message on the screen saying she has exceeded the number of attempts she can make without having the proper login information. Her body language goes instantly from frustrated to startled when shewhips her head around and sees me staring at her, surrounded by two large growling dogs.
“Trying to steal from your daughter? Nice move.”
“Nothing of the sort. The door was open. I’m still messed up with jet lag, so I just wanted to check my emails and make sure my daughter has enough to get by. Of course, I’m not trying tostealfrom her.” She tries to convey her supposed innocence by making scoffing noises.
“You could have asked her.”
“Is she in your bed?”
“Poor deflection, and none of your fucking business.”
“Oh, then she must be with the other boy, and you’re jealous.”
“Callum isn’t a boy, and I’m not jealous. Now shall we try again? What the hell are you doing in Petra’s room at this hour trying to hack into her bank account? I’m about ten seconds away from calling the police.”
“Do that and I’ll say you were trying to rape me. Petra won’t like that much, will she?”
I roll my eyes. “She’swaysmarter than that.” I advance on Maggie and grab the laptop. I close it, snatch it up, and unplug it. “She has some vitally important work files on her laptop, so I’ll just take this now. I suggest you head back to bed, and if you leave tomorrow, I’ll refrain from telling Petra what a cockroach her mother is. If you spend one more night in this house, all bets are off.”
