me was curious as to why; the other part didn’t want to know.
“If I recall, you’re the one who left me hanging last month,” I mumbled as I took off my coat and nodded to Alan, who was sitting in his man cave, watching us closely.
“I had a good excuse,” she said, smiling.
“There’s never a good excuse,” I told her. “Where’s Abby?”
“A date,” Paige stated, her nose scrunching as she said it.
Wait. What? “A date, huh? Since when did she start dating? Where’re they going? Did you meet him?”
Paige looked at me, grinning. I knew I’d just sounded like a terrified parent, but what the fuck? When had my niece started dating?
“Yes, I met him.”
“That’s the question you chose to answer?” I rolled my eyes at her. “And…” I chuckled, placing my arm around Paige’s shoulders and steering her toward the kitchen.
“And nothing. It’s a date.”
“What about the kid? Is he nice? Does he have a rap sheet? Any visible tattoos?”
Paige smacked me in the chest. “He’s a nice young man.”
“It won’t last,” I told her, laughing. “No girl wants a nice boy.”
“You don’t know how true that is,” Paige snapped. “And that’s the problem.”
Before I could interrogate her more about Abby’s date, we had made it into the overly bright kitchen, where Deborah was in the process of pouring something from a container into a large metal pot.
“What’d you make?” I inquired, watching her carefully.
As usual, my mother jumped, nearly sending the thick brown liquid all over the floor. Luckily, my cat reflexes chose that moment to kick in, and I managed to secure it before that happened.
“Stew,” Deborah remarked softly, and I knew instantly that something was wrong, but I had no idea whether or not I wanted to know what it was.
“Smells fantastic, Mom,” Paige inserted, saving me from having to ask.
“Thanks.”
I glanced at Paige, but my sister merely shrugged.
“So, Abs tells me you went away for the weekend,” Paige prompted.
“That kid’s got a big mouth.” I maneuvered around the counter and took a seat at the bar beside her.
“Yes, well. She’s fifteen, what’d you expect?”
“A little discretion would’ve been nice.”
“Who’d you go away with?” my mother asked.
“A friend,” I said quickly. Both women stopped suddenly and stared at me. “What?” I didn’t understand why they were looking at me as though that were a crime.
“A woman friend?” Paige inquired.
“Yes. A woman friend. Are you happy now?”
“No,” she retorted. “And I won’t be until you tell me who she is and when you’re gonna put a ring on her finger.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I didn’t look my sister in the eye when I said that because she knew me all too well. I didn’t talk about women. Ever. And generally, if she mentioned marriage in any way, shape, or form, I sneered at her.
I hadn’t sneered.
In fact, for the first time in my life, the thought of marriage didn’t terrify me. I’d finally accepted that Presley was different than all the other women I’d met, and I was ready to figure out where this was going.
Not that I would share that detail with my sister or my mother. Or anyone, for that matter.
“She’s the one Josie was talking about. Cute and covered in tattoos.”
I didn’t comment.
“So, is it serious?”
It was for me, but I didn’t comment on that, either.
Paige’s eyes widened, but before she could contribute her two cents, my mother tossed a metal spoon into the pan—the clang making my ears ring—then snatched it up and carried it to the kitchen table before I had a chance to get up and help her. Once again I looked at my sister, trying to see if she had a read on what my mother’s issue was. It was something, I knew that for a fact, but again, I wasn’t sure I wanted the details.
“Alan, get your ass in here to eat!” Deborah yelled, not bothering to look down the hall.
Well, okay then. It appeared that my mother’s issue had to do with husband number nine. Didn’t surprise me.
I stood beside Paige, waiting for Alan to appear.
He didn’t.
Aww, hell.
It looked like there was trouble in paradise. The honeymoon phase was over, and this could possibly be a record for my mother. They were ten months into the marriage, and she no longer seemed infatuated with the guy. The last marriage of hers that had lasted that long had been with Paige’s father, and my mother had always insisted he was simply wild and untamable.