Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,125

still wrapped around her, and spit flies from her mouth as she shouts, “Get out!”

Shifting on the bed, the hairy-ass bastard that was just up on my mom is reaching for his pants. He stops moving as my pissed-off attention switches to him. “How do you know her?”

“Don’t answer.” Mom wipes at her nose, an indication she’s about to ugly cry.

I raise the bat to my ear again, and there’s no doubt he reads in my expression that I’d have no problem swinging it and pounding him into next week. “How do you know her?”

His hands shake as he tries to put his pants on, but he’s trashed as well. Some sweaty, middle-aged guy with a beer gut was just on my mom, and I’m kicked in the gut when I spot the gold ring on his left hand. “How do you know her?!” I yell.

“At the bar. We met at the bar.”

“When?”

He glances at my mom for an answer, for affirmation, but I’m running this show. Not her. I step toward him, and he scrambles back on the bed until he hits the wall. “Tonight. We met tonight.”

“How many nights does she go to a bar and pick up men like you?”

“I … I don’t know.” He looks at Mom again, and as I start to swing he throws up his arms for protection. “A lot. She’s there a lot, but this is my first time going home with her.”

First time—for him. How many nights after Lucy fell sleep, after I fell asleep with earbuds in did this happen? Monsters. My mom was bringing home the monsters. I point the bat at the door. “Get out.”

“You can’t tell him to leave. I’m your mother!”

“Yeah, and you suck at it!”

The man grabs his shirt, his shoes, and leaves his socks behind. There must be one brain cell working because the man bolts.

“I’m a grown woman!” she screams at me. “I have the right!”

“To leave in the middle of the night? To not even tell us where you’re going? How often do you do this, Mom? How many nights have you brought strangers into our house in the middle of the night with you drunk as hell to screw some guy while Lucy slept down the hall? What type of mother brings that type of danger into our home?”

Everything I had explained away for months comes crashing down on me. “The money, Mom? Was it really just an error or have you been drinking it away? Is Dad the liar or are you? He’s been sending the child support checks and you’ve been lying to me about it, haven’t you?”

Mom picks up the speaker, throws it at me, but I duck and it breaks into pieces when it hits the wall. “Get out of here!”

Gladly. I throw the bat at the wall and it leaves a hole in the drywall.

VERONICA

Lucy’s wrapped tight in one of my blankets and is sitting on my lap. Unable to sleep after my conversation with Glory, I answered my cell on the first ring. My heart had skipped a beat. I sent Sawyer away and that one ring caused me to want to take it all back. But then I heard Lucy’s terrified voice, followed quickly by the sound of her banging on the door.

Dad didn’t listen to Lucy’s pleas that he stay with us. He was down the stairs before I could gather Lucy in my arms. Besides shouting up at me to stay here and that things were under control, I haven’t heard again from either him or Sawyer. Each second that passes is marked by a heart palpitation.

The door to our apartment opens, and we whip our heads in that direction. Dad enters first. His weary eyes meet mine and I say a silent prayer of thanks that he’s okay. He steps to the side and Sawyer walks in. It’s Sawyer, but not Sawyer. There’s no joy in his eyes, no smile full of life. He’s grim and looks as if he’s aged. On his shoulder is an overstuffed backpack and in his hands is an equally overstuffed duffel bag.

Lucy slides off of my lap as I stand. Another heart palpitation, but this one so painful, I grip my chest. “What happened? Why are you packed?”

Sawyer drops to his knees and holds out his arms as Lucy runs into them. They hug like two people who have gone to war and seen terrible atrocities. They hug as if it’s the one reason the