Fake Love - Jaxson Kidman Page 0,45

raced so fast, I even considered luring him out onto one of the piers and pushing him off. Letting him fall into the water, hoping he hit his head so hard he passed out and then… drowned.

I had to stop thinking.

I touched my forehead and shut my eyes.

“Winter?” Gia asked. She grabbed my hand. “What’s wrong?”

“Headache.”

“From the accident?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Let’s go back to your house then.”

I opened my eyes. “Can we go to yours?”

“Uh, sure,” she said.

“I just don’t want to deal with my mother,” I said.

“And you want to deal with mine?” Gia asked.

“I haven’t met your mother yet…”

Gia grabbed my hand. “Well, then you’re in for a treat.”

I needed a distraction. And another hot mess of a single mother was just the trick for that.

Plus, I kind of wanted to see where Gia lived.

The whole idea of being neighbors or being two houses away didn’t mean much.

The beach houses were big with plenty of space between them, so it wasn’t the same as a normal neighborhood where the houses were close to one another.

As we closed in on Gia’s beach house, I let out a whistle.

“Shut up,” she said.

“This is nice,” I said. “Does that deck go all the way around the house?”

“Of course it does,” she said. “Private entrances and exits…”

“Look at you,” I said.

“Oh, stop,” Gia said with a laugh. “Like you’re one to talk.”

“Should we start arguing about it?” I asked. “Who is richer and more of a bitch?”

“Well, you win in the bitch department,” Gia said. “You’re the one sleeping with a Troc and talking to the Bumps like normal.”

“I am not sleeping with anyone,” I called out.

“Well that’s a damn shame,” a voice said.

I gasped and turned.

There was a woman wearing big sunglasses with her hair blowing all over the place in the beach breeze. She was literally in nothing but her bra and panties. Her skin was very tan from the sun. Necklaces hung down into her very ample cleavage. Her legs slightly parted, her arms outstretched, just standing there.

“Gia?” I whispered to her.

Gia sighed. “Hey there, Mom.”

The woman was stunning.

Much prettier than my mother.

My mother looked her age. She looked like someone trying to be someone else. She was pretty, sure, but this woman was…

“What are you doing?” Gia asked.

“Loading up on my vitamins,” her mother said. She quickly took her sunglasses off. “You don’t need pill bottles. Just the earth. My feet are grounded. The sun is covering me with vitamin D. And the ocean is just… perfect.” She then looked at me and smiled. “That’s not the only D I’m looking for to cover me, right?”

My eyes widened.

“Oh, Mom, stop,” Gia said. “You’re being weird because I have a friend here.”

“A friend, huh?”

“This is Winter,” Gia said.

“Tina’s daughter,” Gia’s mother said. She moved toward me and stuck her hand out. “I’m Val.”

“Val,” I said as I shook her hand.

“You’re really not sleeping with anyone?” Val asked. “I mean, biologically… instinctively… naturally…”

“Mom,” Gia said.

“Sorry,” Val said. “But, really quick, you’re at least self-handling things, right?”

I was uncomfortable… yet comfortable.

I could see why my mother and Val knew each other.

I could also see them dolling themselves up, going out on the hunt for guys ten, fifteen years younger than them. Guys who would listen to whatever weird stuff Val had to say because, honestly, if her shirt was low cut enough, who wouldn’t listen, right?

“Why are you naked?” Gia asked.

“This is not naked,” Val said. “I should be naked. But Carolyn next door is a rotten cunt and will call the police again.”

“Again?” I asked.

“It was a moonlight celebration,” Val said.

“I told you we shouldn’t have come here,” Gia said.

Val clapped her hands. “No, no. You two stay. I’ll get out of your hair. I’m going to shower and embrace what’s left of today.”

Then she hugged me.

Which explained where Gia got the whole hugging someone whether they want it or not thing.

Her mother’s skin smelled like honeysuckle.

She then walked up the deck and went inside.

“I can give you the tour if you want,” Gia said. “Or we can just hang out here. You’ve met my mother, so the worst is over.”

“I get it, Gia,” I said. “She doesn’t seem as nasty as my mother though.”

“Just weird, right?” Gia asked.

“That’s one way to put it. What happened there?”

“Well… um… my father took off on us,” Gia said. She looked to the ocean. “He just decided he didn’t want to be a father. So that was that. I think my mother