The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,23
of the stools, drooling over the food she’d prepared. It was quite a spread for the middle of the day. “Age is only a number,” I flirted.
“That’s it,” she said as she turned and pointed her spatula at me. “No dessert for you.”
“What if I told you forty-five was the new thirty-five and that you don’t look a day over twenty-five?”
“I’d say you have two slices of my lemon meringue coming your way.” She winked before turning off the stove and wiping her hands on the bright blue apron wrapped around her waist. “Your mother would be proud, you know,” she gently said, and I was glad my mouth was full of her tender, juicy chicken, saving me from having to respond. “Before you, there was no one to look out for us.” She palmed my cheek when I couldn’t hide my surprise at the emotion in her voice and finally met her tearful gaze. “No one to care as much as you do.”
“It’s nothing,” I said, shrugging as if that proved my point.
“You don’t believe that. I know you must wonder, just as I do, that if someone had been here to stand up for us all those years ago, your mom might still be with us today.”
“Enough,” I snapped. Wiping my mouth with a cloth napkin, I regained my footing while holding Irma’s gaze. “There was nothing you nor I could have done to change what happened. It was an accident.”
She looked away just as a lone tear escaped her eye. Irma had been my mom’s best friend and another one of Fox’s escorts until he deemed her too old to turn a profit. Most women would have taken their freedom and ran for the hills, but Irma had refused to leave the girls and became their unofficial house mother instead. Before Kendra, Irma was Fox’s top girl, but even she had been expendable. My mom…she lost some of her value when she fell in love with the wrong man and had his baby.
“Stop that,” I said before pulling Irma into my arms. “She wouldn’t want you blaming yourself or getting upset again.”
“Oh, you’re right.” She wiped her eyes and stepped away. “Finish your food,” she ordered once she’d regained control of her emotions. “I’ll get your room ready and put fresh sheets down.”
“Don’t bother,” I told her as I dropped down onto the stool. “I’m not staying.”
Irma insisted on keeping my mother’s old room free for whenever I chose to stay a few nights. The unspoken reason had to do with me losing my shit the day I met Kendra. I’d caught her not only escorting a john from my mother’s room but wearing the robe I’d saved up my allowance to surprise her one Christmas. I hadn’t reacted well, and Kendra being Kendra hadn’t docilely stood by while I raged and, in return, spewed venom of her own. I apologized the next day by gifting her a silk robe three times more expensive, and Kendra had graciously accepted my apology by relieving me of my virginity. The next day, she moved out of my mom’s room despite my protests, and Irma has been sure to keep it empty ever since.
“Then you be sure to tell Winny that I said hello,” she ordered, referring to my grandmother, who lived out in New Jersey.
“I will,” I promised, not bothering to correct her on where I was actually headed.
Satisfied, Irma floated from the kitchen, likely on the hunt for someone else in need of mothering.
I was busy scarfing down the rest of my food when my phone buzzed in my pocket a few minutes later. Deciding whoever it was could wait, I continued eating. Five minutes later, my phone buzzed again, followed by a third, fourth, and fifth, each spaced less than a minute apart. Shoving aside my nearly empty plate, I released a string of curses as I yanked my phone from my jeans.
There was only one person this eager, or rather impatient, to get a hold of me.
And I knew she’d shamelessly ring my phone back to back until the battery eventually died if she had to. A part of me wanted to believe she did it because she was frantic with worry, but I knew the little shit just didn’t like being ignored. Besides, she would never admit to being worried about me anyway.
As I left the kitchen and headed for the front door, I bypassed reading the texts she’d sent and stabbed the video call