what she was going to hear next. “What was the worst day?”
“I don’t think it’s my place to say.” It was one thing to tell Reagan’s mom her favorite color, or what she was scared of. It was totally different to reveal something so personal, especially since it involved the person I was telling.
Two crocodile sized tears fell down Tina’s face, she wiped them with the back of her hand. “Please, Billy. I know you don’t know me from a can of paint, but I’m asking, no begging, you to tell me. I haven’t been a good mama to Fancy. If anything, she’s the one to always look after me. And it is killing me that I don’t know my own baby. I don’t have any idea what the worst day of her life was.” Her shoulders shook as she cried silently.
Years behind the bar had made me a pretty good judge of whether people were putting on a show or if they were for real. Tina might not’ve been a good mom, but she was being sincere now. Maybe it was because I lost my mama that seeing one in this much pain killed me, or maybe I was just a sucker. I would beg Reagan to forgive me later, but I had to tell this broken woman what she was asking.
I handed her a handkerchief I kept in my back pocket.
“Thank you.” She sniffed and wiped her face.
“It was when she was six years old. She woke up and you were unconscious on the couch. She found a bottle of pills beside you and called the ambulance. She thought you were dead.”
“Oh my God.” Tina gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
“It gets worse.” I warned her. “Do you want me to continue?”
She nodded.
“She called 911 and when the ambulance showed up, they were trying to resuscitate you. She got scared and decided to run to her babysitter’s.”
“Miss Darla,” Tina breathed.
“I think so, yeah. On her way she saw her father. He was putting signs up for an open house. She confronted him and he rejected her. She thought you were gone and her father didn’t want her. That was the worst day of her life.”
Instead of breaking down completely, like I’d expected her to do, she took a deep breath and sat up taller. “Thank you for telling me. I just have one more question.”
“What’s that?” My stomach turned at what she might want me to reveal next.
“Do you love my daughter?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. That was the easiest question she could’ve asked. “I love your daughter.”
CHAPTER 52
Reagan
“There you are!” I exclaimed as I opened the door. “It’s after one. Where have you been? I was calling you. I even went out looking for you.”
My mom walked into my room and looked around. “Did Blaine leave?”
“Yeah. Four hours ago. Where were you? I’ve been worried.” Logically, I knew she was a grown woman who theoretically could take care of herself. But, when I called her phone and went out looking for her, I’d had flashbacks of all the times I hadn’t known where she was when I was a kid. I’d gotten that same sick, panicky feeling.
“Sorry. I sort of lost track of time.”
She lowered down onto the bed and for the first time I noticed how sad she looked. Heartbroken, actually. Even though I knew that it wasn’t really my fault, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. “Look Mama, I’m sorry. I know that you really love Blaine and wanted me to—”
“I don’t love Blaine. I never even liked Blaine.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“He’s a condescending prick that thinks his shit don’t stink.”
“Mama!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“What? It’s the truth.”
I stared at her in shock and disbelief. The woman sitting in front of me was not the woman who raised me. I didn’t know who this woman was or what she’d done with my mother. Feeling a little off balance, I decided to take a seat in the chair across from her.
My mom’s head was down and when she lifted it I could see tears in her eyes. “He loves you, you know.”
There she was. Tina was back. “You just said that he’s a condescend—”
“Not Blaine.” She waved her hand. “Billy. Billy loves you.”
“How do you…what are you talking about?”
“I went to see him. At his bar.”
“You went to see Billy? Why?”
Great. Not only had Blaine and my mom shown up at his house and ruined his