"If you'd gone to jail for beating him in the parking lot I would have been stuck here by myself." She gave him a tight smile as she turned to rinse her plate in the sink. "Finish eating. The mall opens in forty-five minutes. If we don't want to have to walk two miles to get to the door we'd better get there early."
"You wanna drive?”
"Nope."
"It's YOUR car."
"I'll drive it. Eventually. Someone's going to have to drive it when we come back here to pick it up right?"
"Women are ridiculous."
"And what are men that refuse to eat their breakfast?" She looked pointedly at the half a cinnamon roll that was still sitting on his plate.
"This isn't breakfast. Breakfast is what I made the other day at my house. Eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast."
"You want me to see what he's got in the fridge for a real breakfast?" She gave him a look of warning.
"Nah, I'll just eat this shit."
"See if I ever make you breakfast again." She turned her back on him.
"You put some cinnamon rolls on a pan and stuck them in the oven Tory. I'm not trying to offend you by not eating it, I'm just not hungry."
"Eat the damn thing Tony. We're not leaving until you finish it. And he doesn't have a dog so you can't throw it under the table when I'm not looking."
"You sound like a mother. How 'bout we make a deal Tor? I'll finish the cinnamon roll if you drive."
They spent another day wandering the mall. Tory was tempted to sneak back to the jewelry store when Tony was in the bathroom to see if she could sweet talk the salesman into telling her what ring Tony had bought for her, but she decided against it, thinking that she hadn’t even wanted the ring in the first place, right?
They arrived back at the house, early in the evening. Langston wasn’t home and Tory was a little worried that something bad had happened between he and her psychotic mother. Tony could see that she was upset, but decided not to mention it directly. “You wanna see what's on TV while we wait for Langston?"
"Fine."
"I'm sure he'll be home soon." He squeezed her hand.
But he wasn't. It was midnight by the time she woke up on the couch because Tony was trying to move her head off of his shoulder.
"Sorry baby. I really gotta pee."
"It's okay." She yawned. She glanced at the clock. “It's midnight and he's not home? Did my mom screw shit up that bad for him?"
He sighed. "I tried to call him an hour or so ago to make sure everything was okay, but it went straight to voice mail."
"I'm going to bed."
"Yeah, me too."
"Are you gonna be able to sleep with all that caffeine?" She was teasing, but then she looked at his face and she stopped. "Tony are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Tor."
"No you're not. You're sweating. If you're hot Tony, turn the heat down."
"I already did. I got up and moved you once already when I called Langston. I did it then."
"Turn it down more."
"Then you'll freeze."
"I've got plenty of blankets Tony. I'll survive."
"I'm really craving a high."
"Oh baby.” She put her arms around him. "Do you want me to stay with you? I'll sleep on the floor.”
“I'll open the window and probably go out a thousand times to smoke tonight but I'll be okay."
"I won't be able to sleep when I’m worrying about you.”
"Yes, you will. I just have to get through the next couple of days and the physical shit will go away. Then it'll all be in my head and I'll be able to deal with it. I am going to buy a fat bag of some really good weed for myself when we get back, though. Go to bed, Tor. You're tired. Take some more of that cold medicine. You were really snoring again."
She sighed. "Then I'll be knocked out. What if you need me?"
"I'll always need you sweetheart. It's just tonight. Then we'll go back to my house. My nights will be a hell of a lot easier to get through because you'll be right there beside me."
"Until I go back to school."
"Don't remind me. I gotta piss baby." He leaned down to give her a kiss. "I love you Tory. Goodnight."
"I love you too. Goodnight Tony."
With a sigh she went down the hall to her room. She passed on the cold medicine and climbed into bed, figuring she'd lay there for hours without falling asleep. But she was asleep when a soft knock sounded at her door an hour later. They knocked again and she sat up. "Who is it?"
"It's me baby. Can I come in?"
"Of course.” She threw back the covers.
Tony came in, shirtless and barefoot. She got up off the bed and put her arms around him. He was shaking and his bare chest was freezing.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"No. I feel sick. Nauseous, shaky and I want to get high so fucking badly. Just one hit."
"Oh Tony." Then she pulled back. "Is Langston still not home?"
"No. I called him when I went outside for a cigarette but it went to voicemail again."
"I hope he's okay. Someone would have called if he'd been in an accident right?"
"Yeah. Can I lay with you for a while? I need to hold you."
"Of course. I don't give a shit if Langston doesn't like it."
"I'm sure he'd understand Tor."
"Yeah. Do you want me to open the window?"
"No. Yes. I'm freezing but I'm hot too."
She pulled back her curtains and pushed open the window. She took Tony's hand. He followed her to her small bed, lying down with a sigh. She started to lie next to him and then got up and locked her door. She lay down with him, pulling the covers up around them. "Is that too hot?"
"No baby, its fine. I'll be fine with you next to me. I love you Tory.” He pulled her back against him.
She turned her head to look at him, but his eyes were already drifting closed. She settled back into his arms and closed her eyes. When she woke up three hours later and glanced at her clock, Tony wasn't in bed. She got up, worried that something was wrong, and went out into the hallway.
Chapter 17
"Slut," a voice said from the doorway of Langston's room. Tory turned and saw her mother, drink in hand, red end of her cigarette glowing. "I knew you were no better than a good for nothing whore. I saw the way he looked at you and knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that you weren't sleeping together. But you couldn't wait until you got back to his roach infested studio apartment could you? You had to fuck him under my roof."
She looked at her mother, stunned into silence, and heard the toilet flush in her bathroom. Tony came out into the hallway, looking back and forth from her mother to her, looking almost as uncomfortable as he had when he'd stuck his foot in his mouth in front of Langston.
She moved to Tony’s side and squeezed his hand. "I didn't fuck him. He's sick and I didn't want him to be alone. It was my idea."
"I knew it," Lindsey said. "You've always had too much of your father in you."
"There's no way in hell I could ever have enough of my father in me unless it shut out your DNA completely. I just told you I didn't fuck him."
"Ma'am," Tony said. "I promise you we didn't do anything. I'm sorry. I really am not feeling well."
Lindsey waved a hand to dismiss Tony's words. Tory said "Don't apologize to her. It's not her house anymore. She's leaving the only decent husband she’s had by the side of the road."
"Now you're defending that fool?" Lindsey said. "First, you think that your father is perfect and then you think that Langston cares about you? Are you sleeping with him too?"
Tory wanted to smack the shit out of her. "Yes Lindsey, I am. I'm screwing my father too. You know the one that I haven't seen in five years. The one that you chased away from me. You've ruined everything in my life that was ever decent."
"You are such an ungrateful little bitch." Lindsey took another sip of her drink. "I've given you everything a girl could ever want."
"Except the most important t
hings Mother. Attention, affection, love."
Lindsey snorted. "Are you kidding me?"
“Of course I am." Tory sighed. “The fact that you asked me that further proves my point. By the way, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to leave your stepfather with a memorable goodbye."
"So you met him at a bar and came back here and screwed him and then said I want a divorce? Why don't you go back to your twenty-five year old computer genius?"
Lindsey laughed. "He was just a fling. A woman has to do some things to make her feel young every once in a while."
"And you're calling me a slut? You're the one who's still married to Langston, screwing one guy and planning to marry another. How did my father stand to be around you?"
"You seem to think that your father is perfect. But he's the furthest thing from it. Your father was a disgusting pervert."
"Like I'm going to believe anything that you say. You probably don't like men. Maybe Aunt Brenda was trying to warn Dad away from you because she wanted you for herself."
Lindsey almost choked on the sip that she'd taken from her drink. "How dare you say something so vile and disgusting, you little bitch."
Tory could feel Tony tense up beside her. She looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. This had been coming for years now, best to get it over with she thought. “Why is it so disgusting mother? I didn't realize you were a homophobe. Or is it because I'm right?"
Lindsey drained the rest of her drink, lighting another cigarette. "Such blatant crap doesn't deserve a response."
"I feel the same way about everything you say to me Lindsey."
"You've got to be good for something other than screwing my daughter." Lindsey looked at Tony. "Get me another drink."
Tory moved in front of Tony, blocking him from taking the glass from Lindsey's outstretched hand. "Don't you listen? He is ill. He is not going to wait on you hand and foot while he is ill. Get over yourself and go get your own damn drink. I'd do it, but I think I saw some rat poison under the sink in the kitchen. I might have an urge to mix some up with your drink, being your daughter."
Lindsey laughed. "I think you got your lunacy from your father."
"Wow, so now I'm a lunatic and a slut, both qualities that you've exhibited in spades in the last few days. But they've got to come from my dad? You are freaking ridiculous mother. Here" She sighed, reaching out for her mother's glass. "Give me your damn cup. I promise I won't poison you." Lindsey handed her the glass. "You leave him alone. Tony, you can go back in my room if you want to, to lie down. I'm sure this won't take long."
"He most certainly will not," Lindsey said. "If he wants to lie down he can go to his own damn room."
"You want me to wake Langston up and tell him how rude you're being? Tony never did anything to you. He's done everything he could to deserve Langston's respect. You're making the choice to divorce Langston. What right do you have to boss people around when it's not your house anymore?"
"We're still married so it is still my house young lady. Your stepfather had a bit too much to drink tonight. I don't think he's going to be up and around for a while.”
"Did you slip the date rape drug in his drink?" Tory gave her mother a tight smile.
"Hardly. Make sure you use the good scotch and not that crap that your boyfriend bought. With three ice cubes and a splash of water."
"Quit insulting him. Has he said one bad thing about you? No, he's been nothing but polite. He defends you like my dad does. No one thinks you can be as bad as you really are. Pretty damn funny isn't it Mother?"
"Do you really hate your mother that much?" Tory didn’t think that Lindsey looked as if she cared one way or the other.
"Yes, because my mother made me." Tory turned her back on Lindsey and headed to the stairs. She turned back, ignoring her mother and looking at Tony. "Do you want anything Tony? A bottle of water? Maybe Langston's got some ginger ale or something to settle your stomach."
"No thanks Tor."
Tory nodded, hurrying down the stairs because she didn't want to leave Tony alone with her mother for a minute longer than necessary. She wished he'd go back to bed. But she knew there was no way he was going to leave her alone with her intoxicated mother who had so recently tried to take her husband's head off with an ashtray.
She filled her mother's drink, leaving out the water on purpose and putting in five ice cubes. She also made sure that she poured from the bottle that Tony had bought for Langston. Then she pulled two bottles of a sports drink out of the fridge and carried it all back upstairs, shoving the drink in her mother's hand and then giving Tony his choice of the red or the blue sports drink. He chose the red, remembering that she preferred the blue and murmured a quiet "Thank you."
Lindsey lit another cigarette, having found an ashtray somewhere. "How are you still alive mother?" Tory asked. "You must weigh a hundred pounds, you smoke like a chimney and drink like a fish."
"You probably wish I wasn't," Lindsey muttered.
Tory shrugged, ignoring the look that Tony gave her. "I find it hard to find an ounce of sympathy for you anymore. You've got a good man that loves you; yet you try to kill him. He should have pressed charges; gotten a restraining order. But he came when you called him didn't he? After he spent all day trying to piece together the deal that you managed to screw up for him."
"Is that what he told you? That it was all me? He never has his shit together and conducts business like an idiot at informal meetings at bars and restaurants. It's my fault that he failed?"
Tory sighed again, already tiring of listening to her mother. "You never do anything wrong, right Lindsey? It hasn't been you that's been divorced three times. It hasn't been you that made my father not fight for custody. It hasn't been you that made me wish almost anyone else in the world had given birth to me right?"
"Your father made his own decisions. I never did or said anything that gave him any idea that he couldn't get custody of you."
"Yeah, right."
"You really don't know your father at all do you? Weren't you the one that left a message on my voicemail demanding to know about his ex-wife? Do you really want to hear the truth about your father Tory?"
"Sure. Lie to me some more."
"No, you don't want to hear the truth do you? You don't want to hear that your father didn't have a roof of his own to put over your head half of the time. You don't want to hear that your father was too busy chasing some stupid pipe dream to worry about having a real job. You don't want to hear how he bounced around from woman to woman and kept calling me, begging me to take him back, telling me how he'd never stopped loving me. You don't want to hear that he begged, borrowed and stole from his precious parents until they had almost nothing left. You really don't want to hear about how many times he's called me since they died, begging me to talk to Langston about a loan to get him started with whatever stupid idea he's got in his head at the time because he's so sure that this one is going to be the one that's finally going to make him rich. Your father is a pathetic loser; always has been, always will be."
"Shut up. My father is not like that."
Lindsey laughed, taking a deep drag of her cigarette. "When's the last time you were at any place he lived Tory? How often growing up were you able to answer someone when they asked what your father did for a living?"
"Like it would have been any easier if someone would have asked what you did. Dad could have been a panhandler and it still would have been more respectable than you. What right do you have to think you're so much better than him just because you've got someone else's money to spend? Don't try to tell me that you didn't sleep with all of them before you married them. What about the guys in between when you were getting divorced and you didn’t have one lined up with more money? You screw guys for money and you marry guys for more. You are no better than a whore yourself."
"You are so naive Tory. Rich men don't marry whores."
Tory laughed. "So that's your justification? Rich men don't
marry whores? I don't care if my dad was poor. I would have slept on the floor and worn thrift store clothes. Anything to be away from you. At least he loves me."
"Does he?"
"Don't you dare try to tell me that he doesn't."
"If he really loved you, wouldn't he have cared enough to get his shit together, instead of running after some stupid dream of his?"
"Like you loved me enough to marry a bunch of men who thought of your child as nothing but a nuisance? Why the hell was I born if neither of you love me?"
She could feel tears threatening to come, and she leaned back lightly against Tony.
"You don't want to hear that story either."
"What? That my dad raped you? That you probably wanted to have an abortion but he convinced you not to?"
"He didn't rape me." Lindsey sighed, taking a sip of her drink. If she could tell the difference between the supposedly good stuff and the still quite expensive Tony had bought, she wasn't saying anything. "I never wanted to abort you. He trapped me, plain and simple. Another man had turned my head. The only way he thought he could keep me was if I was pregnant with his child."
“How exactly does that work?"
"I was young; things were different. Birth control wasn't available to every teenage girl who thinks that birth control is a justification for having unprotected sex. He convinced me that he had it covered, that the condoms he was using were perfectly safe. I don't think it was that the condoms weren't working. I think he did it on purpose. Poked a hole in one of the damn things, probably more than once to make sure it took."
"You didn't have to keep having sex with him if you didn't want to, especially if you wanted someone else."
"You don't get it Tory. It wasn't that I didn't love your father. It's that I was eighteen years old and tired of my life. I wanted something better and no matter how much I loved him and whether you want to believe it or not, I did; I knew that he could never give me the security that I needed."
"You don't mean security. You mean big houses, fancy cars, cold hard cash and credit cards with no limits. There's a difference Lindsey."
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 130
