by Lexie Davis
I rolled my eyes and walked toward him. “I was admiring you. That’s not being creepy.”
“Staring is always creepy.” He grabbed me and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me. “Your phone has been buzzing nonstop.”
“Who’s calling me?”
“I have no idea. I’m not a snoop.”
I scoffed, hugging him a moment before moving away. “It’s not snooping. I don’t have anything to hide.”
He didn’t say anything as he closed the fridge door. “It’s Saturday. Did you need to work? I just assumed you were off.”
“I am.” I grabbed my phone from the coffee table. I had several messages from my realtor, wanting to set up a meeting. I had a few messages from work. The one message that caught my attention, however, was from my brother Joe.
Mom’s back.
I clicked on his number and waited for him to answer.
“What do you mean Mom’s back?” I asked him without preamble.
“Exactly what I said.” Joe paused a moment, the commotion in the background growing less as if he had walked away from it. “She showed up on Dad’s doorstep this morning. Told him she was sorry. Started crying on him and begging for forgiveness.”
“What did Dad do?”
Taylor walked around the corner slowly, listening to my end of the conversation.
“He believed her. They’re having breakfast together. She told him she wanted to come back home. That she really screwed up and that things will be different.”
“Bullshit.”
“I know.” Joe sighed. “I don’t know what to say. She knows how to play her hand and she did it well.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“What are you going to do?” Joe asked me.
“You’ll see. I’ll be over there in a minute. Are you at his house?”
“Yeah. But you’re not going to talk any sense into him. He loves her. He’ll forgive her for anything.”
“I’ll be over in a minute.” I disconnected and met Taylor’s gaze. “My mom’s back in town. She gave my dad some sob story and wants him to take her back!”
He didn’t say anything. I shook my head, upset with the entire thing. I worked so hard to get the business back on track. I put my house up for sale to get the money we lacked. I did it all for my dad. There was no way I would let her waltz back into his life and ruin it all over again.
“She’s run out of money. I know it. She wants him to give her more so she can go back to doing whoever the fuck she was doing.”
Taylor watched me a moment. If he said something about me letting my dad live his life and be with whomever he wanted, I would punch him in the face. She was bad news for him. He couldn’t afford to let her back into his life.
“What?” I finally asked him.
He glanced toward the bedroom. “Maybe you should calm down before you go see them.”
“I am calm.”
He arched an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes. He took a step toward me and then another. I didn’t really want to be coddled. It was bad enough as it was that I worked so hard and sacrificed so much just for her to pop back into our lives when she needed more. It hurt. Deep inside, I hurt. If he touched me, it would all implode.
“Look.” Taylor held my gaze. “You can yell at me about her all you want. All I’m saying is get it all out now. Don’t yell at your dad. I believe he truly loves her. With that comes some blindness. Doug is a smart man. He knows how she is. But when you love someone, you accept their flaws as well as all the good stuff.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Yes.”
I lifted my attention to him. “If I took everything you had and ran off with some other guy only to come back to you because I needed more money, would you just take me back?”
Taylor licked his lips. “It’s hard to say because I know you wouldn’t do that.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Would I take you back?” He propped his hands on his hips. “Yes. Would we have issues to work on, oh hell yeah. Would I trust you? Probably not. You’d have to earn that back. Would I still love you? More than I ever thought I could.”
I shook my head. “That’s not fair.”
Taylor sighed. “Relationships are tough. You’re not in their relationship. You see your mother from the perspective of an outsider. She hurt your father and you’re protective of him. Hell, I get it. She hurt you and I’ve got a few choice words I’d like to say to her myself. But I’m not in your relationship with her. And you’re not in her relationship with your father.”
“So I just sit back and watch her destroy him?”
He licked his lips. “Have a conversation with him. Tell him how you feel without telling him how to feel about her. And I would say have a conversation with her too, but I don’t know if that would work right now. I personally think it would be a screaming match and that’s not good for anyone.”
I hated that he was right. I shook my head, folding my arms over my chest. Taylor was good for me in more than one way. I didn’t tell him how much I appreciated that.
“I wouldn’t take you back.” I chewed on my lower lip.
“I know.”
I lifted my head and met his gaze. “No. You don’t know. Like you said, I don’t believe you’d ever do that to me. But you can’t say you love someone and hurt them. Because it does hurt. Joe caught her screwing around with the guy in my father’s bed. She drained his bank account and took a credit card out in his name. She drained the garage bank account. Then she left. She told my father that she had been married since she was eighteen and she needed freedom.”
“Maybe,” Taylor commented. “But when you love someone, there’s mercy in the relationship. If you did all that to me, yeah, I’d be pissed. Reconciliation wouldn’t be automatic. I’d feel everything you’re feeling right now. But I love you. That doesn’t just go away when you’re hurt. It’s a choice and I choose to love you for exactly who you are. I don’t get to tell you how to treat me. I don’t get to tell you how to love me, even. It’s not a game of quid pro quo. That’s not how it works. Not the real stuff. You’re a great person and I have no doubts about you or us, but if something like this did happen, mercy definitely would come in to play. We all screw up.”
I thought about what he’d said while I took a shower. When I got out, I grabbed a towel and went to find him.
“What about you and your family? You don’t get along with them.”
Taylor glanced over at me from the sofa. “I get along with my mom. Mostly. I call her once a week. If my step-dad is around, she’ll call me back when he’s not. We have a conversation for about an hour, catching up with each other.” He shrugged.
I stood in the towel, confused. “When?”
“When do I talk to her? Sunday.”
Well, that explained why I didn’t know anything about it. Sunday was tomorrow. I clutched the towel at my breasts.
“I thought you weren’t good at love.”
“I’m not.” He changed the channel. “I just know what I feel for you. All I can go on is my experience.”
I brushed my wet hair from my face, doing my best to not cry. “Why is this so difficult?”
He sat the remote down and motioned for me to come to him. I walked toward him and he pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me. I laid my head on his shoulder, refusing to get emotional. Everything hurt. I didn’t like to admit it, but it did.
“Look.” He rubbed my back with one hand while the other clutched my ass. “You don’t have to solve the world’s problems right this second. You’re incredibly strong and full of love. It’s completely understandable that you’re hurt and you’re being protective so she doesn’t hurt you or anyone else again.”
He kissed my shoulder. “Just go have a conversation with them. I’ll be right here when you come back.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, tears filling my eyes. “I love you.”
He kissed my cheek. �
��I know.”
****
I entered my father’s house to a loud argument match between my brothers and my mom. My father tried to gain some semblance of control, but it didn’t work. Davy was hot about something and Mom gave as good as she got.
“What is going on?”
Everyone stopped when I stepped into the room. Joe glanced down to the floor while Davy and Mom shared a look. Dad simply stared at me with defeat.
“Mom’s trying to get dad to sell the garage,” Davy told me. “He’s considering too.”
I glanced at each member of my family. “Is that what you want? You want to sell what our grandfather built?”
“You said we were in the negative.” He swallowed. “I just thought it would be easier.”
“For whom?” Davy asked. “For her? Just so she can take the money you get and leave you high and dry again?”
“Why do you always make me out to be the villain, Davy?” our mother asked.
“Because you are!” Davy spat at her. “You’re not taking advantage of him again. He doesn’t have shit because of you and you’re not doing it. I’m not going to let you.”
I kept my attention on our father. “What do you want, Dad?”
I pocketed Taylor’s keys and waited for an answer. If he wanted to sell it, then I’d buy it. My brothers and Taylor would still have a place to work and my father could give my mom all the money so she could blow it like we knew she would. We knew she didn’t care about us or him. She talked too much about wanting freedom from her family to care.
“What do you want?” I asked him again. “Do you want to sell? If you do, I’ll buy it. You can take the money and give it to Mom like we all know you will. She’ll go back to her old ways and leave again. It’ll last a few months until she’s spent it all and she’ll be back. You won’t have anything. Joe will probably have to get legal rights to your finances because you wouldn’t be able to live on your own. Is that what you want?”
Davy and Joe stayed silent while we waited for my dad to speak. My mom glared at me, likely knowing everything I said was true. She always thought, if anyone, I had the power to sway my father away from her. Maybe I did. He usually listened to me. He usually took my advice.
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to sell. I just thought it would be easier on you.”
“Taylor and I have worked it all out.”
“Taylor?” My mom had the audacity to look shocked.
“Yes, Taylor,” I told her. “I moved in with him last night. I’m selling my house and I’ll use that money to get the garage back where it should be. It’s the logical option.”
“I’m surprised you went for the bad boy charm,” my mom told me, folding her arms over her chest. “You normally like the buttoned-up boring type.”
“Who I like is none of your concern.”
I focused on my dad. “Tell me what you want and we’ll do it.”
“I want to keep the garage.”
“But Doug, it’s time for you to retire. The kids can take care of themselves. We can travel the world together if you sell the garage.”
“I don’t want to travel the world.” He glanced over at her. “My family is right here and I’m staying with my family.”
Davy walked away from the group, heading outside. Joe kept his attention on our mother, so I went out after our brother. He stood against the railing of the porch and stared out at the desert landscape.
“She’s unbelievable.” Davy shook his head.
“Always has been.” I sat in the chair and waited for him to join me in the other chair.
“Are you really going to sell your house?”
“I’m speaking with a realtor today. I told Dad about it. He’s letting me use his shed for storage until I can figure out what to do with my stuff.”
“Does that mean you’re the owner?” Davy asked. “I have to work for you?”
I smiled. “Damn right. You’re my little minion now.”
He smiled, propping his head up on his palm. “Where’s Taylor?”
“I dropped him off at the garage. He’s fixing my car, finally. Maybe. I told him he wasn’t allowed to leave until I could drive it again.”
Davy chuckled. “Come on. Take me to the garage. I’ve got to get away from here.”
“Where’s your truck?” I asked him as we walked to Taylor’s.
“Joe picked me up. He came busting down the door to tell me Mom was back.”
I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine. “Well, Dad has the right to do what he wants. If he wants to go with her, then we have let him. It sucks, but she is his wife.”
“She should be in jail.”
“I agree, but what good will that do?” I drove toward the garage. “It sucks enough that she has control over him. It’d be worse if she was behind bars.”
“Yeah. She’d blame him and he’d feel guilty about it.” Davy rubbed a hand over his face. “Fuck.”
We didn’t say any more until we reached the garage. Taylor had the door open and a few cars had lined up for servicing. I glanced over at Davy, who shrugged. We got out and went inside to see what he was doing.
“You’re open for business?”
“Ted’s here.” He pointed to the back. “He’s doing the oil changes.”
“Oh.” I watched Taylor work on some wiring.
“How’d it go?” he asked me. “Are you two on the run? Should I be expecting the police to come any second now to pick you up?”
I smiled. “No. For now, it’ll work out. She didn’t get her way, so she’ll probably leave again.”
“Without money?” Taylor asked me.
“Joe will give her some,” Davy told him. “She’ll leave as long as she has money.”
Taylor glanced over at me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He didn’t believe me but didn’t say any more. He finished hooking up the wires and putting the dash back together before turning to me and motioning for me to try it out.
“See if it works.”
I sat in the driver’s seat and pushed the button. The car roared to life like a charm. I smiled. I closed the door and backed it out of the garage, parking it next to Taylor’s truck. Afterward, I went back to where he stood.
“Thank you.”
He leaned in to kiss me. “You’re welcome.”
I wrapped my arms around him, enjoying the feel of his body for a moment. He always made me feel safe. He folded his arms around me and kissed my forehead.
“I have to meet with the realtor.” I pulled away from him and instantly missed his warmth. “Are you staying here?”
“Yeah.” He propped his hands on his hips. “Davy will blow up the place if I don’t.”
My brother heard him and flipped him off. Taylor laughed.
“I’ll come back when my meeting is over then.” I swallowed. “Tomorrow, we’re sleeping in.”
He smiled at me. “I’m down with that.”
“I mean it. I’m not getting out of bed until two.” I gripped his shirt and tugged him closer. “And not all of that time is going to be spent sleeping.”
Taylor leaned in to kiss me. I loved the way he felt against me. For a moment, I didn’t have to care about anything and I liked that. He kissed me. Loved me. He made me feel like I mattered to him because I did. I longed to find a relationship like ours and I was so happy I finally had.
“We can stay in bed until two,” Taylor finally said. “But there’s nothing wrong with fucking other places than our bed.”
“Yeah? Where?”
He grinned, taking a step back. “I’m not telling. You’ll find out tomorrow, beautiful.”
Indeed, I would.
The End
www.lexiedavis.com
Other Books by Lexie Davis:
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