“I can assure you, I will never again see Garrett Flint, for as long as I live.”
Anger flashes in Prim’s eyes. “You never even cared about him, did you? All you cared about was getting laid. You were literally hitting on Brett Mitchel right in front of him.”
“First things first—I never intended to hit on Brett Mitchel. I was trying to make Garrett jealous because Eva was all over him. And I know it sounds like I was using him for sex, but honestly, if the situation were different, if things would have gone a little better, I would have asked him to move back to Hollywood with me.”
Prim looks perplexed. “Then why didn’t you?”
“Prim, you have no idea what it’s like to be estranged from your family for so long. It was never that I hated you guys, or didn’t want to talk to you…I just didn’t know how. I had no way of knowing how starting a relationship with Garrett would affect my relationship with you, Jake, and Pa. It was too great a risk.”
“I would have hated you,” she snaps.
“Yeah, but honestly, I dodged a bullet. You did too.”
I hand her my phone, which has an article already pulled up on it.
She gazes at my screen, her eyes growing large. “No…”
“Yes.”
“But-but—”
“He’s not the man I thought he was.”
“I just—how could he?”
“Prim, I wish I had the answer—”
“He lived in our house, ate our food, screwed the farmer’s daughter, and then he sells us out? I can’t believe he’s giving an interview!”
“I don’t wanna hear that language coming from you!” I snap.
“I’m sorry, does‘had an indiscretion with the farmer’s daughter’sound better.”
“A little—but don’t tell Ma I encouraged that vocabulary.”
“Garrett Flint—is done!”
“Um…look, Prim. We’re not gonna do any—”
“That mother fucker is gonna—”
My mother suddenly appears in the doorway, her eyes alight with fury. “You better watch that language, Missy!”
And if I wasn’t already on my mother’s shit list—I am now.
“Oh, don’t you go looking away, Miss Ali Kat.”
It was the first time my mother has ever called me by my stage name, and it causes me to do a double-take.
“We are the Carters, and we’re gonna weather the storm—together. For far too long, we’ve been divided, and I’m remorseful to say I played a part in that. No more. We stand together. We fight together.”
“But not each other,” Prim says. “Or at least, not anymore.”
I frown, burying my head in my hands. “God—I really fucked up here. I’m so sorry. I really am a train wreck.”
“It’s time we’re done with sorry—us hillbillies own are shit,” Momma says, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like it’s going to be okay.
?
