“Gia?”
She paces back and forth, her agitation building the longer she remains quiet. I stand from my chair to walk around my desk. Resting against the front of it, I track her movements until she suddenly stops.
“Your mother-in-law. Ugh.” She growls.
“Kathy? What?—”
Gia starts pacing again, faster this time. “I could punch her. I almost did, actually. She is no longer the amazing woman everyone has claimed her to be. The things she said to me. You’d be appalled.”
“You almost punched her? What the hell is happening right now?”
“She— And I almost— She just made me soangry.”
I gently grip Gia’s biceps, halting her frantic pacing. “Okay, sweetheart. Take a deep breath for me.”
She looks up at me with stormy blue eyes. I take a deepbreath, waiting for her to follow my lead, and when she finally does, her shoulders drop with her exhale.
“That’s it. One more.”
With her next breath, Gia drops her forehead onto my chest. “I was at the Grind working, and I saw Kathy. I waved at her, just trying to be friendly, ya know? I swear I wasn’t trying to piss her off. I thought if I stayed friendly, she’d see I’m not some monster.”
She lifts her head with a sigh. “Anyway, she was not friendly back, which was fine. At least I can say I tried, right? But after I left, she caught up to me and started screaming at me. She was calling me names and saying horrible stuff. It didn’t particularly faze me. I’ve heard plenty of the same from other people who don’t like me, but then she said I was going to turnhergirls into sluts, and that’s when I lost it. I managed to stop myself from hitting her, but it was a close call. I told her she could say whatever she wanted about me, but using abhorrent words to describe the girls was a step too far.”
“Jesus.” I tighten my arms around her shoulders to hold her close. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with that.”
“Like I said, I don’t care what she calls me, but I couldn’t believe the things she said about Leah and Lauren. I think she’s seriously gone crazy, Holt. I don’t think the girls are safe with her right now. She actually told me that someone had to do something before they go down the wrong path. Like what the fuck does that mean?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, Rainbow. Something has to be going on with her. This is beyond anything I’d ever thought her capable of before.”
“I’m sorry I disrupted your day. I was so angry, and I honestly wasn’t even thinking. I just started walking and ended up here.”
I pull Gia around my desk, tugging her onto my lap after I sit in my chair. She wraps her arms around my neck andsnuggles into me. “I’m glad you came here. I always want you to come to me when something awful happens to you.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been that mad before. I’ve been called every name under the sun before, and it’s never bothered me. I can shrug it off and move on like it’s nothing, but the second she said the same things about the girls, I saw red. I’m pretty sure Hannah is the reason I didn’t slap her mother into next week.”
“Hannah?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I swear I heard someone whisperstop, and it made me pause long enough to realize what I was about to do.”
“It might be a little crazy, but the girls and I have talked about how we sometimes hear Hannah in the back of our heads.”
“I don’t even think she stopped me because I almost hit her mom. It was like she knew I’d regret it the second it happened, and she stopped me before I could make the mistake.”
“Oh, I have no doubt she’d think her mom deserved a smack for saying what she did about the girls.”
Gia exhales a long, deep breath. “I like your office. I’m just realizing that I’ve never been here before.”
“I’m sorry. I should have shown you around.”
“No, it’s okay. That wasn’t a criticism, just an observation.”
“You want a tour?”
“Maybe in a minute. I’m enjoying sitting here. How much longer do I have before you need to get back to work?”
“About half an hour. I’ve got a client meeting at two.”
“Hmm. I think I can work with that.”
