“Mom, look at me.”
She looked at me and stated, “We’re gonna be okay.We’ve gotmoney.We’ve got each other.And now we have Maxie.I likeSatrine.She kicks ass and rocks a hat.And you gave yourself that name because I toldyou I was going to give it to you, but your dad wanted to call you Maxine, andthat name far from sucked, so I went with it.But there are many people who aresuffering because of your father’s actions, and that suffering will never leavethem.The question of us vanishing will never be answered for them.And I chosehim.So I know I made a bad choice at age twenty-four of the wrong guy.I’m notthe first, far from it.I won’t be the last.Still, it’s heavy, baby.”
Yeah, totally heavy.
“I get that, Momma,” I said gently.
“So I focus on you.And I focus on the fact that Maxine hashad enough taken in her life, it’s not a great tradeoff, those people who careabout us never knowing what happened to us.But she gets us.And she’s happy.Like I said, I think we were meant to be here.But the bottom line is, we’rehere.And as usual, we’re doing what we do.Making the most of it.And I’mproud of us for that.”
I was too.
“I love you, Mom.”
“And I you, my girl.”
“But you forgot to mention how much you’re getting off onbeing Lady Corliss,” I teased.
“Oh yeah,guuuuuuuurrrrl, I’mlovin’ me some of that.”
I started laughing.
When I stopped, even if she was smiling, her eyes wereserious.
“He’s scared.He’ll come around.”
“He doesn’t strike me as a guy who gets scared.”
“For some folks, the most terrifying thing of all is thepossibility of finding love and happiness.”
“I’m not sure he’s that either.”
“His mother died, honey, and his sister.Ansley told me theywere both lost to him by the time he was eleven years old.You will be the nextgreat, important woman in his life.If it was me, I’d find youterrifying.”
Holy shit.
I hadn’t thought of that.
“You are wise, my glorious momma.”
“Lady Corliss knows all.”
I started laughing again.
This time, Mom did it with me.
ChapterFifteen
Shadows
Loren
“I think the score now, brother, is twelve to ten,sadly in your favor, but I’m gaining,” Marlow noted.
Loren flinched as the physician pierced the skin of his sidewith a needle.
He then took in Marlow, his friend’s eye already swelling sobadly, it was nearly swollen shut, but the purpling had long since begun.Although he’d cursorily scrubbed his face, both of his nostrils were rimmedwith dried blood.And a deep cut rent his upper lip.
Loren felt some heat at his jaw where he’d taken a glancingblow, but that was it.
