“Apparently not.Why don’t you move along before I have to run you in for trespassing and disturbing the peace?I’ve better things to do than to haul your ass downtown so that you can spend the night in jail.I’m serious right now.Move on, or I’m going to run you in.”She said that she had a right to know where her child was.“Last time I looked, Lori wasn’t a child but a full-grown adult.You’d best be moving along, Lorena, or I will be running you in.I don’t want to have to do that because I know you’ll be a pain in my backside the entire time you’re there, but I will if you force my hand.”
“I’m leaving, but I’m not happy.”He just stared at her.“Don’t you have better things to do other than to chase down stupid people about making too much noise?”
“I do have better things to do, but you’re the one who is requiring my attention right now, and I don’t have to put up with you for much longer.Either move along, Lorena, or I’ll run you in.I’m sure that you don’t have bail money, so you’ll be staying in jail for a while.You have better things to do other than to harass your daughter, who is a grown adult.”She said that she wasn’t an adult until she said so.“That makes no sense at all, and I believe you know that.Move along before I have to arrest you.I will too, just to get you out of your daughter’s hair for a while.”
“I’m not moving on until you can prove to me that she’s not in there hiding from me.”He said that if she was hiding from her, then there was a good reason for it.“You’re a bastard.I hate all of you on the police force.”
“We’re none too happy about you either.This is your last chance to move along before I have to arrest you.”She shoved her hands out in front of him and told him to try.He had cuffs on her before she knew what he was about to do.“Good.Now I’m going to put you in my cruiser, and I don’t want to hear a word from you all the way to the stationhouse.I know that’s just me, hopefully thinking you’ll go along quietly, but a man can dream, can’t he?”
By the time she was put in a cell, she’d been calling him every name that she could think of.Fat lot of good it had done her.He just laughed at her when she’d done it.Men were going to ruin the world, and she just knew it.As it stood right now, she was going to lose her job because of the fucker who had arrested her.Life was getting more complicated daily, and she was going to take it out on Lori when she saw her next time.
Chapter 7
Penrod’s house was more beautiful than she could have imagined.It had six bedrooms and eleven bathrooms.She didn’t understand that, but loved the fact that if they had children, they’d not have to share a bathroom.As she was looking over the kitchen, Penrod’s phone rang, and she stepped away.While she wanted to know if some woman was calling him, she had to learn to trust him like he did her.When he came into the kitchen, he was smiling.
“Your mother has been arrested.”She started to go to the door, but stopped herself.She asked him why.“She believed that you were hiding in your apartment from her, and the neighbors called the police on her when she started pounding on the doors.She also threatened the police for arresting her.”
She stood there for several minutes, wondering what to do now.When she looked up at Penrod when he started laughing, she didn’t know what to say to him.After he gained control of his mirth, she asked him what was so funny.
“We didn’t have to do anything, and she got herself arrested.Do you normally hide from her when she comes around?”She told him that she’d only done it the one time and it had worked out well.“Your mother is going to cause trouble when she sees this house, isn’t she?I mean, I’ve talked to a couple of buddies of mine, and they said that your mother has a gambling problem, and she’s usually short on her bills until you started telling her no.I’m assuming that’s a new thing for you.”
“I’ve gotten really good at telling her no.It’s been about five years now.”He nodded and took her hand into his.“I don’t know what to do about her and this house.She’ll see that you have plenty of room and will think it’s a good idea for her to move in here with us.I don’t want that to happen.”
“Let me take care of her.”She nodded.“Good.Now, we have to look at the living room, and then we’ve toured the whole inside of the house.Outside, there’s a pool and a pool house that we’ll get cleaned up before summer comes around.”
“That’s wonderful.”But her mind wasn’t on the pool or summer; she was worried about her mom.“Do you think that she’s going to be a big problem?I do, just so you know.She’s always thought that my money was hers.That’s why I never told her about the lottery winnings.She scared me more than anyone else about taking it from me.And she will make me broke by the end of the month, too.”
“I said I’d take care of her, and I promise you that I will.”He kissed the back of her hand.“Joey said she’d be in jail for a few days unless someone bails her out.I’m assuming that won’t be either one of us.”
“No, I like her being in jail.It might afford me time to move without her being up my ass about it.”He asked her if she wanted to move into their home right away.“I do if that’s all right with you.The stuff at my other place is all second-hand, and I don’t have any attachments to any of it.I could get some extra money by selling it off and be done with it.The only thing that I’ll take is the few clothes that I have, as well as some things like photos and some music that I never listen to.”
They both laughed, and she felt some of the tension roll off her shoulders.Her mother did that to her all the time.Made her feel like the world is on her shoulders all the time.She never realized how much money caused tension between the two of them all the time.
Mom never knew how to save money.If not for the fact that she had put her on a budget, she would never have had money for her rent, much less food and utilities.But here lately, that wasn’t working either.Imagine sleeping on the job.Did she make the beds, then take a nap on them?It wasn’t anything she could imagine doing.Then she thought about what Penrod had said.
“You said she had a gambling problem.How did you know that?”He told her that he’d heard from Joey, the cop.“So she’s been buying up lottery tickets and scratching them off at the store.I don’t think she wins all that much, do you?”
“She loses more than she spends, I guess.He said that he’s had to run her off a few times when she gets in one of her moods.And that’s happening daily lately.When she doesn’t win often enough, she takes it out on the clerks.”She told him how she’d lent her twenty-five dollars when she was short on her rent and spent fifty more when she got home.“That sounds like what I’ve heard.You keeping the winnings from her is going to save you a lot of heartache in the long run, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know how it is that I’m going to be able to spend any of it with her around.She’s going to be wanting her fair share because she is my mom.That’s really no reason, but it’s the one that she gives me when she thinks I’m holding out on her.I’ll have to do something with her.”They talked about different things, but she didn’t know what would happen when she got out of jail.It was going to be difficult to be around her in their new home together without her wanting to move in with them.And that wasn’t going to happen.“I don’t want her living with us.Ever.I don’t like her all that much, and the thought of living with her makes my skin crawl.Did I tell you that she’s been taking naps on the job?That’s just nasty to me.”
“I heard that about her, too.Word gets around town pretty fast about your mom.She’s not a nice person to be around either.”She said she knew that.“Let’s finish up the house and decide what you want to do with your things.Like you said before, you can sell them if you want, or we can decide on what we want to do with the little bit of things you said you have.”
“I’m going to give it away.It’s not worth much anyway.”That decision made, she was glad for the support of Penrod.“I can spend some of my money on the guise of it being your money.I don’t want to spend a great deal, but we’re going to need a few things for the house.A coffee maker for sure.And staff.Didn’t you say that we’d have people working for us?”
“We’d have to if we’re both going to work.And I like working too much to give it up to stay at home all day.”She said that she needed to work or go crazy.“Same here.So that we’re not cooking the entire time that we’re home, we’ll need to have at least a cook and someone to clean up after us.About five people should be enough to keep the house in good working order.”
“Since I’ve never had staff before, I’ll leave that up to you.A cook would be wonderful.I like to cook, but I don’t want to do it all the time like you said.Then there is the staff for the yard.Which I love by the way.It’s so full of summer that I want to spend all my time out there.”He said that was the first thing that sold him on the house.“Then we’ll keep it looking like that year-round.There is no point in having a yard if you can’t be proud of it.”
“I’ve been sleeping in the house for the last few nights.I’ve decided that my mattress needs to be replaced as it’s lumpy on the floor.I have a bedstead that we can use, but I’m having it cleaned up to be put in our room.What do you think of the master bedroom?”She told him that she loved the fact that it had its own fireplace.“I love that too.And all the windows that look over the back yard.I’m betting in the fall the colors are beautiful back there, and we’ll be spending all our extra time on the back deck.We’ll need to get some furniture for that, too.Right now would probably be the best time to buy it as it’ll be on sale.I’m always up for a good price on things when I need to purchase them.”
“If I buy something that’s not on the clearance rack, I must really need it.”She laughed with him and then smiled.“You have the best laughter.It makes me feel good to hear you laughing with me, too.”
“I was thinking the same thing about you.”He pulled her into his arms.“If I’ve not told you in the last few minutes how much I love you, then I’m sorry.I’ll try to get better at that.”
The kiss was wonderful.When he pressed her against the wall that was just behind her, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and rolled her hips into his.Before they could get much further, his cell phone went off again.
“I could really begin to hate that thing.”She stepped back a little more and allowed him room to get to his phone.She could feel his cock was hard and wanted more of him, but they didn’t even have a bed yet.Going back into the house, when he laughed, she pulled out her own cell phone when it rang.It was her mother.
