Page 2 of Secret Obession
Hopping down from my seat, I dragged her away from Savvy and Maya. “What are you doing in town?”
Her blue eyes welled up. “I just…you know. I’m getting older, and I ain’t treated my body like I ought to, so I’m feeling my age more than most. And I was thinking to myself, I ain’t seen my kids in too long, and my little girl is all grown up without me, and I just wanted to come see you.”
And now I felt like shit for getting all stiff when Mom hugged me. I’d had dreams about this moment. “Maybe tomorrow we can meet up and…?”Talk, catch up, get to know each other again.
I just needed some time to get my head around this. The last time I’d seen her, she disappointed me more than I knew was possible. A shard still cut into my heart, reopening the wound, every time I thought about it.
“Well, to be honest, baby, I’m glad I ran into you. I’ve had a hard week, and it’s been just about all I could do to get back here. Do you think I could crash with you tonight?”
I bit my lip and glanced around the grimy dive bar, where, despite her words, my mom had come first, before looking for me. “I don’t know, Mom.”
Mom flinched back. “Why not?”
I wanted to have my mom back more than anything, but this was too fast, too soon, after all she’d put me through. Still, I didn’t want her to disappear all over again. “That hotel out by the highway did some renovations a few years back. I’m sure you could get a room.”
Mom’s face dropped. “I don’t have enough money for a room. Especially not a fancy renovated one.”
My stomach dipped when I thought about all the flophouses Mom must have stayed in over the years, the kind of place she’d probably end up tonight if I didn’t help her. She deserved better than that. “Do you have Venmo?”
She gave me her username, and I sent fifty bucks. “This should help.”
“That’s all you’ve got for your mother?”
Something hollow opened up in my chest. She’d talked to my brother and my dad like that, but she’d never turned it on me before. “That’s all I can spare. Times are hard for everyone, Mom.”
A guy wandered up behind my mom and wrapped an arm around her waist. He might have been in his fifties, like Mom, or a decade in either direction. With her crowd, age became a lot harder to tell. He was skinny, gaunt almost, with greasy hair and short a few teeth, but he was dressed in a new-looking button-down over a T-shirt and jeans. “Is this that daughter you were telling me about?”
“Yeah. Too busy for her mom, though.” Her lips flattened, sending a fresh bolt of guilt through me.
“You favor her. Isn’t that nice, Sue?” The new guy—probably Mom’s latest boyfriend—sent me a long, considering look. “Though you’ve got a little more meat on your bones.”
My skin crawled, and I searched for an exit. No amount of guilt was going to keep me within five feet of this guy. He looked like he’d sell his own mother for five bucks.
“Iris? We’d better get going; our ride’s almost here,” Savannah called out.
“Sorry, I’ve got to go,” I said, already backing away.
“Come on, we haven’t caught up at all,” said Mom. “Tell whoever it is to wait.”
Since I was pretty sure Savannah was lying her ass off, I shook my head. “No. It’s hard enough to get a ride out here; making ’em wait would just piss ’em off. Lunch, tomorrow. Just us girls.” She probably hadn’t noticed her boyfriend leering at me, but he sketched me out, and I didn’t want him in my house.
I took myself out of the bar, grabbing Savannah and Maya by the arms, before my mom could stop me.
“Is Tanner picking us up?” Maya asked, shooting both of us concerned looks, but thankfully she didn’t ask about what had happened back there.
Savvy grimaced. “No, he’s dead asleep by now, and you know how he hates being woken up.”
Yeah, sure. What a prince.
“Then who’s coming?” Maya’s face twisted. “I knew I should have just driven us.”
Shit.I braced for Savvy to say “no one” and tried to figure out which of us lived the closest, and how far I could walk in these shoes four drinks in. And how I could apologize to Maya for ignoring her excellent suggestion.
“Jackson,” Savannah answered.
I suppressed the urge to swear. “You couldn’t have called Cole?” He was Jackson’s younger brother, had been in the yearbetween us in school, and he and Savvy were friends. Moreover, Cole wouldn’t deliver a scathing lecture on drinking responsibly while glaring at me, and I didn’t want to rub myself against him like a cat.
She shifted uncomfortably. “I called Cole, but Jackson must have been there and overheard, because he said he’d do it.”
