Page 48 of With Spite

But they were too well known in the community, and had quite a few low-life friends who would notice them gone.

I closed the door when one of them looked my way, turning around with the stack of seven pizza boxes.

There was way too much pizza there for the six of us, but everyone wanted their own type of pizza and we’d been denied too much by our mother to ever fight over someone wanting their own pizza.

Speaking of, the moment that I placed it down on the table, everyone went to town.

Well, everyone but the ones married in and Bernice.

Bernice hesitantly sat down next to me and looked at the spread and said, “Wow.”

“What?” Heidi asked, almost three-quarters of the way through her slice of Canadian bacon and pepperoni.

“Y’all are quick.” She shook her head. “And I thought I was quick.”

“Just grab a piece. They won’t bite your hand off.” Romina held up a slice of pepperoni.

Bernice took it and ate hers slightly slower than us, but I had a feeling that was likely due to the way her eyes were wide and taking everything in.

The Hosea family was a spectacle.

We ate quick and were unapologetically uncivilized.

Which, of course, was why the married in-laws had to explain away our eating style. Always apologizing for something we felt no need to apologize about.

“Vera controls everything,” Candice began to explain, seeing the surprise on Bernice’s overly expressive face. “When I first came into the picture.” She took a bite of pizza and chewed. Way too damn slowly. “Hampton took me to a family dinner, and Vera controlled what they ate first and who ate first. How much they ate. When they ate. When they were done. And she picked and chose who got more or less. Poor Heidi was eating a plate full of food that was fit for a ten-year-old. Not a nearly eighteen-year-old. She also gave Hux more than Hampton, even though they were damn near the same size. Harvey sometimes less than even Heidi, depending on if he pissed her off that week. Hell, sometimes she’d make them sit there and watch. Then give them an absurdly short amount of time to eat it. That’s probably why they’re forced to eat as fast as they are. They nearly always had a time limit. I think eight minutes or something like that. Needless to say, the kids moved out one by one and now they eat like the food will be taken away at any second.”

“Jesus Christ,” Bernice whispered quietly, mostly to herself. “And I thought my family situation was bad.”

I snorted. “You should be happy that your mother didn’t care. Mine cared. Too Much. Felt like we were suffocating our entire childhood.”

“When I joined the Marines,” Heidi said wistfully, “it was the best day of my life. I finally got to get out and breathe. When I did my four years and came home, I almost fell right back into the cycle of my mother. Luckily, I was able to get that factory job in Jawbone.”

“I’ve heard of this factory before,” Bernice said. “Don’t they sell dog food?”

“They do.” Heidi grinned. “I work there with Birdee, your sister-in-law, actually.”

“And Charleigh,” Bells chimed in, directing his gaze toward Bernice. “Do you know Charleigh?”

“Charleigh is over at my brother and sister’s place a lot.” She smiled.

Charleigh was a five-foot-nothing firebrand.

She was loud, opinionated, and unapologetic about who she offended.

She was also a fellow Marine.

Oorah.

That was probably why I liked her so much.

Not in a romantic way, because there was only room for one person to be stalked—Bernice.

But she was a breath of fresh air.

And she hated my mother and didn’t bother to hide her feelings on the matter.

The last time Charleigh had come into The Mercantile, she’d been banned for life because she’d overheard my mother berating Heidi and told her she was a pitiful excuse for a parent.