King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC 6)

Her face softened. “It doesn’t matter if I like him. It only matters if you do.”

“Yeah, I know, but you’ve always been a good judge of people, so I’m interested to know what you think.”

“I like him. Like, I really like him for you. He has this way of taking charge when you need that, and then at other times, he just sits back and lets you run around like a chook without a head. You’re an independent woman with a crazy streak, and King seems able to handle that while at the same time, giving it to you straight when he has a different opinion on something. And let me just say, I really like the way he handles Mum. I’ve never seen a man get her to do what he wants the way King does.”

It made me happy that she liked him. I agreed with her that it only mattered if I liked him, but it meant the world to me that she also did.

“Oh, I meant to tell you I saw John Travolta again today, but it wasn’t at the hospital this time. He was in the same freaking aisle as me in the supermarket, buying the same freaking cheese as me. And I swear to you he really does look like Travolta.” When I’d told Brynn about this guy the first time, she’d asked me if I was hallucinating and imagining that he looked like John Travolta, because in her mind there was only one man alive as hot as him. My sister had a Travolta crush that had lasted decades, and we’d watched Grease together at least thirty times.

“Did you speak to him?”

I took a swig of wine and nodded. “Yes, and then we had a conversation about cheese and wine, and it was like he didn’t wanna stop talking. I had to be kinda rude to him to get away from him. He’s good-looking, but way creepy.”

“Ugh. So nowhere near the real thing.”

“Definitely not.”

Mum interrupted our conversation. “Lily, why must you insist on mixing colours with whites when you do your washing?” she asked, wandering into the room holding a pair of pants of hers that used to be white. She looked stricken that they were now pink. I had to hold my laughter in, and when she saw that, her lips flattened. “This isn’t funny! I was going to wear these on my date tonight.”

“You have a date tonight, Ma?” Brynn asked.

“Yes, with a gentleman I met at the library today.”

“No one needs to be wearing white pants on a date, Mum,” I said. Shifting off the couch, I grabbed her by the arm and led her into my bedroom as I said, “I have the perfect outfit you can borrow.”

“Oh, Lily, I really don’t think—” Her mouth clamped shut as she eyed the dress I held up. Her face brightened, and she took the dress off me. “Well, maybe this will do.”

I grabbed a pair of shoes out for her, too. “It will more than do. I guarantee that if you wear this dress and these shoes, and you let me fix your hair, this man will be doing everything he can to get in your pants.”

That was my mother’s language, and she practically ripped the shoes from my hands. “I need to be ready in an hour and a half. I’ll call out when I’m ready for you to do my hair.” With that, she exited my room faster than I’d seen her move in a long time. She must have really liked this dude.

“And I didn’t mix the colours and whites,” I called out. “It was one of the kids.” God, I was a grown woman who still needed her mother to know when she hadn’t screwed something up. That was some crazy shit right there.

“Mum,” Zara said from the doorway as I closed my wardrobe. The way her voice wavered caused me to turn to her without delay, and what I saw on her face broke my heart. The minute our eyes met, tears fell down her cheeks and she rushed towards me. “Sam broke up with me.”

My arms circled her, and I pulled her tightly against me. “Oh, baby, I’m sorry.”

We stayed like that for a long time as she cried her heart out. Sam had been her first real boyfriend,

and I remembered how I’d been crushed when my first boyfriend broke up with me. While I may have been secretly cheering on the inside that she wasn’t with the little shit anymore, I hated that she was hurting.

I moved us to the bed and pulled her into my arms while we sat against the headboard. Smoothing her hair, I said, “Do you wanna talk about what happened? I’m easy either way, but if you need to talk, I’m here.”

She looked up at me, tears still filling her eyes. “He’s with Carmen Breen now. And I’m pretty sure they were doing stuff behind my back.” With that, another wave of tears overtook her. Little fucking shit. I should have let King have a word with him.

I squeezed my arms hard around her, as if by holding her so freaking tightly, I could keep all the bad stuff away from her. My instinct to protect her had never been so strong. Maybe I could lock her in this house for the next ten years.

She and I still hadn’t gotten around to having a conversation I was satisfied with over whether she and Sam’d had sex, but thankfully she’d gotten her period so I knew she wasn’t pregnant at least. But as many times as I’d asked her about sex, she’d brushed me off and told me no. I suspected she was lying, and I debated whether to broach the subject now when she wiggled out of my embrace, looked at me, and said, “I did have sex with him.”

Oh God.

My tummy practically cramped up with stress.

I really will lock her in this house for ten straight years.

Maybe twenty.

Reaching for my hand, she said, “Mum, it’s okay, we used a condom. And we only did it once. And that was only this week.”