I’d never, not ever, seen my mother so angry before.
Nor did I doubt her ability.
See, my mother grew up on a pig farm.
Her and my grandparents raised, slaughtered, and packaged pigs to make a living. My mother knew how to butcher an animal faster than I knew how to open a package of Kraft cheese.
What my mother said was true.
“You can’t threaten a police officer,” Taryn growled.
“I’m not looking at a police officer, am I?” my mother countered. “If what my husband heard through the cop grapevine is true, he was fired from his position when he assaulted a trainee in the police academy. Then, after putting his hands on my daughter, he lost his advisory capacity with KPD. And, when my husband is through with him, he won’t be working at the police academy anymore, either.”
Taryn growled and turned around to storm out of the building only to come to a stop when she saw me still standing there.
“You whores need to learn that it’s not okay to ruin people’s lives,” Taryn said as she stomped past us.
I’d never been called a whore before by an old lady, but it was funny that she was saying that. I’d been more selective with my bed companions than anybody I knew.
I’d had three boyfriends before Sammy. Only one lover.
Needless to say, I was not a whore.
She would’ve shoulder-checked me on the way out, too, but her entire trajectory changed when the automatic door that we were standing in front of closed and knocked her backward.
She would’ve fallen straight on her ass if Patman hadn’t followed up behind her at a fast clip.
He directed her shoulders sideways, wrapped his arm around her, and hustled her out of the building. All the while he glared at me, as if I was the one to cause all this, on his way out.
Sammy growled when he passed. “Don’t look at her!”
Patman leered. “What are you going to do to stop me?”
“Whatever I fucking have to,” Sammy promised. “And, just sayin’, but your wife is about to be hit by a car.”
Patman’s head snapped sideways to look, and sure enough Taryn had strode right into traffic without a care in the world to who was coming.
She was narrowly missed by a rather large delivery truck who laid on the horn when he finally spotted her.
Patman cursed and left, but not before offering one more parting shot before he left.
“Don’t make a mistake, kid. You’re not invincible,” Patman growled over his shoulder.
Then he was grabbing his wife’s hand and leading her to the truck across the lot.
I would’ve continued to watch, but my mother chose that moment to say, “Now, when were you going to tell me that I was expecting a grandchild? I’ve been very patient, Hastings Harriet Hughes.”
Oh, boy.
“She three-named you,” Sammy whispered, amused.
My mother’s eyes turned to him. “You could’ve just as easily called me.”
Sammy’s smile dimmed a bit.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” He paused. “But this is very new, we don’t know each other all that well, and we were trying to figure it out with each other first.”
“Uh-huh,” she muttered. “Don’t think I don’t recognize you, either. I saw you staring at my girl that day we went out to eat at the Back Porch. When my daughter went missing in action this last week, I had to do some digging on my baby daughter.”
“Traitor,” I growled under my breath.
My mother turned her eyes to me.
“Don’t worry.” She grinned. “It took a lot of convincing to get her to tell me. Once she did, I had your father do all the other digging. When Patman came up, I decided to give you time because I know what an asshole he can be.”
The people around us were still listening intently, but my mother didn’t seem to care.
“He nearly ruined mine and your father’s life in high school, and now I hear that he’s hurting you? Let’s just say your father isn’t very happy right now. It took every trick in my arsenal to get him to calm down when he found out he’d put his hands on you,” she said.
My eyes went wide.
“Is he mad at me?” I wondered.
She scoffed. “When have you ever had him mad at you, Hastings Hughes?”
Two names. We were calming down a bit.
Good.
“You will come to dinner tonight so we can talk more about this subject,” she muttered, walking backward back into the store. “It’s nice to meet you, Sammy.”
Sammy’s deep voice made my heart sing as he said, “It’s nice to meet you, too, ma’am.”
***
Two hours later we were at my parents’ house and I was staring at Aurora who wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“I can’t believe you,” I hissed.
“It’s not like I can stand it when she uses that tone of voice with me, Hastings!” Aurora threw up her hands. “You know what it’s like for me!”