All three dogs excitedly dancing around me, and I almost went ass over tit thanks to them. But just as I got to the door, a hand grabbed the waistband of the workout leggings I had on, stopping me from my ass-kicking journey of discovery. And that’s what it would be—a discovery. I’d find out how hard I could kick Neil’s butt, how badly I could make him cry, and how big my bad bitch side was.
“I don’t know what you just saw on your phone, baby, but I’m thinking it’s best you don’t do whatever you’re thinking. Now, your boy’s watching you, and he looks worried.”
Glaring over my shoulder at Alex, I held the phone up for him to see what that asshole had sent me.
“Still wanna stop me?”
“No,” he admitted, “but I’m still gonna. Now, go back to your girls and smile for your son.”
I hated it when people acted rationally when I was feeling irrational. I was usually levelheaded, and on this occasion, I deserved not to be. That man had fucked up his son so much he’d left in the middle of the night, walking miles down a dark road where anything could have happened. He’d devastated the poor kid’s heart repeatedly.
And he didn’t care about any of it.
I didn’t need to recap any of it—but for my righteous moment, I did—and doing it made me feel ever pissier.
But Alex was right about Cody, he didn’t need his mom flying off the handle and getting arrested. I doubt any mother in my shoes would look at me badly if it did happen—and I could only hope and pray that any judge who heard my case and plea had been a single parent at some point.
But I didn’t want to make things worse for my son.
And this is shit they should put in parenting classes that’d likely freak a lot of kids out about having unprotected sex and young pregnancies. Parenting gave you a conscience and changed your priorities. The conscience thing wasn’t so bad, but the priority thing? Sometimes it sucked—like now.
Smiling brightly, I patted Alex’s hand and winked at him before walking back to my friends with a bounce in my step.
Looking hurt, Jacinda pouted. “You were going to leave to beat the shit out of him without us?”
Trying to act like she’d said the funniest thing ever, I threw my head back and tried to laugh like I wasn’t faking it. Unfortunately, it sounded so blatantly bogus that most eyes turned to look at me and narrowed.
Fuck, I was in a room filled with cops.
Still laughing, I said, “Uh huh.”
“Well, you could at least have pretended you weren’t. That’s just mean,” she huffed. “And why are you laughing like you accidentally sat on a giant dildo and got it stuck, but you don’t want the rest of the people in the ER to hear you explaining it to the receptionist?”
Just like that, we all turned back to look at her, and my hyena laugh stopped.
“What?” she asked slowly, looking back at us. “What are you looking at me like that for?”
Scratching the back of her neck, Bex said uncomfortably, “You threw out that hypothetical situation way too smoothly, like someone who’s been there and done that. That’s all.”
Scowling, Jacinda put her hands on her hips, wearing the donut she’d been about to bite into like a ring.
“Yo, it was a hypothetical bad situation suggestion. Like I could get something like that up there.” Turning to me, she pointed at my crotch. “You, however, have a twat hostage situation going on with those leggings. I can totally see your beavage.”
Bending slightly to take a look, I blushed when I realized how bad my cooter cleavage was.
Pulling at the thighs to try and free it, I muttered, “Fucking Alex.”
The girls were suddenly all ears.
“So he’s to blame for the vagina canyon, is he? Nice.” Sayla winked and nudged me just as the material came out of hiding and back into the open.
Camel toes are weird things. We might not notice them a lot of the time while they’re happening, but the second that material comes out, it’s a whole new world of relief.
“Yeah, he pulled my waistband to stop me going after the asshole.”
Here’s the issue: those words sounded wrong. I was still feeling anger over the shit with Neil, and mentioning him ratcheted it up again. And that’s the excuse I’d be using in my defense for my current level of stupidity.
When none of them said anything back, I straightened up and took a step back as I saw the expressions on their faces. Tabby looked like she wanted to jump into a shallow grave, Sayla looked intrigued, Katy had her hand over her mouth and was looking up at the ceiling, and Jacinda looked… I don’t even know what her expression was.