I smiled at Rayne. “I beg to differ. I made reservations for us at the Iron Gate Inn and it’s a dining experience that we all must have tonight.”
Her mother whistled, reached behind me, and grabbed one of my ass cheeks. “My, my, my! This might be your lucky night, Harley. I mean, Yardley. You ever had a mother and daughter in your bed before?” She came closer to me and licked my earlobe. “At the same damn time!”
“Momma, get off him!” Rayne yelled out, pulling her away from me. “That does it! I’m going out on my date tonight, with Yardley, by myself.”
“What about me?” Arjay asked. “You can’t leave me here by myself.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do. And to think, I almost let you sucker me into canceling my date to stay here with you. I’m keeping my plans.” Rayne headed toward her bedroom. “Yardley, give me about ten minutes to get ready and we can roll.”
“Not a problem,” I said, feeling like a mouse in the middle of a brawl between two pitbulls. “Whatever you wish.”
Rayne’s mother hissed under her breath and headed to the kitchen. Before I could get situated on the sofa properly, she was headed back with a new bottle of vodka in one hand and two shot glasses in the other. She slammed everything down on the coffee table and sat down beside me.
“Do you drink?” she asked me.
“From time to time. Mostly beer,” I responded.
She placed her hand on my knee. “Care to take a walk on the wild side?”
I politely removed her hand and placed it on her lap. “I appreciate the offer, Mrs. Waters, but I’m trying to get to know your daughter. One day, I hope she and I can have a serious relationship, so I can’t…”
She started giggling and slapped her hand across her chest. “I’m not talking about fucking,” she said. “I’m a whore and a proud one at that, but I was teasing with you earlier. I’d never fuck the same man as my daughter. Even whores like me have limitations.”
I couldn’t think of a thing to say so I finally uttered, “Well, that’s certainly good to know.”
“When I said wild side, I meant vodka. Beer’s nothing but a chaser for me. Vodka’s the real shit.”
“Oh, I see.” I held my palm up. “No thanks on the vodka. I have to drive and I’d never jeopardize your daughter, or myself, by driving drunk.”
She glared at me for a moment. “You really do seem like a good man. Are you?”
“I like to think that I am. I try my best to be a good man.”
“Well, Rayne’s a good woman,” Arjay said. “She’d never believe that I’d tell you as much. She thinks I hate her, but I don’t. I love my baby. She doesn’t love me back.”
“I’m sure Rayne loves you, Mrs. Waters.”
“Really?” She scooted over closer to me as she poured a shot of vodka for herself and downed it in one gulp. “Does she talk about me a lot?”
“Well,” I started, reluctant to tell an all-out lie, “Rayne and I have only been dating a little while but she’s definitely mentioned you.”
“That’s good. That’s good,” she said, seemingly content with my response. “Yardley, let me say this and then I’m going to take my two cents and zip them in my mouth.”
“Go ahead and say it.”
“Rayne has problems when it comes to men.”
“What kind of problems?” I asked curiously.
“She has some trust issues and I’ll admit that a lot of it is my fault.”
“How so?”
“When Rayne was younger, back when the panty sniffers first started zeroing in on her, I broke it down for her and she couldn’t handle the truth.”
“What truth is that?”
“The fact that men only care about money and pussy.”