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  She clearly now had decided she was serious with wanting Garrett back and wasn’t going to fuck around with making that happen, and the way she’d been taught, she thought that would just be so.

  He watched her smile, and he couldn’t believe in their situation as it stood, at the same time he could because she was Mia, that her smile was smug.

  “We’re the ’burg’s last Rocky and Tanner,” she declared. “The last Colt and Feb. There never was an end to them. There’ll never be an end to us.”

  “Gonna go bad for you, you believe that,” he replied. “Now, go home.”

  Done with this shit, he turned and had moved up two steps before he felt her coming up after him.

  So he turned back.

  He looked down his nose at her and stated, “Right. This is not gonna happen. I told you to go home and I did that repeatedly. I told you we were done. I told you that you were no longer welcome here. You follow me up these fuckin’ stairs, I’ll slam the door in your face. You knock, I am not fuckin’ with you, Mia, I’ll open the door, cuff you, and arrest you for harassment.”

  He watched her eyes grow huge.

  “I’ll take you in myself,” he continued. “You’ll be booked. I’ll press charges, woman. Not fuckin’ with you on that either. And I do that, your man in Bloomington will know you came to visit me. Everyone will know the state of play between you and me, that bein’ me makin’ a very public statement that I’m tryin’ to make now privately. We…are…” He bent slightly to her. “Done. Now, do not make me make a fool of you. I won’t enjoy it. But I sure as fuck will do it.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to react or reply.

  He moved up the rest of the steps, walked to his condo, and let himself in.

  He locked the door behind him.

  He took off his jacket and swung it on the back of a dining room chair.

  She didn’t knock.

  Finally, she was getting smart.

  He took out his phone and checked it, just in case.

  Nothing from Cher.

  He felt his mouth get tight as he walked back to his jacket to pull out his smokes.

  He needed one because Mia was in his shit, Cher was not, and he hadn’t had one since he’d stopped for lunch in Brown County.

  The autumn leaves were phenomenal.

  But he wished he’d seen them from his truck with Cher and Ethan in it with him.

  * * * * *

  Cher

  Late Saturday Night

  It was ten to midnight when I made the call.

  I was pissed. I loved “You Shook Me All Night Long.” (Who didn’t?)

  But I didn’t love it splitting the night on a continuous loop when my kid and me should be sleeping.

  I turned on the lamp, grabbed my phone, and called the direct line that rang straight to the Brownsburg Police Department’s dispatch.

  “Brownsburg Police, Jo speaking. May I help you?”

  “Jo, this is Cher,” I told her.

  “Hey, girl,” she greeted. “Everything good?”

  “I’m understanding the government’s tactics with Noriega,” I shared.

  “Damn, another party?” she asked.

  “Yep,” I answered.

  “I’ll get someone to cruise by,” she told me.

  “I’d really appreciate that, babe. Your first beer’s on me next time you’re in the bar.”

  “We can’t accept bribes, Cher, unfortunately,” she said through an audible smile. “But, just so you know, noise violations are part of a cop’s job.”

  “Good to know,” I muttered, even though, with practice, I already knew that. I was just trying to be nice with my “bribe.” “See you when you’re back in the bar.”

  “Yeah, girl, see you.”

  She hung up.

  I turned out my light.

  Ten minutes later, the music stopped.

  I did not pick up my phone to share all this without actually sharing it with Merry. I didn’t type in the fact that I wished he was right there, because if he was, there would be no call to Jo at dispatch. He’d deal with it. And with all the neighbors knowing a cop was on their patch, the shitty ones would behave or just go, and it would all be good for me, my kid…and Merry.

  No, I didn’t text him that, even when I wouldn’t send him that.

  I closed my eyes and it took a while, but I finally found sleep.

  * * * * *

  Sunday Morning

  I heard it from the bathroom as I was finishing up my hair.

  It was a half an hour before we had to leave so I could drop my kid at Mom’s and go to work.

  Bad timing.

  I knew from Ryker’s warnings that I should ignore it.

  But if I made the call I needed to make, that would alert Colt—and Merry—to shit happening on my block. Both of them (at least I thought Merry would still be in that space) would intervene.

  And I had to live there.

  They didn’t.

  Anyway, it wasn’t about getting into my dickhead neighbor’s business.

  It was about taking care of Tilly.

  So I knew I had to do it and was turning to walk out of the bathroom when this knowledge was confirmed.

  Ethan was at the door, face pale, eyes on me.

  “Mom,” he whispered.

  Fucking motherfucker was freaking out my son.

  “I got this, kid,” I told him, continuing to move.

  He got out of my way and I went to the front door. I slid my feet in some flip-flops that were there that I should have taken to my closet a month ago but didn’t. I just picked them up, vacuumed under them, and dropped them back whenever I cleaned.

  When I finished doing what I had to do, I’d wear them to my room and put them away.

  I put my hand to the door and turned to my boy, who’d followed me.

  “Stay inside.”

  He stared up at me, nodding.

  I opened the door, pushed through the storm, took a deep breath, and stalked down my walk.

  “Did you fuckin’ hear me? I said come out here!” I heard shouted. “I know it was you, you old, fat bitch! You got a problem with me, you say it to my face! What you don’t do is call the fuckin’ cops!”

  I saw my dickhead neighbor at Tilly’s door, banging and yelling.

  “Yo!” I bellowed.

  He stopped banging and swung my way.

  I kept walking until I was in Tilly’s yard but still far away from him.

  He looked me up and down, dressed and ready for work, only in flip-flops and not the heels I planned to wear. I also hadn’t yet put on my jewelry.

  Some of the pissed went out of his face and something else came in it.

  “This isn’t about you, babe,” he told me, suddenly friendly and calm.

  Crap.

  I put my hands to my hips. “I think it is, since you’re shoutin’ at Tilly when she didn’t call about your party. I did.”

  His head jerked. The look of me, a full-on good-time girl, he was shocked it was me who made that call.

  “Listen,” I went on. “I have a kid. He needs his sleep, even on a weekend. It sucks I had to call it in, but I hope you get me when I say I need to look after my kid. No way I’m goin’ over to your place in the middle of the night to ask you to have a mind to your neighbors. I had no choice.”

  He studied me for a few beats before he stepped down off Tilly’s stoop and moved toward me.

  I wanted to retreat step for step, but I stood my ground.

  He could read me. We were of the same people. He knew I could look after myself.

  And he knew, no way in hell I’d ever show a guy like him weakness.

  No. Not ever.

  With a guy like him or not, I’d never show a weakness.

  I knew that too. I knew I had to show him every way I could that I was not weak. If I didn’t, a man like him could destroy me.

  And he would.

  He stopped four feet in front of me.

 
“You’re welcome to come over anytime, middle of the night or whenever,” he offered.

  Fuck.

  “Thanks, but like I mentioned, I got a kid,” I told him.

  He looked beyond me, then back at me.

  “Yeah. And he’s cute.”

  I turned my head and saw Ethan standing just down the walk from our stoop.

  Shit, shit, fucking shit!

  I looked back at the dickhead.

  “Yeah. I know. Anyway, Tilly’s cool. She’s a nice lady. You shouldn’t give her shit. She’s got two kids and a slew of grandkids who don’t ever visit her, and that sucks. She lives quiet. She doesn’t get into anyone’s business. She makes awesome cookies at Christmas. You don’t get in her face, brother, she’ll make you some cookies, and trust me, it’ll be worth bein’ cool to her.”

  He grinned at me, his eyes shifting to my tits before they shot back to mine.

  “I’ll take that advice,” he replied.

  “Awesome. And sorry again I had to call it in, but just some advice, in case you haven’t been in the ’burg for very long: cops keep a close eye on shit and neighbors look out for neighbors. You wanna party, you might wanna take it somewhere else.”

  That was taking it too far, and I knew it when hard entered his gaze and he declared, “Should be able to have a good time at my own fuckin’ house.”

  I nodded. “I agree. It’s just that if that gets loud, your good time fucks with other people.” I tipped my head to the side, lifting my hand to give him the finger and thumb one-inch. “And worse, you came this close to ruinin’ AC/DC for me.”

  He burst out laughing, doing it with his eyes twinkling appreciatively at me.

  Shit, shit, fucking shit.

  I took that too far too.

  “Shame to ruin AC/DC,” he said through chuckles.

  “Yeah. Now, I got shit to do. We good?” I asked.

  His eyes fell to my tits again, and he didn’t lift them when he murmured, “Oh, we’re good.”

  “Awesome,” I muttered, fighting back a nasty shiver. “Later.”

  “Later, darlin’,” he drawled.

  Fuck, fuck, shit, shit, shit.

  I lifted my chin to him, turned, and moved back toward my house, feeling his eyes follow me. I gave a jerk of my head to Ethan and he dashed up the steps of the stoop.

  When I got closer, I saw him open the storm, and I also saw he had a baseball bat resting by the wall just inside the door.

  My little man looking out for me (and Tilly).

  I barely got the door closed when Ethan asked, “You okay, Mom?”

  “Yeah, it’s all good. He’s gonna leave Tilly alone. It’s fine,” I assured him, hearing my phone begin to ring. It was in the bathroom and I made my way there, but I did it calling behind me, “We’ll talk about you comin’ out when I told you to stay inside after I see who that is.”

  “Not gonna let you go out there without takin’ your back,” he informed me.

  That was cute. It was sweet. It was the right thing to do. It was also the wrong thing to do for a kid his age.

  But I’d get to explaining that later.

  I nabbed my phone, not thinking good thoughts at who the screen told me was calling.

  I took the call and put it to my ear. “Ryker—”

  “You get injected with a huge-ass dose of stupid since I last saw you?” he asked on a mild bark.

  He was watching.

  Why was he watching?

  Fuck!

  “Ry—”

  “Told you that guy does not exist for you,” he declared.

  “I know, but Ry—”

  “Won’t let him do shit to the old broad. Anyway, the bitch went to church. She isn’t even there.”

  I closed my eyes in despair.

  Of course. Tilly went to church every Sunday. Then she went out with her girls for lunch. She wouldn’t be home until at least two.

  Shit.

  “Now that you gave him an up close and personal, he’s gonna live and breathe findin’ a way to tag your tight, round ass,” Ryker informed me.

  “He has a woman,” I informed him back.

  “They’re havin’ problems, so she’s gonna be history in about an hour, seein’ as momma hot stuff two doors down, with a pair a’ knockers made for squeezin’ together and thrustin’ a cock into is his key to tradin’ up in a big fuckin’ way.”

  Uh…

  Gross.

  “Ryk—”

  “Don’t know the games you and Merrick are playin’, sister. What I do know is that if you don’t cool your shit, I’m bringin’ him in on this. And I know Merrick, babe. I know that brother better than you in ways he’ll hide from you, even if you both stop dickin’ around and sort your shit out. He finds out what’s goin’ down two doors from his bitch, he will lose his motherfucking mind. And Merrick’s a maverick. Merrick keeps a loose hold on messy. And Merrick’s brand o’ messy makes me look adjusted. The only thing that would make Merrick lose hold on that is someone he digs bein’ in a deep pile a’ shit. Man’ll stop at nothin’ to dig you out, even if it buries him in the process. So listen up, Cher. Keep your ass safe. Keep your kid safe. And keep the man you’re fuckin’ around claimin’ safe. Now we’re done and this conversation won’t be repeated. You don’t get smart real fuckin’ fast, you know where I’ll go. And you’ll know, it gets ugly, it’s you made it that way.”

  He then disconnected.

  I didn’t move, one hand to my phone at my ear, the other one curled around the edge of the sink, holding on like it was a lifeline.

  He finds out what’s goin’ down two doors from his bitch, he will lose his motherfucking mind.

  What was going on?

  Merrick keeps a loose hold on messy.

  I knew that. I’d learned from a lot of experience, as well as making too many mistakes, how to read people.

  The good ole boy Merry was surface. You could scratch through that using your fingernail and not a lot of effort.

  Man’ll stop at nothin’ to dig you out, even if it buries him in the process.

  I knew that too.

  Shit.

  All that, and Tilly wasn’t even home.

  “Mom?”

  I drew in breath, dropped the phone from my ear, let go of the sink, and turned to see Ethan in the doorway.

  “Don’t be mad, okay?” he asked, shifting and eyeing me anxiously. “I was tryin’ to do the right thing.”

  I drew in another breath and forced my body to relax when I let it go.

  Then I told him, “I know that, Ethan. And it was the right thing in one way. There’s nothin’ wrong with you wantin’ to look out for your momma. But it was also the wrong thing since I’d told you to stay inside.”

  He bit his lip.

  I moved to him but didn’t crouch like I used to. He was getting tall, not quite there yet, but he needed to learn to use what he had. What he didn’t need was to learn how to put up with someone being condescending, crouching into him because he was a kid, even if they didn’t mean to be.

  “You’re the man of this house,” I told him and watched his chest expand with pride. “But, kid, you’re also still a kid. Ask Colt, Sul, Mike—any of them will tell you a man’s gotta know his strengths and his weaknesses. He’s gotta learn to judge situations right. And they’ll also tell you any kid who’s still a kid, no matter it sucks, no matter the situation scares them and they wanna help, they gotta do what their momma says.”

  His shoulders slumped.

  God, most of the time, being a mom rocked.

  It was just times like this when it absolutely didn’t.

  Quickly, I continued, “In that situation, you shoulda got the phone and kept an eye on me through the window. You got a bad vibe, you could call Colt or the police or something. That way, you had my back but also did as I asked. But seein’ as nothin’ like that is gonna happen again, it doesn’t matter. Life is life. You learn from it. Today, you learned.”

  Gazing u
p at me, he nodded.

  “Right,” I muttered.

  “That guy kinda seems like bad news. Are you sure nothin’ like that is gonna happen again?”

  “I think your read on him is right. He’s not a dude like the dudes we like to hang with, so both of us should keep our distance. But I also think his crap is his, so if we do that, it’ll all be good.”

  He nodded again.

  “Now, I gotta finish gettin’ ready, honey. You good to go to your gram’s?” I asked.

  “Yeah, Mom.”

  “Right, let’s get to that part of our day.”

  He grinned at me and got out of the doorway.

  I took in another breath and headed to my bedroom.

  * * * * *

  Monday Night

  Whether it was intentionally good timing or not, Trent phoned at the perfect moment, right before I was about to slide out of my car and hit work for the night shift.

  He’d texted twice more since the first two.

  I’d been blowing him off.

  I needed to stop doing that so he’d leave me alone. He also needed to think on things and I needed to give him the things he needed to think about.

  So I took the call with a “Hey, Trent.”

  “Texted you a million times, Cheryl,” he exaggerated.

  “I know. I’m sorry. Things were busy,” I semi-lied.

  “Ethan told me he’s not comin’ to see me and Peg this weekend,” he shared irately.

  I beat back a sigh.

  “As you know, Trent, this gig is Ethan’s,” I replied. “He gets to decide when he wants to see you. He’s back at school now so it’s sleepover time, and the good stuff happens with his buds on weekends.”

  “He needs to spend time with his father.”

  Trent said the words, but they came right out of Peggy’s mouth.

  “All right, I gotta get to work in a minute, but you should know, Ethan and I had a talk about you and Peg wantin’ to spend more time with him and he doesn’t like that idea. He digs you. Your wife. Your kids. But he’s feelin’ the need to take things with you slow and that’s his call. So if he needs space, you’re gonna give it to him.”

  “He’s a kid, Cheryl. He doesn’t get to make those calls.”

  More Peggy.

  “He’s a kid, Trent, you’re right. But he isn’t five. He’s nearly eleven. He knows his own mind, what he wants, what feels good to him. He’s at a time where he’s gotta explore makin’ his own decisions and how that plays out. We gotta let him.”