I paused. “What? What is it?”
She sighed. “I know what you’re going to say, so don’t do it. Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay…? What’s going on?”
She cleared her throat. “I thought I could trust my mother, so I kind of gave her a card to my bank account.”
“You did what?”
“I know! I know. I know it was stupid. But she was on such a good path with getting rid of D.J. for good and going to therapy and putting in job applications. I figured it would be easier for her to just get what we needed if she had a card to the account instead of me always having to, you know, give her money.”
“You didn’t.”
She stood up. “I know it was stupid. But that’s why I started storing money not in my bank account. I know she’s run it a few times already and it’s probably been declined. I’ve only been putting in there exactly what is necessary, then storing the rest away elsewhere.”
I sighed. “Fucking hell, your mother.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it.”
I paused. “Okay. Well, we go to a branch of your bank and we open up another account. One that doesn’t have any cards attached to it. Or put it in your savings account. There’s a way for us to store this money without your mother getting access to it that doesn’t require you to haul it around in a purse all weekend. That’s just as dangerous.”
“I know,” she whispered.
I took her in my arms. “It’s going to be okay, Rae. I promise you.”
She leaned against me. “I don’t know some days.”
“You know, I might have something that’ll cheer you up.”
She sniffled. “Really?”
I nodded. “Mm-hmm. Can I get over to my bag for a second?”
“Does that mean I have to let you go?”
Her words warmed my soul. “Not at all.”
I dipped down and gripped her ass cheeks. I hoisted her against me as she giggled into my neck. With her arms and legs tightly wound around my body, I carried her over to my bed. I sat her down on my lap as I reached out for my suitcase, clumsily unzipping it.
Before reaching out and pulling out a bottle of champagne.
“Clint!”
“Sh sh sh sh sh,” I said, chuckling.
She lowered her voice. “Where the hell did you get that?”
I grinned. “A ‘congratulations’ from Cecilia. She bought it for us.”
“Your stepmom is a fucking saint.”
“Yeah, Ma is pretty awesome. I told her I wanted to celebrate with something special. And she came back with this for us. She scolded me, of course, did the whole one-finger pointing thing and told me to drink responsibly.”
Rae laughed. “I bet that was a sight.”
I smiled. “It really was. I wish I would’ve gotten it on video for you.”
“So want me to go unwrap some of the plastic cups over by the coffee machine?”