“He doesn’t want a commitment. He’s made that clear,” Joey said. She toyed with her mug. She wasn’t one-hundred percent sure she wanted to get married, but kids would be nice someday. If she entered into this, would she be giving up on that?
“And yet you’re his sweetheart,” her mother said.
Her mother’s counter comment blew her out of the water. Actions spoke louder than words. He might not want the traditional, but that didn’t mean a happy medium couldn’t be reached. Damn you, Mom. “Okay, so you have a point.”
“Of course I do, darling.” Her mother winked at her over the rim of her mug.
“Have I told you lately how amazing you are?” Joey said.
Her mother set down her mug. “Remember, I didn’t tell you to lose yourself in him. I told you to take a chance.” Her mother’s hazel eyes bored into her own. “You understand?” she asked.
“Yes, Mom.”
“There’s my beautiful girl.” Her mother reached over and patted her cheek.
A new bond had been forged today. She saw beneath the tough-girl façade. Growing up with the tattooed badass mom all the boys lusted after had proven a serious challenge for her as a kid, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
* * * * *
The minute Joey left, Ellen went to the phone and entered his number.
“Ellen, everything okay?”
Ellen closed her eyes and gripped the cell phone tightly as the familiar baritone washed over her. It had been over a month since she heard his voice. “Yes and no.”
“You know I don’t do vague, Stargazer, so speak,” Wanderer said. The impatience in his tone lit a fire inside her.
“Your daughter is dating a biker.” Best to be short and to the point.
“Son of a bitch! Isn’t that why I let you leave? To keep her away from all this bullshit?”
Ellen winced. There was a lot of truth to that statement. Everything they’d withheld from Joey allowed her to have a normal life. “She’s a grown woman, Wanderer. What did you expect me to do? Not support her so she could run straight to him blindly? We both know how well that works.”
“I’ll be damned if I let my little girl relive our story,” he said. The anger in his voice was infuriating.
“Oh, now she’s your little girl?” Ellen said, pissed that he wanted to pull the M.C. card after all this time.
“Fuck you, Star. Don’t take that tone with me. I’ve been giving you money from day one,” he said.
“And that makes up for your absence?” she huffed. All the y
ears of silence shattered, not because he’d seen the error of his ways, but because another man was claiming what he’d neglected to.
“You are riding me for a reason, or you just feeling like being a bitch tonight?” Wanderer said. She imagined the snarl she knew he’d be wearing.
“Watch your tone; you owe me more respect,” Ellen said, using the same tone. After all this time, she was used to his head getting too big for his shoulders. “We both know we were wrong to let this go so long. It’s in our blood. Did we really think controlling her environment would remove it?”
“Fuck, I don’t need this shit right now,” Wanderer said.
She heard something slam on the other end. “Listen, I told you out of respect. You might run in the same circles and I didn’t want you to see her and have it catch you off guard.” Ellen’s voice cracked. She’d done what she had to, always did. Even when it ripped her fucking heart out.
“I’m not going to have my daughter a fucking target for these assholes looking for easy prey,” Wanderer said.
“Fuck you, Wanderer. You promised! I got to make the big decisions when it comes to her. You don’t get to come here and disrupt her life now.”
“Hers or yours, Star?” he asked.
The insinuation burned her from the inside out. “You always were a cold motherfucker,” she said shaking her head. Unbelievable.