It’s not until after ten when Dad’s put Aria to bed and sat on the couch in silence for nearly two hours when I finally get the nerve to ask again. “Dad?” I say, moving in beside him on the couch, clearly seeing he has more questions than answers floating around in that head of his. “What’s going on?”
He lets out a heavy, pained sigh and leans back into the couch before turning his attention on me. “Honestly, Squish. I have no fucking idea.”
“But…she gets to stay, right? She’s not coming to take her away?”
“That’s what I don’t know. I’ve been trying to get in contact with her, but the old number I had for her is disconnected and none of her old friends know where she is. Apparently, she’s fallen in with the wrong crowd and has been hitting drugs pretty hard,” he tells me with a tight smile, not wanting to be the one to break the news that the woman who was my mom for so long is now a drug addict. But on the other hand, it’s cleared up a few of my questions about why she looked the way she did.
“I did get a curious call though,” Dad continues, making my brows practically dip down to my chin. “She still has me listed as her emergency contact in all her records. I’d received a call from some lawyer or, hell, I don’t know who the fuck he was, but it was court ordered that your mom be put into a rehabilitation center. The next morning after she showed up here was when she was due to sign in.”
“She’s running?” I murmur.
“I’m not surprised,” dad tells me. “It’s her pattern. When things get hard, she disappears. She doesn’t like facing hard facts.”
“What do we do now?”
“We sit back and hope for the best while giving that kid all the love in the world. We need to hope your mom can somehow see that she’s safer here with us.”
“And if she doesn’t? If she comes back to get her?”
“Then we fight like hell to make sure that never happens.”
Chapter 13
I crash down into Tully’s bed on Friday afternoon. The boys have disappeared for the afternoon, dad is spending quality time with Aria, and I have no idea what the rest of the world is doing, so it’s just me and Tully left to our own devices…which could never be good.
She rips off her clothes which ended up dirty after Rivers crash tackled her into the mud during lunch. Naturally, she didn’t skip a beat and sought payback in the shape of grabbing a handful of mud and slamming it into his face.
The two have been running in complete opposite directions of each other all afternoon, terrified of what could happen. Rivers started a dangerous game when he threw her down in the mud, a dangerous game that is going to be damn funny to watch.
Tully dives through her clean washing which she hasn’t bothered to put away and pulls out a pair of sweatpants, but the second she holds them up, it’s clear these don’t belong to her. “Are these Noah’s?” she grunts.
“Sure are,” I tell her as she holds them up against herself, laughing as they reach nearly to her shoulders and deciding to pull them on anyway. “What the hell are you doing?” I laugh. “You could fit two of you in them.”
She steps into the pants with a grin and laughs as she pulls them up as high as they can reach. They sit under her armpits and before I know it, she’s burying her arms inside the pants and wobbling around, laughing like a hyena. “Shit, I have a massive cameltoe,” she snorts as tears of laughter start pouring from both our eyes. “You really think two people could fit in these?”
I look over the pants again. “Yeah, actually. I do.”
Tully wriggles her arms free and lets the pants drop before stepping one leg out and squeezing it down into the same hole as her other leg. “Well, come on, then. Let’s test your theory.”
“Are you kidding, right now?”
Her head snaps up with a wicked grin. “Do I look like I’m kidding?” she questions. “Get your ass over here and shove yourself into the other side.”
I shake my head. “No way. If this is going to work, you’re going to have to get your ass over here so we don’t fall and snap our necks.”
Tully presses her lips together. “Good point.”
Another round of booming laughter rips out of us as Tully tries her best to jump with both feet, across her room and over to her bed where she can hold on for dear life. She stands next to the bed and I shake my head. “I can’t believe you actually convinced me to do this,” I say, holding onto her as I slip one leg into the pants and then the other.