Was that true?
"I need to get better at checking in with you if I only call when I need something," I groused.
"It isn’t like that. Sometimes, you just want me to agree with you." Her soft, tinkling laughter hurt my heart and healed it at the same time. "I like knowing that you’re working out your best arguments on me. Makes me feel useful and relevant."
"Youareuseful and relevant," I said grouchily, and suddenly feeling really old, I rolled onto my knees and staggered upright.
Mom had cancer.
I exhaled.
No, she was in remission.
But she needed a hysterectomy.
Preventative, by the sounds of it.
Which meant there was a chance it could come back.
Oh, who the hell was I kidding? That was as much cancer's MO as Aidan Sr.'s preference for crucifying his victims!
Fear tightened my throat like a hand was choking me.
"Is the cancer why you retired?" Mom had been a sex therapist for over twenty years.
She sighed. "Yes. The chemotherapy was aggressive, and it drained me."
Hesitantly, I asked, "Did you lose your hair?"
Her abrupt answer told me she didn’t want to talk about it: "Yes."
She and Daddy had attended Aidan Sr.’s funeral, but I hadn’t realized she was wearing a wigorthat she’d been sick—that I called myself an investigative journalist was embarrassing.
"You don’t want to go back to your practice?" I asked to change the subject.
"Not particularly."
"Why not?"
"I decided I’m going to take a leaf out of your book."
"You are?" If I sounded wary, that was because I damn well was.
"I am. I’m going to write my memoirs."
My brows lifted. "Jesus."
She chuckled. "It’s not that bad."
I thought about what I knew of my parents’ relationship, and I cleared my throat. "Please tell me you’re not going to talk about the threesomes you and Daddy had—"
"That’s between me and my manuscript."
I cringed. "Paris and Aspen won’t like it."
"They’re prudes. And you don’t sound particularly pleased by it, Savannah," she chided.
"Do you think the world is ready to know that before he died, you, Daddy, and Gerard Sullivan were an item? Heck, I don’t think Star even knew you were back together."