“You know exactly what I mean by that.” I had no patience left in me for this conversation. I ignored Edmée and Brandon both as they tried to ease me down, ready to have this out with my mother once and for all. “This place is so haunted I can’t turn a street corner without seeing something. I spent my entire childhood running from ghosts or battling it out with them. Only three people ever believed me as a child and even then, they couldn’t help me. So along with fighting the ghosts, I was bullied by my own fucking siblings. And still, still, you put keeping me with you as the priority. You knew for years what I must have been. You knew you could send me to Beau and Hannah and you didn’t do it. Dammit, why?! I was tortured most of my childhood down here! Why didn’t you send me to safety?”
Tears stood in her eyes. “Send you off? My precious baby, to a relative I barely knew? No way in hell I could do that. The Feds already took our children from us once. If they knew what you were, I’d never get you back.”
“So seeing me tortured, bullied, and chased daily, at my wit’s end, was preferable?” I laughed, and there was no humor in the sound. I’d known deep down, but hearing her say that, acting as if what I suggested was impossible, hurt more than it should have. “I’m far kinder to you than you are to me.”
“How is a mother wanting to keep her child with her wrong?!” she demanded, slamming both hands against the table.
“Okay, time out.” Brandon stood and pulled me out of the chair. “You’re both exhausted and on the verge of saying things you don’t really mean. We’re stopping here. Adelle, we’ll see you later. Come on, love.”
Brandon gave me no option but to move as he basically carried me outside and bundled me into the Tahoe. It was warm in the vehicle, the Southern night muggy but not unbearable. Crickets sang, and I heard a few birds chirp at each other through the window. It was lovely but didn’t help quell my mood any.
“I wanted to battle it out with her once and for all,” I informed my boyfriend crossly.
“I think you got your point across. Anything else would have just been mean.”
I glared at him. “You’re taking her side.”
“Naw, I’m taking yours. She really should have sent you to Beau and Hannah earlier. She knew exactly what you were—it’s why she believed you after a while, that you could see ghosts. But she’s not perfect, Mack. That woman’s lost too much, and she didn’t have a lot to begin with. And she won’t say as much, but I get the feeling you’re her favorite child. Hell, I’d find it hard to give you up too.”
I knew losing children to the government still scared many people down here. The memory was alive and well. That had probably stayed my mother’s hand more than anything else. But still, I had a lot of emotional scars from my childhood that I shouldn’t have. And that’s what she refused to acknowledge, and in turn what made me so mad at her for not understanding that this place was hell to me.
The anger burned away steadily as we drove away from my mother’s house. I was too tired to hang on to it properly and found myself listing sideways, eyes almost closed as I let the soothing vibrations of the car lull me to a more peaceful state of mind.
Brandon commented as he drove, “You are really out for the count, honey. Maybe we shouldn’t have had victory car sex.”
“Car sex was fun,” I said sleepily. “And I really like it, you know. That I’m so irresistible to you.”
“You are certainly that. Nap if you want to, I’ll wake you when we get a room.”
“Mmm,” I agreed. I didn’t remember much after that.
In fact, the rest of the night was something of a blur. I felt the sensation of being carried out of the car, of cool sheets hitting my back. Someone tugged my pants and shirt off me, covered me with blankets. Brandon’s warmth came in to snuggle against my back. I felt the impressions, but nothing penetrated the fog I was under.
It wasn’t until a grating alarm went off that I properly woke up. I’d flopped onto my back at some point. Brandon lay on his side nearby, one hand tucked under his pillow, utterly relaxed. His eyes were open and a hint of concern tightened the corners of his mouth. “How you feeling this morning?”
I rolled into him and snuggled. “If I said sleepy, can we just stay in bed?”
A subterranean chuckle rolled through him. “Now, that’s appealing. Edmée promised to feed us breakfast. You awake enough for that to be tempting?”
I paused in my snuggling. “What is she making?”
“French toast with sausages, she said.”
Damn. Edmée’s French toast had, in fact, won cookoff awards. Local competitions, but still. My stomach developed an immediate envie for it and growled in support. “Looks like my snuggling attempt was thwarted. Alright, let’s get up.”
Brandon gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and rolled free. I admired the sight of his long, muscled back as it flexed. God sure did know what he was doing when he put this man together.
Of course, he caught my admiring look and winked at me over his shoulder. “Quickie in the shower?”
“Mon cher, you sure do know how to tempt a man.” The sheets, being in league with demons, tried to tangle up my feet. I was not to be defeated and fought them off. I had a man and hot water available. Such an opportunity was not to be missed.
I was feeling far more relaxed and charitable with life as Brandon drove us to Edmée’s. I thought about protesting, as I knew the roads down here far better than he did, but I’d not won the driving argument yet. Mostly because the one time I was behind the wheel, I’d slammed on the brakes and nearly taken off a fender on a mailbox. In my defense, the ghost had looked very much alive.
Brandon had not let me have the keys since.
As we drove, I thought about that. Thought about how I never drove anywhere these days, and how my Accord was sitting at his parents’ house. It was a newer model, a 2016 I’d bought for myself when I’d signed up with the FBI. Partially as a reward to myself for making it in, partially because my old car hadn’t been seaworthy enough to make the trip to Arkansas. It seemed a waste to leave it sitting there.
I thought too about my mother, a woman who had no education and a true fear of living outside of her comfort zone. A woman who had done her best to raise seven children without any support from a deadbeat husband. As angry as I felt about not being given the right help during my childhood, I couldn’t dismiss all the times she’d sat with me, talked with me, comforted my fears as best she knew how. You could love someone to pieces and still not understand their choices. I did love my mother. And because of that, I wanted to take care of her.
It was a mixed bag of feelings, especially after the argument last night, but that was my relationship with most of my family. In the end, love won out, and a plan stirred in my mind, taking form. “Cher.”
“Yeah, honey?”
“The thought occurs to me we now have three vehicles, what with the Tahoe given to us. I don’t imagine I’ll need my Accord much.”
“Or at all,” he agreed, slowing to take a turn. He didn’t look at me, but I could feel that I had his attention. “If we don’t take the Tahoe for whatever reason, we still have my truck to use. Are you thinking about giving the Accord to your mom?”