Page 26 of A Dream for Daphne

Not with the way she was raised and the people she was exposed to in bars she’d worked in.

“You have no idea what I think or see, Mom. Don’t do that.”

“Whatever,” her mother said. “You’re probably there being a hermit and putting all your money under the mattress. Your dad and I could use some help. You know, we let you live at the house for years.”

She ground her teeth. “I’m not a hermit,” she said.

“That’s all you did when you lived at home. You hardly ever went out.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed her plate of food away. She’d lost her appetite.

“Because I was tired, Mom. I was working sixty hours a week on a good week and never sat down once doing it. I didn’t have a desk job like you.”

“How hard is it to watch kids and bring people drinks and food?” her mother said.

“Mom,” she said. “I’m done talking about this.”

She wasn’t going to let her mother degrade her for her choices in a career.

She already felt bad enough about herself that she never went to college and would be looked down on for that. Bad decisions many said and she lived them for a long time.

She’d made another at the casino weeks ago she had to live with too.

The last thing she needed was a family member to make her feel worse.

Which made her think of Abe.

Was that why he asked her that? Did he have women think less of him because maybe he didn’t go to college?

By the looks of it, he had one hell of a thriving business he should be super proud of.

What did she have? A high school degree and experience watching kids and serving food and drink.

“Whatever,” her mother said again. It was her go-to when she was done talking about something or not getting her way. “Howabout floating Dad and me a little? You have to be making more working for that wealthy family and having no living costs. We need to get a few things done on the house to pass inspection.”

“Not my problem,” she said. “You should have been putting away the money I paid in rent for the past decade while I lived there.”

Half the mortgage, she’d been charged, to stay in her ten by ten bedroom with her single bed.

“I didn’t think you’d be this ungrateful for everything we did for you,” her mother said and then hung up the phone.

“That was a lovely end to my day,” she said to herself and tossed her phone on the counter.

Guess her two-month streak of not being talked down to or hearing negative things said about her was at an end.

Not surprising it came from her mother.

Her dinner was cold and she had no desire to eat it.

Though she hated to waste anything, she threw the rest of it out, filled a glass with ice, and then poured in her lime seltzer that she was rarely without and went to sit on her front porch in the rocking chair.

There wasn’t much of a view, but it was peaceful and it was hers for now.

She’d never had anything that was truly hers in her life and wondered what that might feel like.

9

ELIMINATE THAT POSSIBILITY

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