Page 28 of Trophy
He thought maybe she would really like it, once she got used to it.
He’d lived here all his life, and he never wanted to leave. It was a really good town to live in.
He was distracted from his thoughts by raised voices entering the restaurant. He recognized them even before he turned around to see Dee and Cali coming in.
He had to stifle a groan. He’d been doing really well with Allison lately. He didn’t want to scare her off with the messiness that still lingered from his past mistakes.
He frowned as they both came over to sit on the stools next to him. Dee was screeching about how Cali never listened to her.
“Would you quiet down?” he rasped, leaning over and giving her a stern look. “What are you doing here so early?” They never came in for breakfast. The only reason either one of them would be here was to talk to him.
Dee turned toward him, as if about to unleash her anger on him. “Would you tell her she can’t see that jackass anymore?”
“Rob’s not my father,” Cali snapped. “He can’t tell me anything.”
The whole restaurant was hearing them. Rob couldn’t imagine what Allison would be thinking. He’d done a good job giving her the impression that he had it all together. This wasn’t going to help at all.
“But I’m your mom, and you never listen to me at all!”
Rob sighed. “Maybe we should talk about this later.”
“When later?” Dee snapped, turning back to him.
Allison came over then with her pad in her hand. “Can I get you anything?” she asked with her pleasant waitress smile. She wasn’t meeting Rob’s eyes, and that couldn’t be a good thing.
“Can’t you see we’re having a private conversation here?” Dee demanded harshly.
Allison actually stepped back in the face of this unprovoked rudeness.
“Dee,” Rob said, wishing he could restart this morning. “You don’t have to?—”
“I’ll come back when you’re ready,” Allison murmured, dropping her eyes. “Just let me know.”
She was gone before Rob could say anything to make the situation better.
“You don’t have to be rude,” Rob said, trying not to express his anger, since that would only rile Dee up even more.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Dee cooed bitterly. “Did I upset your little girlfriend?”
Rob cringed. Allison was just at the other end of the counter. She had to be hearing every word.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” He started scrambling for ways to get them out of here quickly, even if it meant not finishing his breakfast.
“Well, you sure as hell make goo-goo eyes at her like she is.”
“Would you stop it and tell me what you want?” Everyone was looking over at them. Allison was even looking over, although she was pretending not to.
He’d grown up in this town and was used to everyone knowing his business. The whole town knew when he got drunk after football games in high school. The whole town knew when Maria was cheating on him with every loser she could find. The whole town knew when he and Dee had loud, angry fights all the time when they were married.
But Allison was different. He didn’t want her to know all that.
“I want you to talk some sense into this girl,” Dee said, finally getting back to the point again.
“It’s not his business, Mom,” Cali whined. She’d been fiddling with her phone during the previous part of the conversation. She hardly seemed aware of what was going on.
“Maybe we should have this conversation somewhere else,” Rob suggested, doing his best to sound calm.
“Where, exactly?” Dee demanded. “You never come over anymore, even when I need you!”
