Page 19 of Tattered Souls
It was hours later, and once I pulled my Charger outside of my parents’ house, I tagged the bottle of wine from my passenger seat.
I watched as Carter, Harlee, Dominic, Bronson, Lila, Everly, and Tatum all had bottles of wine in their hands.
My shoulders started shaking, and then laughter boomed all around us.
I saw my dad step out on the porch, and then he asked, “What the hell is so fun...?”
He trailed off.
Looked down at our hands, and then he too threw his head back in laughter.
At the same time, Mom came out and looked at him as if he had lost all his marbles, then at us, who were still laughing, saw the bottles, and then I heard her giggle, followed by her laughter.
***
I watched as Tatum left the living room to use the bathroom.
I vaguely noticed the women were talking low.
Curious, I leaned in and started to catch their conversation.
“Have y’all noticed how Tatum shies away from anyone who isn’t Carter, Garrick, Ethan, Alec, Dominik, Bronson, my dad, or their dad?” I heard Harlee ask.
I felt my temper start to rise.
Harlee was a good person.
So, why in the hell was she talking about Tatum behind her back like that?
“Yeah, I noticed that too. And have you noticed we’ve yet to meet Lance?” Talia asked.
Lance? Who the fuck is that?
Before I could open my mouth, I found out why.
Motherfucking son a of a bitch.
“I think either she doesn’t want us to meet him, or he doesn’t want to meet us. I’m not sure yet. But I can say this, if either of us, excluding Harlee, had a man, we’d be sharing it to the whole world. And Tatum didn’t do that.” Lila said with a sigh.
Everly shrugged, “Maybe she’s nervous to bring him around all of us.”
I’d had enough; therefore, I bit out, “Doubt she’d like knowing y’all were talking about her behind her back.”
They all jumped and then whipped their heads around in their seats.
Talia scoffed, “Like y’all don’t talk about us behind our backs? Really?”
“We might. But we don’t judge y’all, not like y’all were doing with Tatum.” I said and then walked out of the house and to the back porch.
My hands fisting around the railing to calm that temper I tried to keep a tight leash on.
The very one that had come out fully when I was fourteen and hadn’t realized I even had it.
I just didn’t know that in a matter of months, part of that temper was going to be unleashed.
And I wasn’t going to do fuck all to leash it back in.
We were all in the living room, waiting.
