Page 111 of Suddenly Dating
“Well, look what the cat drug in,” her mother sneered. “I don’t know what you’re doing out there, Lola, but I don’t need perverts coming here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lola asked, sighing, and dropped her backpack on a chair.
“That man come looking for you,” her mother said, waving her hand.
What was her mother confused about now? “What man?”
“Some man says he’s been to the hospital with you before. Says he’s looking for you.”
Lola’s heart spasmed and then stopped. It juststopped.And yet, somehow, she managed to drag enough breath to say, “Harry?”
“I don’t know what the hell his name is! I just know he come in here asking if I knew where you were. I said I don’t have a clue, that no one cares about me out here. And then he asked for Casey. You know what kind of man that is? Can’t have one sister, he’ll take another?”
“Mom!”Lola cried. She was going to hyperventilate or pass out, whichever came first. Harry had beenhere?How did he even know whereherewas? “What did you tell him?”
“I told him I ain’t telling no pervert where my daughters are. And he left.”
Lola choked down a sob and sank onto the end of her mother’s bed. “He left?”
“Are you deaf? Course he left. I’m not putting up with that shit.”
Her heart was lamely beating again, but without conviction. It wanted to die. “Did he say what he wanted?”
“No! I wouldn’t’ve cared if he did!”
“Oh, Mom,” Lola said sadly. “What have you done?”
“Like it or not, missy, I’m your mother. Course I’m going to watch out for you if you’re too dumb to do it yourself.”
Lola’s heart skipped and found its determination, fueled by ire. “Oh, yeah, thanks,” she snapped. “Here’s the thing, Mom—we don’t need you to protect us now. We’re adults, the danger is behind us. We needed you to protect usthen.”
Her mother’s eyes widened with surprise. “You better not be speaking to me like that, Lola Elizabeth Dunne.”
“Maybe I should have spoken to you like that a long time ago,” Lola said dispassionately. “Maybe I should have learned to speak my heart a very long time ago instead of always hiding it from you and the authorities and anyone else who I feared would hurt us.”
“That’s a load of bullshit,” her mother said.
“No, Mom, it’s not. All my life, I have been careful not to say the wrong thing, not to give off any hint of despair because I was so afraid someone would come and take us away. And now, as an adult, I can’t say what I feel. I never told you how hard you made our lives. I never told Will how angry I was with him. I never told Harry—” She caught herself.
“Never told Harry what?” her mother asked, peering at her.
“That I love him,” Lola said. “Happy now?”
Her mother laughed.
Lola dragged herself home, her emotional beatdown now complete. She was so numb she couldn’t think. She was going to take a shower, put on something nice, and go to the Westbrooks’ apartment with the hope of getting a message to Harry. And if she somehow managed to see him again—he’d probably run like the wind after talking to her mother—Lola would say what she’d meant to say to him Monday morning. She would say what she’d wanted to say for a few weeks now. And she would pray with all her might that it was not too late.
She used the spare key to get into Casey’s apartment. It was dark; Casey wasn’t home from work yet. Lola went into Casey’s room and fell face down onto her bed and into a deep, morose sleep.
She thought she was dreaming when she heard Casey talking loudly. It took her a moment to rouse herself from sleep and sit up. It was no dream—Casey was shouting into the intercom to the front door.
“Please let me up.”
Lola gasped.Harry!
“No!”
Lola shot off the bed and ran into the living room. Casey was standing in front of the intercom with her hands on her hips. She gestured for Lola to go back into the bedroom.
