Page 62 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
If this was her best, it wasn’t nearly good enough. “I know you can do better, Mom. You can do better for Wren. She needs a mom who—”
“Don’t you tell me what I need to do. Why don’t you get off that high horse of yours? You’re just like Lindsay. So judgmental. You act like you’re so much better than me. Let me tell you something, baby,youain’t nothin’ special.”
Youain’t nothin’ special.
I brushed off the words that I’d heard hundreds of times before.
Since we were doing this, I decided to broach a topic that had never been addressed. “Why did you let Wade move in?”
“He’s Wren’s daddy.” She blew smoke into the muggy air. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Say no.”
“He said he’d pay the bills. Could be worse.”
“We don’t need him, Mom. You could get a better job, and we can do this on our own.”
“Sure, we can.” She laughed, but it wasn’t a merry sound. “When I got pregnant with you in high school, that was it for me. There wasn’t a lot out there for girls like me. All I had was my looks and my body, and now I don’t even have that. You kids sucked the life right out of me.”
We didn’t do that. The drugs, cigarettes, and her shitty life choices did.
When I was a kid, I was always scared that I’d wake up one day and she’d be gone. My mother was unpredictable, to say the least. She wasn’t the best mother, but like Ridge said about his, she was the only one I had.
I heard the front door close and footsteps thudding on the linoleum. Oh, joy. Wade was home.
“Hey, baby,” my mom said, giving him a little wave and a big smile like she was thrilled to see him.
“I brought Chinese,” he said.
Just like we were one big happy family, and Chinese takeout would fix all our problems. It always killed me how easily my mother and Wade brushed everything under the carpet when they were sober.
My mom nudged my shoulder and raised her brows as if to say,You see? Everything is going to be just fine.
I handed my mom the hose and walked into the house. “I’m going out.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Evie
“This was a mistake.I need to get that note back.” I checked my phone. It was six o’clock. He’d be finishing work any minute. No time to waste. I marched toward his truck.
Quinn grabbed my arm and yanked me back. “You’re not allowed.”
“I’m not allowed?” I asked with a laugh.
“Nope. We’re going to see this through.” She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a stern look. Or as stern as Quinn could look, which was not the least bit threatening. “Lucky for me, I have a front-row seat,” she said with a grin. “I wish I had some popcorn for the show.”
“What was I thinking?” I wiped my sweaty hands on my shorts.
What had ever made me think this was a good idea? I hadn’t been thinking clearly.
After I walked out on my mom and Wade, I’d driven straight to the brewery and parked next to Quinn’s VW Beetle in the employee parking area. Without thinking it through, I’d written Ridge a note, slapped the Post-it on his windshield, and ran across the field to the taproom for moral support. I was hoping Quinn would talk me out of my momentary insanity before it was too late.
But I should have known better. Quinn was the romantic one in our duo.
Now I was leaning against the stone wall of the taproom with my back to Ridge’s truck. It looked like I was chasing him. I wasn’t. All I wanted was a summer fling. At this point, I wasn’t even sure I wanted that.
“Wow, I’ve never seen you this frazzled before.” Quinn’s face lit up like she couldn’t imagine anything better than watching me lose my shit. “I told you he was different. He’s really gotten to you, hasn’t he?”
