Page 202 of Story of My Life
Zoey choked out a laugh.
“Oh my.” Mom gave the Bishops an appreciative once-over. “Introduce me to your friends, Hazel.”
The last thing I wanted to do was stand here in my sweat-soaked defeat and make perfunctory introductions. “Mom, this is Cam, Levi, and Gage. Guys, this is my mother, who should be on a yacht in the Mediterranean right now.”
“Well, I’m suddenly much less worried about you,” Mom said to me, offering her hand to Cam.
“What are you doing here, Jim?” Zoey demanded. “Keeping an eye on yourinvestment?”
Jim held up his palms. “Now let’s try to keep things civil, Zoey.”
She bared her teeth at him and it was Cam’s turn to grin.
“Zoey. I should have known you wouldn’t let Hazel run off on her own,” Mom said, dragging her in for an involuntary hug.
“It’s good to see you, Ramona,” Zoey said after escaping the hug. “Your ring looks like it could take out an eye. Now what the hell are you doing with your daughter’s ex-husband after he cheated her out of her own work?”
My mother’s eyes narrowed. “I beg your pardon?”
“Yeah, uh, Zoey, I didn’t exactly share that information widely,” I said.
Jim chuckled nervously. “No need to be dramatic about it.”
I’d heard the condescending line so many times it had almost become “our song.” The first time I’d heard it was when Zoey and I had gotten schnockered on cheap wine at a literary award dinner. He’d packed us into a cab and sent us home before we could embarrass him. Every time, it had shamed me into submission. After all, appearances were the keystone of reputation. And just because he’d married a significantly younger woman, he didn’t want his colleagues to think that meant I was immature.
Well, fuck that.
Cam was looking at me, asking for permission for… Well, I wasn’t sure. But I guessed it involved some violence and significant name-calling. I shook my head. This was my mess to deal with, and it was long past time I faced it.
“I’ll be as dramatic as I want, you colossal asshole,” I announced, once again brushing my bangs out of my eyes.
“Now, Hazel, I see no reason we can’t keep this civil.”
Old Hazel would have caved, would have let him say his piece and ended up agreeing with him. But Old Hazel was dead. And New Hazel had spent a significant amount of time with Campbell Bishop.
“I’ll give you a reason. I don’t want to be civil. I’ve ignored your calls and texts and emails for a reason, Jim. I don’t know what possessed you to come here and enlist my mother after youstolemy first three books from me in the divorce. But you and your linen pants should leave now because nothing you have to say would interest me in the least and the last person who pissed me off ended up taking a header into the lake.”
Scattered applause surrounded us, and I realized we’d attracted a small crowd.
Garland raised his phone in my line of sight.
“Garland, I swear to God, if you take that picture, I will hunt you down and feed you your phone,” I snapped.
“Sheesh. Cam’s sure been rubbing off on you,” he muttered but tucked the phone into the safety of his back pocket.
“What do you mean, hestoleyour books in the divorce?” Mom demanded. Gone were the dulcet tones of the trophy wife. They’d been replaced with steel. “Because you know all you had to do was ask for my help and I would have had a team of attorneys on your side of the table.”
My mother knew the best, most expensive divorce attorneys in every major city.
“I don’t want to get into it right now, Mom. Why are you here, Jim?” I crossed my arms.
“I’m here because I care about you. And you obviously need guidance.” He gestured around us as if there was evidence circling us. But the only thing surrounding us was my town, my neighbors, my friends.
“You don’t care about me any more than I care about you,” I insisted.
“Let’s go talk somewhere more…private,” he said, glancing behind me at Cam and his brothers.
“Not happening,” Cam said, stepping up to stand by my side.
