Page 22 of Outlaw

I have to laugh. It does sound ridiculous when she sums it up like that, but ridiculous or not, it’s how it is, and I can’t change the way I feel. We talk for another few minutes, but Christian is waiting outside for me, so I tell her I have to go, and we’ll talk soon. She apologizes again for giving me bad advice, and I head back outside, all smiles, ready to spend the

next few days with my dream man. But when I reach the bottom of the steps, I see something that enrages me.

Christian is standing on the sidewalk by his truck, and in his arms is a woman.

14

Claire

“Hey!” I shout. “What the fuck!?”

I race straight over to Christian and the woman, whoever she is, and grab her by the back of the shirt and pull as hard as I can. She yelps, stumbles backwards, and falls flat on her stupid ass. I turn and glare death at Christian. If this was a movie, there would be flames in my eyes.

“Claire, whoa, wait a second, baby—”

“I leave for two seconds,” I snap. “And this is what I come back to?!”

“Claire, she’s my—”

“This is what I come back to!?” I shriek. “Are you fucking kidding me, Christian?!”

“Hey, take it easy!” the woman says as she scrambles to her feet. I’m about to slap her as hard as I can when Christian grabs my hand.

“Claire!” he hisses. “She’s my mom.”

Oops.

I turn and look at the woman as she gets to her feet. No, it can’t be. She’s not old enough to be Christian’s mom. She looks like she’s barely in her 30s. She’s a little skinny, and her fake-blond hair is tacky as hell and she needs to fix her roots, but other than that she’s really pretty.

“No,” I say. “That’s not possible.”

“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment,” she says, forcing a smile as she dusts herself off. She’s being so nice that I suddenly feel bad. She glances past me at Christian and smiles, and as she does, I see the resemblance, and my heart sinks.

Yeah, I just assaulted my man’s mom.

“I – I am so sorry,” I stammer. “I thought you were—”

“It’s okay,” she replies. It’s not, but she’s being nice. “I would have done something worse in your position.”

“And you probably have,” Christian chuckles. He pulls me close and gestures to his mom. “Claire, this is my mom, Dana. Dana, this is Claire.”

I’m mortified. “Hi…nice to meet you.”

“Let’s not consider this our first meeting,” she says kindly. “Why don’t we all go get a cup of coffee downtown and do this right?”

“Yes,” I say quickly. “Let’s do that.”

I hop in the truck with Christian and instantly start apologizing. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize! I thought she was just some woman—”

“Claire, if there’s one thing you need to know about me,” he replies, “it’s that I’m not a liar or a cheater. You never have to worry about me doing something like that to you.”

I’m feeling more and more like an idiot as we follow his mom to The Bird’s Nest, a cute little coffee shop on Main Street. God, if I only had a Time Turner like Hermione had in Harry Potter. I know exactly what moment I’d be going back to.

I keep quiet as she orders for all of us and pays, despite Christian’s protests, and we take a seat in the corner booth, and I pretend to be interested in the tacky bird plushies that line the window shelf.

“So how long have you two been dating?” I hear Dana ask. I glance over at Christian; is he going to make something up or is he going to tell her the truth?

“It’s a…new relationship,” he says, covering all his bases. “But enough about me. How have you been, Ma?”

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