Page 53 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

Knowing I would have to deal with this now to keep her out of my hair at a later date, I decided to go with it.

I got into her passenger seat, and she started the beast up, then crossed her arms over her chest and said, “I want to talk to you about this.”

I barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her.

“Then talk,” I said.

She put the vehicle into drive and pulled out onto the street.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Your neighbor was looking at me like I was a maniac,” she grumbled. “And I think better when I’m driving.”

Because arguing would be useless, I chose not to protest her driving and tapped my foot against the floorboard.

I waited for her to ‘discuss’ and wasn’t surprised when she immediately went into more bullshit.

“And Scott told me that your prospective cop boyfriend treated him poorly,” she proclaimed. “And another thing! You got a lawyer to deal with your father? Don’t you think a simple phone call could’ve solved that?”

Was she delusional?

“Are you living in the same planet as me?” I asked her. “Since when do you think that a simple phone call can solve anything with Chief Austin?”

Vickie narrowed her eyes at the road, then threw up her hands, making my heart skip a beat at her lack of safety.

Dr. Vickie Austin was a stickler for the rules of the road because of all the trauma victims she had to work on in her time in the OR at Dallas Memorial.

But she was acting weird today.

More jerky.

More accusative.

“Vickie, is something wrong?” I asked her.

“And you just had to move out of the house, then open a business that’s become so public just to spite your father’s rules,” she continued, acting as if I had never asked a question.

“I moved out because Dad was smothering me, and you let him,” I pointed out. “And that was years ago. Me opening a business was the next step. I worked for a bakery for years and years, and it’s always been my dream. Why would living my dream be a bad thing?”

She continued to ignore me. “You need to close it down.”

“Close it down?” I asked her incredulously. “I’m not closing anything down.” I paused. “Actually, I am. But only to move the bakery out of Dallas. I’m going to look at a building tomorrow.”

“You would leave your dad and Scott?” she asked, voice rising.

What was her deal with my father and Scott?

“I hate both of them, so why would their opinions matter to me whatsoever?” I questioned her. “Again, your blind allegiance to them is embarrassing. You have no freakin’ clue how they’ve treated me over the years because you willingly stick your head in the sand and drown out the world around you. And, just sayin’, but when I move the bakery to a different city, Dad won’t have the same foothold there that he does here. So maybe I’ll get to live my freakin’ life without worrying whether or not my bakery will be shut down for no fucking reason.”

She started driving faster, and my heart started to pound.

I reached for my seatbelt, pulling it across my chest.

“What are you going on about? He’s not doing anything.” She snorted, again speeding up.

My stomach summersaulted in my belly.

But of course, I was a glutton for punishment.

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