Page 138 of Anyone But Her

"Mom, are you okay?" I ask, because she hardly ever cries.

Instead of answering, she hugs me.

I hug her back. This is strange. I don't come from a family of huggers.

"I've missed you," she says, standing back and wiping her eyes. "I didn't think you'd ever come back."

"I didn't think you wanted me to. After Dad showed up and told me...well, you know what's going on."

"And I don't like it," she says, crossing her arms over her chest. "Your dad's being a shithead."

I glance at Taylor. I should've warned her my parents swear a lot. Her parents almost never do.

"So you're not part of this?" I ask, surprised. My mom was always nicer to me than my dad but she still went along with the stuff he did, like making me work all the time and taking my money.

"You're an adult now," she says. "What you make is what you get. You do the work, you get the money. We're not supporting you anymore. It doesn't make sense for us to take your money."

"Then why is Dad doing this?"

She shrugs. "Hell if I know. Because he's jealous? Angry? Or just plain stupid. He knows you won't give him money so I don't know why he's wasting his time going after you like this."

"He's trying to blackmail me. He wants to find something to use against me that might hurt my golf career. Didn't he tell you that?"

"He rambled on about it but I wasn't really listening. Until he mentioned getting a lawyer. I told him he was fucking crazy. We can't afford some damn lawyer."

"Janet, who is it?" my dad yells from the other room. "You better not be giving our money away to one of them damn salesmen!"

"It's not a salesman!" she yells back.

"Don't be giving our money to those damn neighbor kids either!"

She rolls her eyes. "You sure you want to talk to him? He's in one of his moods."

"He's always in a bad mood. I just need to get this over with." I go past her into the kitchen, then look back at Taylor. "You okay waiting here?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"You want something to drink?" my mom says to Taylor.

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

I'm not sure if leaving Taylor with my mom is a good idea but I need to talk to my dad alone.

"Hey, Dad," I say, walking into the living room and sitting down on the couch. He's in his chair, looking at me like I'm crazy for showing up like this.

"What the hell you doing here?"

"I came for a visit. Mom seems good."

"She's on some new diet." He picks up a can of beer from the table beside him and takes a drink. "She quit smoking. Did she tell you that?"

"No. She didn't mention it."

"It saved us a shitload. You know what they charge for cigarettes these days?"

"So how's work?"

He sets his beer can down. "Why do you care? You don't give a shit about my work."

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