Page 76 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

“You’re back early,” she said with a smile. “Missed your baby, did ya?”

I always missed my baby.

The hours and hours that I had to work at the candy shop made me hate myself.

I wanted to spend some time with Anleigh, but my father required me at the store for a solid eight hours a day, every day. On the days that daycare wasn’t available, I got to bring her to work with me. But even then, Dad required her to stay in the back, unseen.

“I did,” I said. “She’s my little sidekick, and I don’t know how to function without her.”

Mrs. Rawls stepped back and opened her door wide. “Get on in here. Do you want some cake?”

I knew I shouldn’t.

Dad would only want to hit me all over again if I took too long to come back.

But I did it anyway.

Glancing at my daughter that was asleep on the couch, not a worry in the world, I headed to the small kitchen and took a seat.

“Chocolate cake cures the soul,” she said.

I eyed the chocolate cake and said, “I’ll take the whole thing.”

Mrs. Rawls laughed.

If only she knew I wasn’t joking.

My soul was battered and bruised. It might take the whole thing to fix it.

Chapter

Seven

Nothing for you, whore.

—Christmas T-shirt

JEREMIAH

The storm hit sometime while we were in the air, coming home from our latest game, and landing was a nightmare.

It took us a solid ten minutes longer to land than it should have, and by the time we did, I was a nervous wreck, as were the rest of the team.

“You have the next four days off,” Coach said as he stood. “Be back here on December 26th, ready to work.”

I grimaced.

It was December 23rd.

I had a shit ton of shopping I still needed to do—I was a full-blown procrastinator—and it looked like I wouldn’t be doing much of it if the storm had anything to say about it.

We were, according to the local news meteorologist, about to have the storm of the century.

If I played my cards right, I could go run to a few places and grab my grandmother her weekly groceries and make sure that her house was ready before I headed back home.

My grandmother, whom I loved with my entire soul, was the matriarch of our family.

She was also fiercely independent and refused to admit that living alone was too much for her.

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