Page 32 of Dirty Pucker

“It just reminded me of when I kicked your father out of the house years ago, after we split up, and he tried to come back…”

Her voice shakes as she trails off. She’s scared and it’s because of him.

Anger pummels through me like a freight train. I think back to when I was eleven years old and our mom had just left our dad.

My dad was pissed. He’d come by the house almost every day, drunk off his ass, and pound on the door, demanding thatwe let him in. I remember huddling with my mom and sister in the back bedroom as we waited for him to leave. He usually did.

But then one day he got so pissed that we were ignoring him and tried to break in. He broke the window screen in that back bedroom.

I remember how my mom screamed, how she made Dakota and I hide in the closet while she yelled at my dad to leave us alone. I remember how her voice shook as she called the police.

He thankfully didn’t make it inside that time, or the handful of other times he tried to break in. Probably because he was too drunk. He was always drunk.

My stomach twists when I think about how I have more memories of my dad drunk than I do of him sober.

I have endless memories of him drunkenly yelling at us, threatening our mom and grabbing her…shoving her…

That anger inside of me sharpens. My chest goes tight as I clench my fist.

That fucker shattered her sense of security for years. The past fifteen years, things have been good.

But one phone call from him ruined everything, and now he’s back to terrorizing her.

That fucking ends now.

I jog through the parking lot.

“I’m on my way to you right now,” I say. “Just hang tight, okay? Everything will be okay, Mom. I promise.”

She lets out a shaky breath. “I’m so sorry to bother you, honey.”

“Don’t be sorry, Mom. I told you to call me anytime you need me, and I meant it.”

“Thank you, honey.”

I make it to my car, unlock it, toss my bag in the back, and jump into the driver’s seat.

“I’ll be at your house in twenty minutes, okay?” I speed out of the parking lot. I pass Xander, who’s walking to his car. He stops and aims a confused frown at me, probably because I’m driving like a maniac.

Whatever. He can think what he wants about me. I don’t fucking care.

All I care about is making it to my mom and making sure she’s safe.

Chapter 12

Del

“Thanks so much, honey,” my mom says as she watches me put the window screen back in place.

“It’s no problem.”

Her eyebrows furrow together as she looks at the window at the back of her house. When she blinks, the fatigue and worry are crystal clear.

“Maybe it wasn’t your dad. Remember how windy it was the other night? That could have rattled the screen loose.”

I turn to her. “Maybe. But it could have been him too.”

I don’t tell her that I’m certain it was him because that would just upset her even more. The way the screen was ripped out of the windowpane, it’s clear it was a person who did it, not the weather.

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