Page 97 of Dirty Pucker

“Del, be careful…” I trail off when I see him glaring at the door.

The porch light is on, but in the darkness of the night, it takes me a second to see what he’s staring at. I zero in on the center of the red wooden door. It’s splintered and sunken in, like something or someone crashed into it.

Del looks over at the nearby window. The screen is hanging loose.

“Fucking piece of shit,” he mutters before opening the door and stepping inside. He lets me in and closes the door behind me. He steps in front of me. “Mom?”

“Del, honey.” A small woman with short dark hair rushes out of the kitchen over to him. He hugs his arms around her. I’msurprised at how young she looks. Del is twenty-nine and his mom looks like she could be in her forties.

“Goodness, I’m so glad you’re here,” she says in a soft, shaky voice.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“Yes, honey. I’m fine.” She steps back, surprised to see me. “Hello, there.”

Del glances at me before looking back at his mom. “Sorry, I should have introduced you two.”

I shake my head. I turn to his mom. “I’m Ingrid.”

I reach out and shake her hand.

She smiles at me. “I’m Nancy. It’s lovely to meet you.”

I notice she looks between Del and me. She’s probably wondering why I’m here.

“Ingrid is in charge of social media for the Bashers,” Del says.

I nod and smile. That’s probably a better explanation than, “We’re friends who just started hooking up and haven’t yet defined this thing between us.”

“Ingrid and I were, um, hanging out when you called.” Del mumbles while rubbing the back of his neck.

Nancy quirks an eyebrow at him. Clearly she’s not buying that.

“Ingrid could tell I was pretty upset when you called so she offered to drive me.”

She turns to me and touches my arm. “That’s so kind of you, Ingrid. Thank you.”

“It was no problem. Really.”

Nancy offers a sad smile. “I’m so sorry for interrupting your night.”

“Please don’t apologize,” I quickly say. “I’d want my parents to call me if something like this happened to them.”

Nancy looks heartened at what I’ve said.

Del glances around. “I’m going to take a look around the outside of the house.”

Nancy looks nervous even though she nods.

“I can come with you,” I say to Del

Del shakes his head. “You stay inside with my mom.”

“Okay,” I say softly.

He grabs a flashlight from the kitchen and walks outside. Nancy heads into the kitchen.

“Ingrid, dear, can I make you a cup of coffee?” She darts to one of the cabinets and starts to open it but stops herself. “Goodness, what am I saying? It’s past nine o’clock at night. You probably don’t want coffee.”

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