Page 35 of Maid in America

“Arnold and I were focused on making a real difference. But she, of course, didn’t follow suit. She is a brilliant girl, but something isn’t…quite rightwith her. It’s quite embarrassing, really. Between you, me, and this table, she’s only back home because she flunked out of college.”

“Oh.”

“Her last semester, mind you. Instead of dusting herself off and trying that last one over again, she just up and quit completely. Walked away. All that veterinary training for nothing. Just… a real waste, if you ask me, of money, time, and dreams. And now she’s back here acting like she can just come and go like I run a free motel.”

“Must be tough to watch someone squander that kind of potential,” Barrett said softly, trying to soothe her.

She nodded. “We’ve spent our entire adult lives helping to shepherd a flock, and now our only daughter is the one wayward sheep we can’t seem to keep with the herd.”

Just then, Barrett saw someone in his periphery, someone leaning against the kitchen’s entrance with a scowl.

It was her. His infatuating rainbow-haired beauty. Aphrodite.

No… Chastity.

“Speak of the Devil,” Maggie said, slapping her palms to the table.

Barrett spun and smiled at her, tapping his notepad like a drummer. “Well, hello.Chastity, was it?”

He tried to hide his smile, tried to hide the fact that he already knew herintimatelyin front of her mother.

Chastity crossed her arms over her tank top, one sporting a cute cartoon mushroom holding a bloodied butcher’s knife. Her jeans were snug and low, showing a delicious sliver of her abdomen that he longed to run his tongue along again.

Chastity looked past him. “Maggie, where did you put my purse? I need it.”

“Why do youinsiston calling me Maggie? It’s so disrespectful. Does ‘Honor thy Father and thy Mother’ mean absolutely nothing to you?”

“She’s aquickone,” Chastity muttered sarcastically to Barrett.

A smirk settled on Barrett’s lips.

“Where are you going?” Maggie inquired.

“Oh, well, I was thinking of breaking into the church with a bottle of wine and a roast pig and hosting an orgy on the stage. You know, just a little good old-fashioned debauchery. Maybe even do like a Sodom and Gomorrah theme and put out a charcuterie board in case people get extra hungry from all the fellatio.”

“Stop! Just… stop!” Maggie opened her mouth and closed it several times before finally saying, “I put your purse in the coat closet.”

“Thanks,” Chastity bit out before turning back to Barrett. “Nice to meet you, Barrett.”

“See you around?” he asked, hopeful.

“Maybe.” She shrugged and walked down the hall.

“You alright, Mrs. Erikson?” Barrett asked quietly.

“Thefilththat comes out of that girl’s mouth sometimes!”

Barrett thought back to their night together in his apartment…

And of the filth she was willing to putin.

It made him hard just thinking about it.

“Right. Anyway,windows.Windexis kind of the standard as far as cleaners go. If you use paper towels, you’re often going to end up with streaks. There’s an old trick I use where you rub the glass with a piece ofnewspaper,and it’ll be so clean that birds’ll end up trying to fly right through it.”

Barrett knew whatever vulnerability he had seen from Maggie was long gone. Her face had changed back into the well-practiced expression of a cheery pastor’s wife, the only part of herself that she probably ever allowed the world to see.

13

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