Page 115 of Fierce-Hyde

“You couldn’t wait to get that in there, could you, Aunt Diane?” Jade asked.

“I’ve got to start somewhere,” Diane said. “Or more like let you know how happy I am to see the two of you together. We knew you’d work out.”

“Let me steal you away, Tori,” Jade said. “Hyde, go bug Ryder or Drake. They are both here. Tori doesn’t need to be glued to your hip.”

She laughed as Jade maneuvered her to the back of the house by Kara. “Jade saved you?” Kara asked.

“I didn’t know I’d need saving, but Diane started right in.”

“Oh no,” Jade said. “Here comes my mother. Let’s get this one over with.”

“Don’t be mean, Jade,” Carolyn said. “I just wanted to come to say hi to Tori and that she and Hyde look so cute together.”

“We do, don’t we?” she said. “Oh, the kids are here. Look how big they got.”

“Let’s go play with the kids,” Jade said, laughing and steering her in that direction next.

“How the hell did you get to avoid everything today?” Hyde asked her three hours later.

“Jade and Kara took me under their wing. I thought it was sweet. When you weren’t around they were by my side.”

She’d never had anyone protect her like that before. It felt nice...special.

“Lucky you,” he said. “I was getting busted on all day.”

“About what?” she asked.

They were driving back to her place now for the night. Hyde hadn’t decorated for the holidays and she had. She wanted to wake up to the tree in the house even if they didn’t have a lot of gifts to open.

“The normal crap guys say to each other. Then I had to hear how cute we looked together. Guys don’t want to hear that.”

“I heard it too,” she said. “Would you rather hear that we look hot together?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Because that is true. Did you want to go out to eat tonight rather than cook?”

“It’s only four,” she said. “I’m not hungry. But then once we get to my place I don’t know that I’ll want to leave again.”

“Takeout,” he said. “I’m good with that.”

“The same,” she said. When her phone rang she looked down to see it was her mother. “Crap.”

“Your mother calling?”

“Yes,” she said. “And I’m not going to answer it. She’s been complaining about packing and moving and I think she can move into her new place on the twenty-seventh because they want her out of her place to paint and stuff.”

“Is she doing everything on her own?” he asked.

“I didn’t ask. I’m not getting sucked down into it again. Do you know she still has asked little about you other than your name and where we met? I told her I might change jobs and she hasn’t asked me about that either.”

“Do you want her to?” he asked.

“Not really. I don’t know. I think it’d be nice if she cared enough, but I need to give up worrying about that now. It’s just sad to think our relationship is one-sided.”

She’d sent her mother a few Christmas gifts and a gift card. Her mother said she was short on cash and that she’d send a gift after she got her first paycheck.

She didn’t need anything from her mother and told her not to worry about it. She was just thrilled her mother found a job so quickly.

Maybe her mother was realizing that Tori meant business. She wouldn’t keep bailing her out.

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