Page 137 of Bossy Hero

“Yeah. She did say that.” I pause for a breath, fond memories of our grandmother traipsing through my mind. “Well, after dumping all my recent chaos onto you the way I did, I’m unsure where to go from here.”

“How about you start at getting shot?”

“Well, that story involves Leo’s boss and the whole mafia thing. So it’s as good a place as any to begin.”

I give her a condensed version of the events that led to me being a temporary resident of Hotel Redleg.

When I pause for a breath, her first question speaks to her concern and love for my children. “Is Sammy staying there with her husband too? What about Leo and Sue? Are they all safe?”

“Yes, they’re all here. Some of the downstairs offices and lesser-used spaces were temporarily converted into bunk rooms. And I’m staying in Alan’s office with him. He’s got a pull-out sofa in there. No one leaves unless they have lots of backup. Everyone’s guarded and well-protected. I feel incredibly safe here.”

And a little trapped. But hey, at least I’m alive, right?

“Well, that’s a relief.” Her tone shifts abruptly. “Hang on a second. Wasn’t Leo’s boss one of his groomsmen? The one they call Big Al?”

“Yes. That’s Alan. You remember him?”

“Holy shit, Maddie.Wow.”

“Uh,” I start, unsure how to ask her to clarify her tone. So I just come out with it. “Was that anI can’t believe you’d date a man so important to your sontype of wow? Or was it ahow did you bag such a hottiekind of wow?”

“It was aholy shit, he’s hot as hellwow.Yes, I remember him. The caterer remembers him. No doubt the photographer has his pictures plastered all over her walls. Close-ups of his hands and that jawline. And those eyes.Damn. The priest who officiated the wedding is currently rereading his contract with the good Lord to see how he can give up the collar so he can live out his days as your man’s footrest. For goodness’ sake, Maddie, dolphins jumped out of the ocean just to get a glimpse of him during the ceremony. I could go on.”

A grin splays across my entire face, pulling my cheeks until they hurt. Familiar echoes of Sammy are present in Tilly’s teasing tone. Leo got his gentleness from me, but Sammy’s snark is all Tilly. Drew’s somewhere between the two.

Thankfully, none of my children take after their monster of a father.

As his face slithers across my mind, my smile fades. Well, happiness was nice while it lasted.

“Tilly, I’m glad you approve of Alan.”

“You picked that up, did ya? What gave it away?”

My smile briefly returns. “Well, now that explanations of my recent drama are out of the way, I guess we should talk about the other stuff.”

She releases a sigh strong enough to crackle the phone line. “As much as I’d love to pretend there’s nothing else to discuss, we’ve done that long enough, haven’t we?”

“We sure have. At the expense of so many years. We’ve both missed so much.” I pause when my voice begins to quiver.

Tilly must misinterpret my silence as me waiting for her to apologize. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Maddie, I never should have said the things I said. I’m so sorry for how things ended. I regret it all the time.”

“No, Tilly, I didn’t stall to force you into an apology for that. I was just trying to figure out what to say first.”

“That doesn’t change my apology. I meant it, and it needed to be said. I never should have been so hateful. You needed me, and I was so cruel to you.”

“You were protecting yourself and your family, something I never could do for mine. I’d sucked you into my own trauma time and time again, putting you and your kids in danger. It was unfair of me to abuse your generosity that way.”

“Although I couldn’t open my home to you in those situations any longer, I didn’t have to cut you off entirely. I should’ve done more to help you get back on your feet or protect you. Made phone calls. Helped you find resources. Given you money for a hotel. Or just let you cry to me on the phone when you needed to. But I didn’t do that, and I’m so sorry.”

Those situations.

Like when Travis would threaten my life or my children’s lives. So I’d run and hide at Tilly’s farm.

And he’d eventually follow.

It was fine when Tilly’s husband was there to scare him off. He supplemented the income from their modest blueberry farm in the off-season by working as a commercial fisherman, which took him away from home for long periods. Unfortunately, he was gone on that fateful day. The day that changed everything for me and my sister.

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