Page 47 of Prayers for the Prickly

“Do you think she’ll ease up now that you moved out?” I asked.

“I wish I knew the answer to that,” Olly said. “When I left, I didn’t tell her where I’d be staying, not that it will be hard for her to figure out. I’m just over all the tantrums and the tears and demands and dramatics. Everything doesn’t have to be a production for fuck’s sake. Sometimes I wish she’d just take a breath, step back, and ask herself if it’s really as serious as she’s making it out to be, because I can guarantee that it isn’t.”

“If she brings it here, she can deal with me, then the cops can have her after I’m done speaking my mind,” Gregor said. “I’m not going to put up with her shit, Olly, so if you don’t want to witness me saying some things about your mama that no one should ever have to hear, no matter how grown they are, then you’d better keep your ass in the house and not poke your nose out until we finish the conversation.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Olly muttered.

“So, I’m going to guess that instead of speaking up and telling her how you felt about what she said, you stayed silent and waited for her to go away so you could get back to what you were doing.”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s a big part of the issue right there,” Gregor admonished. “You’ve got to speak up, Olly. I don’t know if that will get her to stop, but at least she’d know that you don’t agree with the way she’s acting.”

“I just wanted her to leave me alone.”

“You always want her to leave you alone. Everyone else you welcome a conversation with, her you rush to get off the phone. I notice these things, even if you do think that the only thing I pay attention to is the wood.”

“Okay, fair.”

“I’m glad you finally came to your senses and moved out,” he praised, “and make sure you text Mom and Pops so they know where you’re supposed to be if they’re looking for you.”

“I did that as soon as I finished moving my stuff in,” Olly said.

“Good. Pops will never admit to being worried, but I think we’ve all given him a scare at least once growing up.”

“Some of us more than one,” Olly said, raising an eyebrow at Gregor.

I made a mental note to get the story out of him one day, when we had time to swap childhood memories and embarrassing stories about our siblings. The fact that they’d be able to do the same to us made it that much better. It meant we could engage in a little reminiscent warfare, and devise fun ways of getting one another back for the stories they’d shared

Of course, we needed to find a way to lay things to rest with Olly’s mother so Everett and Olly could start exploring how they fit together, but that would only come if Olly was willing to bite the bullet, approach Ever, and start the conversation.

“You need to talk to Ever and tell him what’s been going on with Dana,” Gregor declared,

Well, at least I didn’t have to pursue him to come around to my way of thinking about who needed to approach whom.

“Why do I have to be the one to start the conversation when he turned his back on me?!” Olly snapped.

“Because it’s gone beyond what took place between the two of you,” Gregor explained. “Once your mom got involved and brought personal issues to his business, that shifted the dynamic. You need to go to him at this point, and you really need to think about how long you plan to wait before you decide to publicly speak up about what your mom has been doing.”

“Yeah,” Olly nodded.

“Is that a yeah, Gregor, you’re right, oh wise and insightful big brother, or yeah, I know you’re right, but I’m not ready to listen to reason yet so I’m going to keep on doing what I’ve been doing and make a bigger mess of it before I decide to listen to you?”

This time Olly just sighed and scrubbed his hand across the back of his neck.

“It’s a yeah, I know I need to talk to him and I will, as soon as I figure out what to say,” he admitted.

“Fair enough. Just don’t put it off too long,” Gregor insisted. “Or you’ll wind up with lingering problems between you even after the ones with your mom have ended.”

“When the hell did you get fuckin’ insightful,” Olly asked Gregor while I reached for another shrimp to nibble.

As long as mate was hitting all the key points I’d have wanted answers to if I was involved in the conversation, I could sit back and not have to say a word.

“Guess I, um, listened on the boat, when the guys were sitting around the table,” I admitted. “Storm and I both did. We’d start out talking over a game ofPhase 10and heard a bit of what was being discussed at the other table, so we stopped talking and listen as we played.”

“Learned a few things, didn’t you?” I said, shooting him a knowing smile across the table. “I feel the same way in the bakery kitchen and whenever I drop into the one at home. Those little whispers and snippets of complaints and advice I used to phase out are what I look forward to hearing now. I stay late just to hear the end of a story.”

“Exactly.”

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