Page 29 of Grumpy Sunshine

I smiled, and it was a genuine one to boot.“I do.”

I didn’t know her well.

She worked in the emergency room most of the time while I worked in med-surg—the place where people came for surgeries—and we rarely crossed paths.

But, despite the hospital being so damn big, it was kind of small.If you didn’t know them personally, you knew of them.

I’d heard about Val before I’d even met her.

She was the hero of the hospital, saving the life of a…

“Hey, is your son the cop she saved?”I blurted.

The eldest Carter stood up and said, “My youngest, Garrett.And yes, she did save his life.”

I grinned then.“You know she’s a legend in that hospital?They all talk about her and how she saved a gang banger.”

“She deserves that legendary status,” Chief Carter said.“Son, show your girl there out of the station.I’m calling Fort Worth PD to let them know they have an incoming with the crazy woman.”

The man beside me stood, left his computer on the edge of his father’s desk, and fell into step with me as he guided me out of the station.

We passed a room where my mom was handcuffed to a table, and I made sure to flip her the bird as I passed.

My mother narrowed her eyes, her lips pinched.

That’s when I remembered…

“Excuse me,” I said as I walked toward my mother.

My mother stiffened, likely thinking that she was unable to defend herself with her hands handcuffed to the table in front of her.

I bent forward and yanked both of my socks off of her feet.

My mother cursed, and I narrowed my eyes at her.“If you ever steal my money, or my clothes, or my freakin’ tire, or my freakin’ makeup again, I’ll lose it.”

My mother sneered.“I brought you into this world.What’s yours is mine.”

I snorted.“You keep telling yourself that.”

I looked her in the eyes long and hard, letting her see the anger and the outright refusal to ever let this happen again, and her eyes widened.

I also didn’t miss the way her pupils were nearly blown.

“She’s probably on drugs, too,” I admitted as I walked back toward the detective waiting on me.“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that she’s not using something.”

“You used to that?”he asked.

“Unfortunately,” I admitted.“My mom spent the majority of our childhood making our lives miserable.Drugs.Prostitution—though she calls it ‘getting a sugar daddy.’Child abandonment.You name it, she fucked us with it.”

“You and who?”he asked.

“I have a twin sister,” I said.“We’ve spent the majority of our lives trying to figure out how to live after she massacred every avenue we had to make a life for ourselves.I can’t tell you a single time in my childhood when she was actually a great parent.”

“What about your father?”he wondered as he came to a stop near the doors that would lead out into the blistering Texas heat.

I gave him a quick rundown of my birth, which had him shaking his head.Then I told him about Silver’s father, and how mine took off.

He just blew out a breath in exasperation.“Sometimes, the system fails its kids.”

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