Page 98 of Feel Free to Scream

It never truly worked before. Except…I chose Rothford. I chose California. I applied there in the first place.

When she heard my grandmother was getting an operation, she probably just shrugged. If she’s here, it’s not for herself or her mother. It’s for me.

At long last, a nurse comes in, interrupting the shouting match. I’m glad she tells us my grandmother needs rest, so we have a reason to step out.

Awkward as fuck, not really knowing how to voice it, I reach out to my mother and take her hand. “Thanks. For coming.”

She seems surprised. “You’re welcome. Although, next time, you could just not show up, and save both of us the trip.”

I chuckle.

And suddenly, I clear my throat, making a definite decision. “Can you come to the cafe? There’s someone I want you to meet.”

39

KELLER

Ifinally get it.

I know people always compare me to my father, but I’ve always seen him as someone different, separate. He was an adult when I was learning to ride a bike. He’s simply not me.

But as my eyes bounce between Claire and her slightly older clone, I understand what other people have been saying.

I’m extremely confused and slightly horny.

There weren’t pictures of the mother in the file I read about Claire, because she wasn’t a huge part of her life. In and out a few times a year.

She’s what, thirty-five? At least I know exactly what Claire will look like in a few years.

Hot, that’s what.

“Oh god, you’re pretty,” the mother says, eyes wide. “He’ssopretty, Claire. You guys are going to make the cutest babies. Youaremaking babies, right?” she checks. “That’s why I’m meeting him.”

Claire blushes, and I grin. “Practicing.”

“Good for you,” she tells her daughter, visibly sincere. “All right, tell me everything.”

We do not tell the mother everything. Even Claire’s edited version contains more truth that what I would have guessed.

The fact I paid for the harpy’s surgery for a kiss makes Hyacinth laugh so hard she holds her side. “She keeps saying she got it by being a fucking saint. Oh, please, please let me tell her.”

“Mom, she’d flip.”

“She’d die on spot, you mean,” Hyacinth snorts. “Let me get a life insurance policy on her,thentell her.”

I decide I like her, the absent parent thing aside. I certainly wasn’t equipped to raise a kid at sixteen. She made a shitty choice in a shitty situation. I remember something about her file; she asked for custody ten years ago and was denied, as a young, single woman without a stable income or a home she owned.

She tried.

She’s trying still, that much is clear.

“I think Claire said you’re working in New York?”

Claire, who said no such thing, doesn’t disagree.

“Yep, kiddo. In finance. It’s a bit busy, but it pays.”

“Boyfriend? Close friends? Dog?” I check.

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