Page 22 of Mother Parker
“Fuck off,” I added for good measure. “Where’s Ash? I thought we were going to work on knocking this wall down?” I said after a few seconds of mutual silence.
“He had an errand to run. He’ll be back soon.”
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
Biscuit barked and ran to the door despite his mouth being full of food, and Maddox opened it and let Autumn in.
“Hey, gorgeous lady. What are you doing here? Miss me already?”
Autumn rolled her eyes and chuckled.
“Full of yourself much? No, I’m here to talk to that dickhead over there.”
I threw daggers at her, but she didn’t seem to care. As expected.
“Talk away. I’m going to jump in the shower. We got real dirty last night. Ash came home drunk, so he was a fun, loud fuck,” Maddox said.
“Yeah. I heard,” I told him with a deep frown.
He laughed and climbed the stairs, leaving me alone with my sister. And Biscuit, who was demanding hugs from her.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Fine,” I said.
I sat on one of the couches and she took the other one.
As soon as Biscuit saw me sit, he abandoned Autumn and climbed up to my lap, nudging my hands and demanding more love.
“You traitor! You prefer that grump over me?” she exclaimed.
“What do you want, Autumn?” I asked, biting my tongue.
“I just came to see if you’ve calmed down since yesterday and whether you’re ready to apologize yet?”
“Apologize? For what?” I snapped at her.
I didn’t mean to, but it happened anyway.
Autumn’s face tightened straight away, and she sucked in her cheeks.
“Really, Parker? Do I need to spell it out for you? You were an absolute ass. To me and Wyatt.”
“I’m sorry if the truth hurt your feelings, Autumn, but I’m not apologizing for what I said.”
“For fuck’s sake, Parker!” she shouted, and even Biscuit stopped and stared at her for a second before he went back to forcing my hand into scratches. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you so determined to push all of us away? Are you so determined to be alone that you don’t care about the rest of us?”
How could she say that? After everything I’d done so she didn’t have to suffer? So she and Cam didn’t have to be subjected to more crap than they were already dealing with?
“Is that what you think? You think running around putting yourself in danger for a deranged old man and me not liking it is because I don’t care about you?”
Whatever guard she had put up dropped, and she came to sit next to me.
“No. But it’s like you’re determined to find an enemy in your friends and family,” she said. “And you’re failing to realize I’m not doing anything for anyone else. You’re blaming Wyatt for putting me in danger as if I have no autonomy or a mind of my own.”
“That’s not what I—”
“But you’re acting like it. When you were shouting at Wyatt about putting my life in danger and not listening to me, that’s what it sounded like.”
