Page 28 of Just (Fake) Married
“Mom!” her daughters all shouted in unison.
Monica lifted her chin, her lips trembling. Her hands in fists in her lap.
“I can explain,” she whispered.
SIX
HARMONY
There wasa roaring in my ears and my fingers were numb. I looked at my mother and the ring on her finger.
“When did this happen?” I asked her. The McGraws were over there shouting at Prescott, and my sisters and I were in shock, staring at my mom, who sat there like a sphinx. “You and Leroy McGraw?”
I mean, just the idea made my stomach spin. That man was a toad who hated us. A mean bully who had tried to force us off our land dozens of times.
And my sweet, eccentric, big-hearted mom might have at one timelovedhim? It didn’t make any sense.
“A long time ago,” Mom shook her head. “We were kids. Stupid kids.”
“You loved him?” I asked. “Really?”
She nodded, but couldn’t meet my eyes, and that told me lots about how embarrassed she was.
“He was different then. Softer. Kinder. If I had been more important to him than his family and their opinion of me, I think he might not have become so…ruthless.”
Amity scoffed so hard I was sure she’d coughed up a hairball.
Bliss put her arm around her sister and hugged her tight. We were all pretty sure it was Leroy and his opinion of the Calloway women that had split up Amity and Mac.
A sharp whistle cut the air and everyone fell silent.
Ethan stood in the middle of the room wearing jeans and a thick sweater, his dark hair swept back from his forehead. He wasn’t as tall as Carter, and he wasn’t as broad and big as Tag or Mac. But in this moment, he seemed sharp. Lethal.
A sword among blunt instruments. None of that should be appealing to me, but the world was upside down right now, and something about Ethan McGraw always affected me.
“Let’s focus on the task at hand,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, like why the hell is he doing this?” Carter asked, and turned to glare at my mom in such a way that I felt compelled to stand up in front of her. “Did you put him up to this?”
“My mother hasn’t talked to that jackass in years,” I snapped. “Don’t blame her for your dad’s fuckery.”
“That’s not true,” Mac said. “You came here to see my dad, months ago, when he started losing weight. Why?”
My mom’s back stiffened. “That’s between me and Leroy. And it doesn’t have anything to do with what Mr. Prescott has read today.”
“Okay,” Ethan said, his arms out like he was placating charging dinosaurs. “Everyone calm down.” He looked over at my mom with what looked like his best bedside manner. “Is this…was this true? You and my dad?”
“Yes,” my mother said, and left it at that.
“And he…ended it?” Ethan asked.
“He broke my heart,” Mom said.
I put my hand on Mom’s shoulder and my sisters curled their arms around her. We glared at Ethan because we needed to glare at someone, and Leroy was already dead.
Carter, still clearly rattled, looked to Ethan and Mac. “You think he did this so I would…you think he’s trying to force my hand to remarry?”
“I think if he did, he would have said you by name,” Ethan said.
