Page 54 of Starfish and Coffee
Now all he had to do was face the nightmare of coming out. Then he could pull Alex away from the shithouse that was Frank’s café, and they could make a real life together. They could start their own boat chartering business, if that was something Alex thought he wanted to do now so much time had passed since losing his parents, or they could just enjoy being together for the rest of their days and live the life other Tarringtons before Matt never got the chance to live.
But he didn’t explain that yet. All he did was press his lips to Alex’s back once more. “I love you too.”
It was a simple statement, one he’d said hundreds of times before to Alex, but this time it had a life-changing impact. A stunned gasp had both of them turning around in shock.
Matt gaped at his mother standing behind them wearing a pale-pink Versace pantsuit and clutching her Louis Vuitton purse with white knuckles as she stood stock-still, staring at them with wide, stunned eyes.
“What’re you doing in my kitchen?” Matt snapped as the shock of being discovered and rush of fear made his voice a low growl of fury. “This is my house. You call before you show up.”
“We’re doing tea at the club with the Hastings at two. You said we’d go early,” she whispered in a stunned voice, her gaze darting back and forth between Matt and Alex wildly as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She finally let out a little sob of raw horror. “What is this?”
“Okay.” Matt walked up to his mother and gently grabbed her arm, forcing her to follow him. “We’re not going to have this fight right now.”
“You said you loved him,” she said wildly, her voice rising in octaves as the panic clearly set in. “That sea urchin!”
“Yes, that one,” Matt agreed, still ushering her out of the kitchen and toward the doors. “And Idolove him.”
“B-but,” she stuttered, her heels clicking against the tiles so loudly it was amazing they hadn’t heard her come in. “He’s a man!”
“He’s poor too.” Matt opened the front door. He looked down the driveway, finding his mother’s Rolls Royce parked on the street and waved to her driver Charlie. “Good-bye, Mama. I’ll call you later.”
“You’re indecent.” Her gaze darted down quickly to make her point as if Matt had forgotten he was standing at the front door in his underwear. “That boy has made you into a hedonistic pervert!”
Matt snorted, because his mother was nothing if not creative with her insults. “Maybe I’m the one who corrupted him,” he suggested.
“You werenormalbefore you started spending all your time with him!” She shrieked loud enough that her voice would have easily carried back to the kitchen where they’d left Alex. “This is a sin! Do you hear me, Matthew? He’s sending you straight to hell!”
Matt actually recoiled from the strength of her vehemence. He’d been dealing with his mother’s hysterics since the day he entered the world, but he’d never felt such unadulterated hatred spew out of her before. It was so powerful the air was thick with it, making him feel like it was sticking to him. He had the sudden urge to get into the shower and scrub his skin raw just to get it off.
“Get out,” Matt said through gritted teeth as he stood there shaking in fury. “And you canstay out, Mama. There’s no reason why I need you in my life. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
He closed the door before she could respond. He flipped the lock and stood back breathing heavily, looking at the etched glass like it’d reach out and burn him.
As if hearing his thoughts, his mother hit the door with her purse, screeching, “You will end this! You will not ruin me for that sea urchin!”
Matt’s mouth dropped open as he searched for words to stop the onslaught of hate the woman who gave birth to him wasn’t just directing toward him, but at the person he loved more than anyone in the world.
“What you’re doing is a crime against nature and God, and I will not let it go on! I’ll end it! I WILL END IT!”
Matt took another step back, looking to Alex who’d come out of the kitchen and was gazing at the front doors with the same abject horror Matt felt.
“Your daddy is rolling over in his grave, Matthew Justin Tarrington! ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE!”
Matt narrowed his eyes at that and stepped forward to flip the lock as Alex shouted, “Don’t!”
He jerked the door open and stepped out into the sunshine to tower over his mama, as the boiling rage at twenty-two years of her mental abuse surged through his system.
“The only reason he’s in a grave is because of you!” Matt leaned down to meet her gaze dead-on. “It wasn’t the job or a bad heart that killed him.It was you!He’d rather be dead than stay married to a bitch like you!”
She sucked in a startled gasp and clutched her chest as tears filled her eyes. “Matthew!”
“Two can play this game,” Matt said with an unyielding threat ringing in his voice. “And I promise you, if you decide to stay on this doorstep, I’m going to say things that’ll give you nightmares. I’ve got a fuckload of anger issues to unleash.”
“I’ve never done anything to you,” she whispered, her voice quivering.
“You have. You’ve used me as your pawn for the perfect life that never really existed, and I’m done with all of it. I will tattoo rainbows on my forehead and my ass before I let you hurt meorAlex with your narrow-minded, hateful bullshit. I win this time. Sorry.”
Tears streaming down her face, she tilted her head back and narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s what you think.”
