Page 22 of Announcing Love
She looked every bit as worried as she should. Her brown gaze eyed him for a moment before leading him into the dining room where everyone sat for lunch.
“Oh, good. Everyone’s here.”
Miranda’s eyes widened. “Tip. Hey. We didn’t know you were coming.”
“Obviously, since you didn’t bother to hide the car.”
“Well, we just—”
Tip swiped his hand through the air, cutting her off. “Save it.”
“Listen man,” Kyle cut in, making Tip’s eye twitch. “We—”
“I said save it.” Tip enunciated each word, making sure they understood he didn’t want to hear a thing they had to say.
“Let me save everyone a lot of wasted words.”
His mom refused to relinquish control. “Sit down, Tip. Have lunch with us.”
Tip didn’t let her start her usual smoothing things over for Miranda. He was beyond fucking done. Tip simply spoke over her.
“I’m done with you. All of you.” He eyed each one, making sure they understood no one was above this speech. “If you can’t make a go of life with what I’ve given you over the years, you deserve to be poor.”
“Tip Alan Ramos. I brought you into this world and you won’t speak to me this way.”
He held her stare and hardened his heart. “I don’t think you heard me. We’re done.” He motioned between them. “While I appreciate all that you did for me as a child, you didn’t do anything millions of other parents do every day without using it to hurt their kids. Over the years, I’ve given way more than I ever received, and you know what? Not a goddamn one of you deserves it.”
“None of us have jobs, Tip. What about your nephew?”
Tip rolled his eyes at Miranda’s words. “You’ll be fine. God knows you have enough cars to sell.”
“Hey, wait. That collection is mine.”
Tip leveled a death stare at Kyle, making him fall silent.
“You can’t be serious.” His mom finally sounded nervous. “Like Miranda says, we don’t have jobs. I haven’t worked in years. Who would hire me?”
Tip shrugged. “You’ve had nothing but time to get your life together. If you’ve done nothing but sit around spending my money, that’s no one’s fault but yours. You’ve all accumulated a lot of shit on my dime. I suggest you start selling it because you won’t see me again. You made your choices. Now I’ve made mine. No real family would treat me like this, so I’m out.” He headed for the door.
His mom was hot on his heels. “You only get one family. Don’t burn that bridge. Some things you can’t take back.”
“You’re right and you’ve done them all.” He slammed the door closed behind him and tried to breathe steadily as he made his way back to his SUV. The pains in his chest made him wonder if he was dying. Throughout the years, he had told himself he did everything for love. That love went away one day, and he didn’t understand when that happened. How had his mom gone from being his mom to being this person? It was like she died. He had to see it that way now, and it was killing him.
The trip home didn’t take long. As he pulled into the driveway, his vision blurred. Somehow, he made it, but he couldn’t see a thing. Tip didn’t know how long he had sat there.
The driver’s side door opened, and Artem was there. “Come on, baby. I’ve got you.”
Tip let himself get towed into the house. His body moved on autopilot. Then he blinked, and he was on the couch with Artem covering him like a blanket with an actual blanket covering them.
He wrapped his arms around Artem and held on. “What did you do while I was gone?” Tip’s voice sounded dead, but he wanted to be normal with Artem. He needed the peace.
“Gave myself a tour. I like this house better than the other one.”
“It’s way smaller.”
“That’s why I like it. It’s cozy. You can’t hide from me.”
“I’d never hide from you. I love you too much.” Considering his voice still sounded dead, it wasn’t too surprising when Artem didn’t panic. He probably thought Tip was out of his head.
