Page 56 of Mistaken Identity
Does your life insurance know you like being strangled during sex?
—Audric to Gunner
AUDRIC
“You got her today?” I asked Gunner.
He nodded. “Yep. I have a meeting with the lawyer today, too. So we won’t be home until late.”
“Got it,” I said as I picked up my work truck keys. “I wonder if your neighbors think we’re gay.”
“If they do, it’s your fault because you gave me a hug last night in the yard.”
I chuckled. “It’s not my fault you looked like you could use one.”
He grumbled something under his breath, and I was just about to ask him if he was okay this morning after he’d broken down last night and admitted all his fears when the doorbell rang.
I opened the door since I was closest, blinking when I found Creole in her flight attendant uniform.
She was staring at me with wide eyes as she said, “If you don’t take these boxes from me, I might very well die.”
I took the boxes from her, which happened to be Dole boxes with handles.
“Did you steal some of my dad’s pineapples?” I teased, not upset even a little bit that she would.
“Actually, no. I went and bought my own. The Dole Plantation as I was heading out caught my eye, and I remembered you saying how much you enjoyed them. Plus, I wasn’t sure if your dad would share any. The way you made it sound, I wasn’t thinking yes. Then I got a little bit overwhelmed when I got there, got the pineapples and left.”
The way she’d just word vomited all over the place was adorably cute.
“Ole!”
We both looked down and to the right and there was our little Lottie, toddling over with a pacifier in one hand, her blanket in the other, and her hair crazy.
“Oh, girl.” Creole dropped down to her haunches. “Look at all that hair. Did you sleep good?”
“Yes,” she said and popped her pacifier back into her mouth. “’Akfeast?”
“That’s me and you today, crazy little baby man,” Gunner called from his lean against the counter.
She looked up at me and said, “You stay?”
I touched the top of her head before saying, “Not today, Beanie Weenie. I have to work and go visit Grandma.”
Honestly, I’d rather spend the day watching The Lorax for the fifteenth time in two days.
But that wasn’t an option for me.
Today was the day that I forced myself to go see my mother and pay off her monthly bill so I didn’t have to go in again until the following month.
I forced myself to go so that my dad wouldn’t have to pay, and that he wouldn’t have to go see her if he didn’t want to.
He forced himself to go by every six months or so, but mostly he stayed away, continuing to be loyal to a woman who should be dead.
“Ohhh, work!” Lottie threw up the hand holding the blanket in the air, then turned around and marched back toward the living room where she immediately demanded, “Lorax!”
I winced at Gunner. “Have fun, Dad.”
Gunner’s face went white.
