Page 54 of Heartbreaker
Her words are sharp, matching the color of her steely blue eyes. The comforting presence that once emanated from her was lost a long time ago, replaced by the shell of the person she once was. I used to long for that woman, to hear her laugh and sing the way she once did, to feel her warm embrace comfort me in the hard times. However, I was forced to watch her disappear before my eyes, and I’m not sure I’ll ever have the pleasure of knowing her again.
Her words halt the conversation between Ari and Savannah, who stand just inside the foyer. My girlfriend looks between us, waiting to see what will happen next. I warned her about this. Warned her that Mom would either have some snarky comments the moment we arrived or ignore us altogether. I could never be sure which version I would get.
“Now go get your bags and cancel that hotel room. You might own this house, but I’m still your mother.”
And she never lets me forget it.
Do I own the house we currently stand in? Yes. Do I hold that fact over my mother’s head? No. I bought the house after Dad left because I wanted to know that while I was on the road over three hundred days a year, she and my sister had somewhere safe and secure to live. After Ari moved out two years ago, we begged Mom to move my grandmother into the house with her, to make it easier on both of them, but she refused. “Your grandmother likes her independence,” she said. While that might be true, Grandma Aggie wasn’t getting any younger, and letting her live alone on the farm was less than ideal.
“That’s nice of you to offer, Mom, but I think we’ll be more comfortable in town,” I say.
“You are the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen,” my cousin Tommy says. Savannah stifles a laugh behind her hand, staring down at my youngest cousin as he lifts her other hand to his lips. She somehow maintains the elegant smile I’ve seen her give many people in her tenure with EWE—mostly fans who got a little too close for comfort. Seeing that discomfort roll off her now, I excuse myself from my conversation with a few other cousins.
“Tommy, give it a rest, would you?” my sister says, pushing him away before I can make it there. “Besides, she’s taken.”
“Taken?” Tommy scoffs. “Well, I sure don’t see a ring on her hand.” I roll my eyes, coming up behind my girlfriend. Tommy’s pupils dilate further than they already are from his extracurriculars, which made him late today in the first place. “Oh shit, John-boy! I didn’t know you were coming this weekend.”
“Tommy, good to see you’re still you,” I say, and Savannah leans back even further into my embrace. I hear Ari chuckle at my side, hands on her hips. “I see you’ve met Savannah.”
“Savan—Your girlfriend? This is your girlfriend?”
“I told you to leave her alone,” Ari says, rolling her eyes.
“Holy shit, cous’.” Tommy chuckles, looking Savannah up and down once more. His tongue pokes out the corner of his mouth, wetting his dry lips, before he swipes his thumb over the cracked skin. I give Savannah’s hip a gentle squeeze when he meets my narrowed gaze. “I had no idea you were able to pull such a hottie.”
“Leave that poor girl alone, Thomas!” Grandma Aggie shouts across the yard when she walks out the back door, followed by my mother. “Don’t run her off before we even get the chance to know her. Lord knows, two seconds talkin’ to you and John’ll never be able to convince her to come back.”
My cousin scoffs, ignoring our grandmother. “Listen, Sweetheart, when you’re ready to have a good time, give me a holler.” With a final glance my way, Tommy stalks off to bother someone else, and probably ask them for money.
“I thought you said he wasn’t coming, Ariana,” I say when he’s gone, and this time she rolls her eyes at me.
“Don’t youArianame,John.” Ari points her finger at me.
No one in my family calls me John except my grandmother—and Tommy when he’s trying to get under my skin. Everyone has always called me by my middle name: Brooks.
“Keep in mind, I have a million stories about you just waiting to be shared.” That earns a laugh from Savannah. “I can almost guarantee you haven’t told her about that time you set yourself on fire in chem lab and they had to—”
“Okay, time to go.” I wrap my arm around Savannah’s shoulders, trying to guide her away, but she slips out of my grasp.
“Actually, I’d love to hear more about this,” she says, looping her arm with Ari, and without a second glance, they walk away in a chorus of giggles.
“I like her,” a voice dripping with honey comments before a thin hand wraps around my arm and squeezes. Grandma Aggie. “She handles this family well. Better than your last girlfriend.”
“The last time I brought a girl to one of these was in high school.”
“And she hated every second of it,” Grandma Aggie says, looking up at me. “She was ready to leave the second you pulled up the drive. And when she realized we’d be eating outside, she ’bout had a coronary. But this one, she didn’t even bat an eye.”
“Savannah was raised on a farm.”
“So I heard.” She smiles. “Your sister hasn’t stopped talking about it since you told her you finally asked her out. Savannah said her family owns a big ol’ piece of property down in Texas. We were trading stories of life on the farm earlier. Your mother seems fond of her, too.”
“I wouldn’t know. She’s barely said anything to me unless it was giving me shit for booking a hotel or reminding me thatmyname is on the house.”
“Oh, John. You have to ignore her,” she says, waving her hand through the air. “She’ll always have something to say about that because of how things went with your father. It just is what it is.”
“That was six years ago.”
“And for many years before that. She put up with a lot from that man, including holding that house and the food on the table over her head.”
