Page 43 of Reckless

She should resist. Go back to her room, eat a pint of ice cream while drinking minibar vodka and watchingSteel Magnolias, weeping.

The shock of the night had settled in. Harlow kept replaying her mother saying she’d been flirty with men even when she was a baby and that’s why she’d dumped Harlow off and walked away. When she’d been barely older than Lulu was!

Miles had heard it all. Every horrible, ugly word. She wasn’t sure what he’d said while she and Mindy had been out of the room, but it had to be pretty harsh, because when she thought Gloria was going to talk some last shit to Miles and he’d just looked at her…Gloria had shut right up.

He’d stepped in and shielded her. Protected and defended her. And now here he was having ordered food and provided her with her favorite flannel PJ pants and her sleep tank along with her toothbrush and essentials like a change of clothes for the morning.

She took the toiletry bag and headed into the bathroom, closing the door at her back. She took her time getting rid of her make up, undoing and brushing her hair out. Her favorite pajamas brought her comfort, the cotton so soft after countless washings and so Nora had included them. Harlow needed to remember that. Remember there were people who knew her and loved her.

A deep longing for a hug from Marcella seemed to throb. When Gloria had tossed her away, it had been her dad’s youngest sister who’d come to live with them to help Harlow’s dad raise her.

It had been Marcella who’d taken her to the dentist. Who’d helped her with school projects. Who came to every performance, every play and musical. She remained a constant, and an example Harlow would have when and if she became a mom herself someday. Harlow would call her to reconnect and check in but she couldn’t face the decision as to whether to tell her aunt what had happened or not,

Letting that love bolster her, Harlow gathered herself and went back to the main room where the food was being delivered.

Miles pointed her to what she had come to think of as her side of the bed. She obeyed, telling herself it was easier than arguing. And maybe it was, but she did it because she liked it that he was taking care of her.

Even as she was mortified that he’d been there to see that entire situation unfold.

Her phone buzzed as Miles brought in the food. A glance showed three messages from Hector and one from Nora. She opened Nora’s, which was a few sentences saying she loved Harlow and that if she needed anything to let her friend know. She’d wait for Harlow to share what happened and urged her to let Miles spoil her some.

“Is that going to make you feel worse?” he asked, tipping his chin toward her phone. The look in his eyes told her he wanted to throw it out a window if it upset her.

“I’m not looking at the messages that might make me feel worse. I just read Nora’s.” Harlow put the phone on the nightstand, screen down.

When he pulled the heating dome from the plate, it revealed a chicken sandwich she knew was only on the lunch menu. She’d tried to order one the night before and they’d told her no.

“I saw that you liked it when you had it for lunch yesterday,” he told her, setting a glass of iced tea next to her.

“They said it was lunch only,” she said before taking a big bite and moaning in pleasure.

He shrugged. “Well, not for you.”

She grinned at him before dragging a crispy French fry through the spicy catsup the hotel restaurant used and she’d discovered she really liked. “I have to figure out what all is in this so I can make it at home.”

“I’ll see about getting the recipe for you,” he said, and she realized he would do just that. For no other reason than that she wanted it.

Wow.

“So.”

He got into bed and attacked the steak he’d ordered for himself. “If you apologize for anything someone else did tonight, I’m going to be annoyed,” he said.

“I shouldn’t have taken you over there. I knew something like this could happen. She’s just…honestly, I don’t know what she is. I like to think I’m mature enough to understand I’ll never get anything I need from that woman. But here I am.”

“You won’t, no. But that’s not maturity to be beyond feeling any type of way about it. She’s your mother. I’d be a mess if my mum ever treated me or Poppy that way. Or even a shadow of that. And if I hadn’t come with you, you’d be alone right now. So, I don’t want you to feel sorry I was there because I’m not. I don’t know how to begin to process a woman like her, to be totally honest with you. But it seems like this has been a lifetime of crap behavior from her.”

Harlow took a deep breath and decided to share something to put the situation in perspective when it came to Gloria Martin. “When I was sixteen, the last year I had any regular visitation with her, I stayed at her house. She had a spare room with one of those pull-out couches so I slept there.”

“Your brothers had rooms?”

“Of course they did.”

“Did your brothers have their own rooms at your dad’s house?”

She snorted. “Yes. They still do. But to be fair, my dad’s house is far larger than the one my mother lived in. Anyway, so,” she began again.

“What? I thought the making you sleep on a pull-out couch instead of a bed was the issue. It’s worse than you not having a room of your own at your mother’s house?”

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