Page 64 of Reckless

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“Didn’t I tell you about that?”

“Harlow! No, you haven’t. What the hell is going on?”

“I told you about the call with Jenna! I know I did.”

He frowned. “But not the reply part.”

She was pretty sure she’d told him her dad had an attorney on it. But maybe not that it had happened. “I thought I had. I thought that it had finally shut her up but apparently, she’s been stewing in her bitterness, waiting for an opportunity to strike. I’m not hiding things on purpose. Some of this I forget, think I already told you or in some way I’m embarrassed and want to pretend it away.”

He stepped close. “Baby, I know it’s complicated, but I want you to share this stuff with me. You never have to be embarrassed over something someone else does. Especially with me.”

“Yeah? That why you’re so unembarrassed about whatever Sophia said about your piercing? Do you tell me everything going on in your world?”

“If I got interviewed by your ex and he wanted to talk about our sex life? If he said so in a printed excerpt? If one of my parents called yelling at me over it? Yes, I’d tell you. Also, fuck Gloria. She can’t just call you like this and say all that stuff.”

“Sweet summer child. Miles, she’s been calling me and yelling about what a whore I am since I was a kid.”

“Harlow…” He closed his mouth on a leashed snarl.

“There’s more. Since I’m telling you all this, you should know the interview also has a bit about your aunt Erin and your uncles Todd and Ben.” Gloria had ranted aboutlifestylesand a bunch of homophobic bullshit in response to reading three lines about someone she didn’t even know, who was happily married and involved in a relationship of three and had been for over two decades. Her comments about Miles dating men had been similarly laced with hatred.

“I never should have let her into my life,” Miles said of Sophie. Sophia. Whatever.

“Yeah? And I should have never taken you over there and exposed you to Gloria.”

He made a sour face. “Bullshit.”

“It’s an open fact that Erin is in a polyamorous relationship. You can’t blame yourself because someone else used that for attention. You knownowSophia would have been sniffing around for every bit of information she could get. But you didn’t know that then. I don’t know your aunt very well, but I am pretty sure she’d agree with me. And you sure can’t take responsibility for getting someone like Gloria angry. This is Gloria’s drug. She wants to be mad. She seeks it out like an addict.” Harlow had become convinced of this. Gloria Martin was an anger junkie. Nothing made her happier than being mad at something or someone unless it was sitting back and watching everyone be miserable because of her anger.

“How come you can believe that, but not that you need to block her from your life and move on?” Miles asked. “You’re right. Sophie didn’t find out about Erin through me. I never even introduced her to Erin. But thenyoudon’t make that next logical step.” He put his hand on her chest, over her heart. “Protect this. Protect your big, beautiful compassionate heart and cut this woman from your life. She brings you nothing but heartache.”

No, she hadn’t blocked Gloria’s number, but she would that very day. In the month and a half since Atlanta, Harlow had done some soul searching about her relationship or lack of one with her biological mother.

She didn’t know why Gloria hated her so much. For a long time, she’d believed once she figured it out, it could be fixed somehow and she and Gloria might be able to have at least a civil, non-toxic connection. Harlow didn’t believe that anymore. Yes, she still wanted to know the reasons, but Gloria was Gloria and there would be no tearful apology and reconciliation.

Harlow licked her lips. “I’m trying. It’s not second nature to cut off family but I know it’s the choice I need to make.”

He took her hand. “I can help you. We can do this step by step. Who on that side of your family is salvageable for a relationship? Would your maternal grandparents cut you off?”

“I’ve…I have no relationship with them. I’ve only met them twice. Gloria told me I looked too much like my dad and they couldn’t stand that.”

What a mess. She was riding that line between anger and embarrassment at having this level of her disfunction revealed to anyone, much less Miles, who was just so kind and good to her.

Miles wrestled his instincts back as much as he could. The words he wanted to say, castigating her fucked up mother and brothers and even her grandparents. God damn, he hated these people so much. Including Hector and Mindy, who only popped up when they could benefit from something.

He could see how mortified Harlow was by sharing all these details and that made him even angrier. None of this was about her or anything she’d done and yet, she was ashamed of things these assholes did to her.

“My maternal grandfather murdered someone,” he told her quietly. Her eyes widened with that information and then she took his hands in hers.

“Oh my god. Miles, I’m sorry.”

He waved it away. “I never met him. But my mother was manipulated and hurt repeatedly by that story. A reporter tried to break my parents up over it because she hadn’t told anyone about it, and it came out at the worst possible time. I’m only telling you this, so you understand you’re not alone in being related to monsters. And to underline it’s not about you. Like the people I’ve been with in the past aren’t about you,” he said, reminding her of that earlier part of the conversation. “Family isn’t about who you are. It’s not about DNA. Family is about what you do. They don’t deserve you. Any aunts or uncles or cousins?”

“No. Gloria has three brothers. I’ve never heard anything from them. Ever. As for anyone else? I don’t know. I love my niece and nephews. I’ll continue to send them things as long as that’s okay with their parents. I still love my brothers even though I don’t know if I can have any sort of healthy relationship with them at all. Hector and Mindy both texted me today to warn me about Gloria. That gives me hope that one day in the future I might be able to be in their lives in a healthy way. Luis? Maybe never. They’re all a big question mark.”

At the crack in her voice, Miles pulled her into a hug, stroking his palms up and down her back. “Each new thing I learn about them makes me sicker. Did your dad and she fight? Did he…hurt her?” Miles couldn’t understand why they would hate one kid so much but accept the other two just fine. Though everything he knew about her dad told him Richie wasn’t the type to put his hands on anyone weaker, it needed to be considered.

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