Page 58 of Truck Stop Tempest

“Good morning,” Slade beamed to the devil at our door.

I dropped to the floor to gather the menus, angered by the tremble in my hands.

“Sit anywhere you’d like.”

I lingered on the ground behind the counter, pulling my breaths in a steady rhythm, picturing Tito’s face, replaying his words. In. One, two, three. Out. One, two, three.

The snap in the woman’s voice chilled me to the bone. “I’m not here to eat. I’m here for Tuuli. That is, as soon as she decides to come out from her hiding spot.”

I popped up, clutching the menus to my chest like a shield. “Hi, Mom.”

“Mom?” Slade stepped closer to me, offering her hand to my mother. “Miss Holt. What a pleasure to meet you.”

Slade was privy to every dirty detail about my family. Knew I’d left home to separate myself from that life. She must’ve sensed my trepidation because she coiled her arm through mine and leaned against me, holding me steady, giving me courage.

My mother shot a quick glance at our joined limbs, then stood taller, “Tuuli. You missed your brother’s funeral.”

Ice filled my veins. “I know.”

“Well?” She lifted her chin, a rare show of courage.

I upped her display of strength and threw in a dose of defiance. “Well, what?”

Mom tugged on the hem of her pink blazer, a nervous habit, reminding me we’d suffered the same conditioning under my father’s dominion. “We have a wedding to plan. Enough of this…this…whatever it is you’re trying to prove. It’s time for you to come home.”

“Whisper Springs is my home, Mom. And there isn’t going to be a wedding. There never was.”

My mother’s pale cheeks darkened. “Can we have a word in private?”

Slade’s arm tightened around mine. “I’m sorry, Miss Holt. Tuuli’s shift just started. As you can see…” she gestured toward the half-full diner, “we’re terribly busy. Personal matters need to be handled during breaks. You’re welcome to come back later when your daughter isn’t on the clock.”

Mom’s jaw clenched. A telltale sign she was ready to spit venom, a character flaw, according to my father, that had landed Mom in the hospital countless times. She closed her eyes and breathed deep before meeting my glare. “Tuuli. We need to discuss what happened. Your father and I have been worried about you.”

I half-laughed, half-snorted. “Worried?” I was about to spew a verbal assault when something eerie dawned on me. A thought that hadn’t but should have occurred to me before that moment. “How did you know where to find me? Who told you I worked here?”

Mom’s eyes darted back and forth, her angry gaze landing on Slade, then me, then Slade before dropping to the floor.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked again, anger cloaking the shake in my voice.

“It doesn’t matter. You belong at home. With us. With your fiancé.”

Erik. Of course.

I loved my mom. There was a time, long ago, that we’d been close, that she had been fun and caring, at least when Daddy Dearest wasn’t around. But the year I became a woman, our dynamic changed. Mom spent more time traveling with Dad, and her doctor, who was also an elder in my father’s church, started prescribing more pills for her “condition.” I hardly recognized her anymore. I suspected the pills were to blame.

For a moment, a younger version of my mother came back to haunt me, her face softening, her carefree smile almost breaking through. “Please, baby. Get your things. Let’s go.”

I resisted the urge to hug her, beg her to leave that place, stay with me.

“So I can spread my legs for that sadistic creep and make perfect little babies? No, Mom. I won’t ever go back.”

She stepped closer, lowering her voice to a growl. “I’ve protected you all these years.” She sounded desperate, her voice panicked, her hands shaking. Someone had sent her, threatened her, most likely. “If you don’t come home and marry Erik, I won’t be able to shield you from your duty.”

Threatened or not, she’d pushed my last button.

“Duty? Duty?” I grabbed my mother’s arm and dragged her out of the diner. When clear of the door, I shouted, “I am not a goddamn baby-making machine. Go home. You are not welcome here.”

The thought of abandoning her sickened me, but I wasn’t strong enough to save us both. Not yet, anyway. I turned to head back inside the safety of The Stop, but not before catching a glimpse of Erik’s SUV in the parking lot.

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