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Mom.
“Ugh.” I grimaced, the toast turning to a rock in my stomach. Not answering wasn’t an option. She would ring relentlessly until I picked up. Turning off the phone…nope. I needed to be available for when Ashton finally called me back to tell me about his flight and how Rhett was doing like I’d asked him to do.
I swiped to answer. “Hi, Mom.”
“Skylar Anne Larsen.”
My eyelids slammed shut, and I braced myself.
“What have you done!” She didn’t ask a question, so I didn’t bother with answering. Not that she gave me time for one anyway. “I just got off the phone with Nora…”
I started to clean up the breakfast mess I’d made even though I hadn’t finished while Mom ranted at me about my impulsiveness and poor, inappropriate choices just like Nora had told her.
“Where is your mind at?” Mom finally ran out of steam, and I realized she waited for a response.
In the clouds, I wanted to snark, but that would only lead to more lectures.
“Ashton is a good man. He’s sweet and kind.”
“Nora told me you’ve known him less than a day!”
I rolled my eyes. “A bit longer than that, Mom, but he’s genuine. Doesn’t play games or try to manipulate me—”
“Did you sleep in his bed last night?”
“Mom,” I groaned, slumping back onto the kitchen chair I’d vacated to pretty up the room.
“Did you allow that stranger to put his hands on you? Take what doesn’t belong to him like you did with that last boy you dated?”
My stomach knotted, raising the reckless side of my nature I hadn’t dealt with for months.
“What if I want to belong to him, Mom?” I shot back, my voice hard.
“Nora said he’s married!”
“They’re partners—not married,” I explained, not that it would make a difference. My parents tended toward the straitlaced way of life and wouldn’t ever understand.
“Bad enough they’re gay, but to pull you into this type of relationship—”
“They’re bisexual,” I muttered, but she didn’t stop.
Slumping, I thumped my forehead onto the table as she went off again on how unnatural poly relationships were.
I held in a snort on that one. Mom obviously hadn’t read Annie Kelly’s latest. What an eye-opener that would be! Giggles rose up my throat, and I swallowed them down, choking.
“I’m serious, young lady,” Mom chided, having heard me fight the snickering wanting to bubble from me. “I knew sending you off to California was a mistake, but your father insisted you needed to spread your wings a bit and learn how to fly on your own. Make something of yourself like Nora has done.”
My eyes rolled so damn hard back into my head that I sat fully upright. “I’ll never ‘make something of myself’’,” I quoted and emphasized my words, the snark taking the lead, “because Nora set the bar too damn high. I’ll never measure up—ever. What’s the point of trying?”
“Making decisions after thinking them through would be a good start!”
Again with the lecture.
Mom and Dad hadn’t ever outright put me down, called me less than or too much—that shit all came from Nora—but reality was, I was nothing like her and never would be.
I tuned Mom out. Put her on speaker and got back up to clean the kitchen, muttering agreement noises here and there so she knew I semi-listened.
If Mom saw the house I would call home until I got my feet beneath me, she’d shut up real quick. Ashton and Rhett were loaded, no doubt about it. They made a lot more than Nora, and in my parents’ minds, she was a millionaire who’d reached the top.