Page 9

“Hi, baby girl,” my mother greeted, pulling her long red hairback into a messy ponytail.

“Hi, Mummy.’” I sat back against the headboard and grabbed myglass of red wine off the nightstand. “How are you?”

“What’s wrong?” she asked instead of answering my question andgrabbing her own glass of wine. A deep frown appeared between her perfectlyarched eyebrows. I swore the only way you would know that she was in herfifties was by the laugh lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. Other thanthat, Andrea Bishop hardly had a gray hair on her head.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I pointed out, delaying myresponse as much as I could.

“I’m fine. Now tell me what’s wrong?”

I sighed. “Have you been chatting with Emma again and gettingher to read your Tarot cards?”

She laughed. “Nah. I just know my daughter. Is it a boy?”

“He’s a man, mom.” I rolled my eyes. “Definitely not a boy.”

“So, tell me then, what’s the issue?”

“I don’t know.” I took a sip of my wine, mulling over what Iwanted to say. “Truth is, I have no idea. He’s intense. He’s also a biker.”

Mom raised an eyebrow. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

I groaned, throwing my head back against the headboard. “I don’tknow. The attraction is there. It’s not like it was with Aaron. I think I onlymarried him because he was the first guy who showed me any interest. It wasjust bad. He was bad for me. But Sammy...I think he’s bad for me too but in acompletely different way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think he would ever hurt me. I haven’tgotten any red flags with him like I did with Aaron. Sammy is just…well…he’sSammy.” And Lord help me, but I loved the way he looked at me.

“When wasthe last time you had any fun?”

“You’re mymom.” I frowned. “You should be telling me to stay safe, keep out of trouble,and that Sammy is bad for me.”

“Listen, Idon’t know who Sammy is, but I know you and I know Shawnee. Does she know abouthim?”

“Yeah. Shedoes,” I said, unsure as to what Mom was getting at.

“Okay, wellI know that she would never let you end up with someone like Aaron again. Youalmost lost your friendship because of him.” She lifted her hand when I went tospeak. “I’m not done.”

I sighed,taking a sip of wine to stop myself from saying something I would regret.

“I knowwhat happened with Aaron wasn’t your fault. You were young and in love.”

“And dumb,”I added, taking a bigger sip of wine that time.

“No, notdumb, just inexperienced.”

“You’rebeing nice, Mummy.”

“Maybe.”She gave me a small smile. “Is he nice to you? This Sammy?”

“He hashis…yes, he’s nice to me.” There was no way I could tell her that the few timeshe had been a dick to me, turned me on. It was a kink not a lot of peopleunderstood. “As much of an ass as Sammy can be, he’s still nothing like Aaronwas.” My late husband was nice in the beginning but boy, did he ever have mefooled. At least with Sammy, I knew where I stood with him. He wanted sex. Endof.

“That’s goodat least.”

Mom and Icontinued chatting for another hour. I found out she was seeing someone too butnever gave me his name. She wanted to make sure there was something therebefore giving me any information about him. She also wanted to make sure he wasworthy of meeting her daughter.

A half hourlater, I was getting ready to hang up with my mom when Sammy’s words from theother day rang into my head. He was sick of waiting. Well so was I.

I sent hima quick text, not even re-reading what I had written, knowing I probablysounded nervous or worse. Desperate.