Page 6 of Tattered Souls (Whispering Falls #2)

Garrick

I had just bumped fists with Dom. We were all caught up on our clients’ cars.

And for once, on a Saturday, we were able to leave at one.

Leo, Chance, and Dain cheered.

I was shaking my head as we locked up.

Then my phone pinged with a text.

I pulled it out and shook my head when I saw the text thread.

Daddy-Kins therefore, I bit out, “Doubt she’d like knowing y’all were talking about her behind her back.”

They all jumped and then whipped their heads around in their seats.

Talia scoffed, “Like y’all don’t talk about us behind our backs? Really?”

“We might. But we don’t judge y’all, not like y’all were doing with Tatum.” I said and then walked out of the house and to the back porch.

My hands fisting around the railing to calm that temper I tried to keep a tight leash on.

The very one that had come out fully when I was fourteen and hadn’t realized I even had it.

I just didn’t know that in a matter of months, part of that temper was going to be unleashed.

And I wasn’t going to do fuck all to leash it back in.

We were all in the living room, waiting.

And then it happened.

We heard the front door open, and then we all looked in that direction.

Alec came through first with a woman behind him.

When we all saw what she had on... hands immediately lifted in unison for payment.

Mom looked at us and asked, “What are y’all doing?”

“Inside joke, Mom,” Carter said.

I chuckled.

A phone started ringing, and when I looked at Tatum, I saw that it was hers.

She checked the call, and then said, “Excuse me.”

Something about the look on her face didn’t sit well with me, so without a thought, I stood up and followed her, and when she stepped outside, I was never more grateful for the screen door that allowed me to hear her side of the conversation.

“Lance. Everything okay?” she asked.

She was silent as she listened to what was being said by her piece of shit boyfriend.

No, I hadn’t met him.

And I didn’t give a fuck.

He was a piece of shit in my mind.

“Yes. I told you I was coming over to the Griggs home for dinner. I also cooked dinner for you.”

Ex-fucking-cuse me?

She cooked him dinner?

Tell the motherfucker he wants to eat to hit up a goddamned drive-thru.

And then, softly, hesitantly, she said, “Every time I ask if you want to join us, you tell me no.”

Yeah. No. I definitely didn’t like that. Not one bit.

“Okay. I’ll text you the address. But I need to ask...” She trailed off and then pulled her phone away from her ear and looked at the screen.

And I knew instantly that the prick had hung up on her.

Then and there, I made a promise to never do it.

I walked back to the living room on silent boots, so she wouldn’t know I had heard her.

The woman, Alec’s date, was being a brown noser.

Trying to suck up to my mom.

But she saw right through it.

And she couldn’t help but eye Dom and me, while licking her lips.

Fuck. Me.

It was a few minutes later when Tatum came back in, and then she looked at my mom, and yeah, I noticed it. The forced smile. That son of a motherfucking bitch.

“Everything okay, Tatum?” My mom asked.

“Yes, umm, I was wondering if you have enough dinner for an extra person. Lance wants to come.” Tatum asked.

I gritted my teeth so hard I was sure a molar had cracked.

My mom, being my mom, simply smiled and nodded her head, “Yes, dear, that’s fine. I always planned to have leftovers.”

Alec chimed in then, “It’s how I don’t starve.”

“Where do you put it all anyway?” Ethan asked as he sat on the floor next to the coffee table with Melanie coloring away.

Alec smirked, “Gotta keep my body. What do you think draws the ladies in?”

Harlee, Lila, Everly, and Talia all gagged, and before my mom could reprimand him, my father tilted his beer bottle to him, “Good man.”

And then my mother whipped her head in his direction and said, “Excuse me?”

My dad sighed, “I’m on the couch again, aren’t I?”

We all heard his smile.

“Yes,” Mom snapped.

But we all knew dad wouldn’t end up on the couch.

Well, he wouldn’t be there all night.

Mom would tell him to come to bed because she didn’t want her feet getting cold.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Tatum took in a breath and said, “That’s Lance. Be right back.”

And when he walked in, I had to lock my jaw not to do a few things.

One of those was asking Tatum what in the hell she was thinking.

Another one of those things is that he dressed like an uppity prick.

And yeah, I was being a judgmental ass.

Polo. Khaki. Loafers. So much gel, he could probably get HBO. Oh, and let’s not forget... you're supposed to spray your cologne on. Not bathe in it.

But I had caught his sneer on the flower wallpaper my mom had in the hall that she loved.

I wasn’t the only one to miss it.

He had just made sure he wouldn’t be tolerated.

Because there was one thing about all of us.

No one insulted our mother.

I opened my mouth and said, “Sneer at something in this house again, and you’ll be out of it faster than you can say boo.”

Seeing the way Tatum’s cheeks flamed red in embarrassment, I growled.

I should have kept my mouth shut.

We were eating then, and I had placed myself right beside Tatum with Lance on her other side.

Every time he poked at his fried chicken and grimaced at it. The way he took sips of his water after every bite of his mashed potatoes.

And as I sat there and watched, I tried, fuck did I try to see what she saw in him.

But when nothing came to mind... well... I started working on a plan to get him out of her life.

I just never knew the time it would take, or what I would see, and the patience I would need to develop.