Accidental Shield (Marriage Mistake #6)(71)

Poor Val.

Ma stops just short of squeezing the life out of her as she wraps her in a super hug.

“My pleasure, Beverly. I had a lot of fun redecorating and—”

“Oh, darling, you’re exactly what this stuffy place needed! It’s felt more like a museum than a home since the day they moved in.” My mother doesn’t skip a beat. She doesn’t stop gushing either.

I side-eye Val while Ma blabs on for several minutes, pouring her heart out like she’s already part of the family.

“Thank you again,” Val says. Then, realizing she’s still wearing the gloves she’d borrowed to weed the flowers, she pulls them off.

A second ago, I told myself it can’t get worse.

Then it fucking does.

Ma notices the ring on Valerie’s finger.

“Oh, oh, oh! Oh, darling!”

Oh, hell.

She’s practically jumping. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mother jump in almost four decades on this earth.

Then she turns to me, hurls her arms around my neck, smothering me with kisses so rapid-fire it’s a wonder I can breathe. “You devil of a boy! How long have you been hiding the news? I’m so happy for you, my Little Arrow!”

I return her hug but don’t say anything.

I’m also a grown man pushing forty. Hardly her little anything but...shit, you know moms and their nicknames. Like it or lump it, they stick for life.

Plus, she’s still talking. “I’m so glad I came home early. I kept thinking about how you wanted me to keep Bryce a little longer, and I just couldn’t stay away. These summers are so short. Before you know it, he’ll be off to school again. So, ta-da, I’m back!”

“What would I do without you?” I wonder out loud. “We’re fine, though. Didn’t need you to—”

“Nonsense! I get it now, you two want to celebrate your engagement. It won’t take Bryce long at all to pack. I’ll take him to a movie and then up to the North Shore. We’ll go horseback riding at that place he loves. Maybe I can book one of those cute little bungalows where you can watch the whales right out your window. They even do turtle tours!”

Val looks up at me and pinches her lips tight, but that doesn’t hide the wicked grin forming on her face.

Turtle tours.

Fuck me.

Yeah, that was one of my finer moments. No one makes up a lie so ridiculous. No one should.

“But first, I have to see the rest of the house,” Ma says, hooking Valerie’s arm with hers. “Bryce told me you’ve moved things around.”

“Not much. I mostly just spaced things differently,” Val says, walking out the door with Ma’s arm glued to her, glancing back at me.

I follow a safe distance behind, paying close attention to every word my mother says, in case I need to jump in and interrupt.

No, not in case. When.

I also make a mental note to ask my man who’s watching the gate why he didn’t warn me Ma was coming. Patting my pockets, I find my phone and see the text.

Damn. He’d warned me eight minutes ago. Guess I didn’t hear it with the weed trimmer going.

Hardly surprising.

A bitter part of my brain still blocks out certain sounds. Anything too close to a power drill.

It’s how I survived. There was a time when a blender at a bar would send me over the edge, racing out of my seat like I’d spotted a polar bear.

That’s one reason I did most of the building on this joint.

I forced myself to use every power tool in the book to prove I had control. They’re just things. They can’t fucking hurt me in my own hands.

The first few days were pure hell, very stop and go. But slowly, surely, I regained total mastery of the sound of the tool Cornaro used to torture me, to make me fail, to let her die.

I glance at the message again. Eight minutes.

Eight minutes alone with the kid.

Hell, what had Ma already gotten out of Bryce before we’d shown up? I’ll tell her the truth when this is over, of course, but right now, I don’t need her questions or her empathy.

I damn sure don’t need the guilt trip if she finds out what’s up. I promised her my ‘dangerous days’ were over after Damysus. I disbanded the firm for Bryce’s sake and hers.

And mine, but that’s not the point.

If anything happened to me, she’d have to raise Bryce. She’d do a fine job, sure, but she’d already raised me. It wasn’t fair risking her having to do it again.

We’re in the dining room when Bryce runs downstairs, complete with his backpack. Since Ma and Val are talking about the flowers she’d picked and put in a vase, I meet Bryce in the living room.

“Got everything?”

“Sure do. I’m gonna give Louie a call and see if he wants to come,” Bryce says, already pulling out his phone.

Lowering my voice, I lean close to his ear and say, “Listen. Grandma doesn’t need to know about Val’s amnesia. Keep that to yourself.”

“Yeahhh, I know,” Bryce tells me, a wry smile on his lips. “She’ll flip out if she finds out you’re working with the Damysus dudes again.”

“I’m not. Not technically,” I say, hating how harsh it comes out. I soften my tone. “I’m just helping a friend.”