Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(107)

Layne closed his eyes.

“Well!” Vera huffed. “Who are you?”

Layne opened his eyes.

“Devin Glover, friend of your boy’s, retired PI and good judge of character,” Devin shot back then turned away and started walking to the backdoor, making his point by saying on a huge smile to Rocky, “Mornin’ darlin’, hope you slept okay.”

“I did, thanks Dev, hope you did too,” Rocky replied quietly, her body as tight as a bow.

“Couch sucks,” Devin muttered as he kept moving, Blondie crowding him. “Too soft.”

“Hello!” Vera called loudly, “I came all the way from Florida to stop my son from making a grave mistake, again. Anyone?”

Layne’s eyes sliced to her. “Ma, seriously, no more of that shit.”

“Are you kidding?” she returned then crossed her arms on her chest and finished. “Seriously.”

Rocky started to pull away, murmuring, “Layne, I really think I –”

“His name is Tanner,” Vera spat out and Rocky stopped moving. “Tanner. It isn’t hard to say. It isn’t hard to remember. I would never understand why you always called him Layne. Before, I didn’t mind, because I liked you. Now, I do not like you.”

“She calls me Layne because you told me when I was seven that my father named me Tanner,” Layne put in, Vera’s back shot straight and her eyes shot to her son. “I don’t hate the name, I don’t like it. But anytime someone says it, it reminds me it was the only thing he gave me and it wasn’t worth much.”

Vera’s eyes had grown wide and her voice grew soft when she said, “You never told me that.”

“I never told anyone except Rocky,” Layne replied. “She used to call me Tanner until I told her that. After I told her, she never said it again. I didn’t ask her to call me Layne, she just did.”

Vera’s eyes moved to Rocky for a beat then came back to Layne and Layne kept talking.

“Now, Ma, I’m happy to see you. The boys’ll love it that you’re here. It’s even cool why you’re here, comin’ home to look after your boy. But you don’t know what’s going on, you don’t know what went on and you’re not gonna know. All you gotta know is, what you see is the way it is. You don’t like it, I don’t care, you’ll have to learn to hide it. You can’t learn to hide it and keep actin’ like that, I hate to say it because I love you but I’ll show you the door. Is that clear?”

Vera’s hand went to her throat and Rocky went solid beside him.

“Layne,” Rocky whispered.

“You’re choosin’ her over me?” Vera asked on a breath.

“No, you’re choosin’ to hold onto something that isn’t there over Rocky. You never had a daughter, you told me when I hooked up with her you were glad I gave you a good one. Look close Ma, she’s back.”

“She –” Vera started.

“I know, Ma, it happened to me. It’s over. We’re movin’ on. That’s all you’re gonna get because that’s all you need,” Layne stated.

Vera’s eyes moved back to Rocky then to Layne.

“I just –” Vera began.

Layne cut her off. “I know, now you can just cool it.”

Vera stayed silent. Rocky remained unmoving against his side.

Devin closed the sliding glass door and called, “Anyone gonna go get donuts?”

“I’ll go get donuts,” Rocky said instantly.

“No, I’ll go get donuts,” Vera returned.

“Fuck me,” Layne muttered.

“Jesus, I’ll go get donuts,” Devin stated and Layne heard a belt buckle clink.

“Then I’ll go get dressed,” Rocky whispered.

“Excellent idea,” Vera retorted.

“Ma,” Layne said warningly and then looked down at Rocky. “Make coffee, yeah?”

She looked back at him and replied, “Sure, but I’ll get dressed first.”

“It’s Saturday and there’s a law that on Saturday, you don’t get dressed until at least noon,” Layne told her.

She bit her lip, let it go and said, “Layne –”

“Make coffee.”

“Layne –”

His arm gave her a squeeze. “Sweetcheeks. Make. Coffee.”

“Someone make coffee, I’ll be back in ten with donuts,” Devin declared and, without looking at a soul, he walked through the bodies around the front door and out of it. While the door was opened, Layne saw he’d parked at the curb.

Fucking Devin.

“I’ll make coffee,” Vera declared, stomped into the house and rounded the corner into the kitchen.

Rocky watched her, going so far as to twist her neck to look over her shoulder.

“Baby,” Layne called gently and Rocky’s eyes snapped to his.

“I need to go home,” she whispered and he turned her full frontal into him and wrapped both arms around her.

“You don’t need to go home,” he replied.

“I need to go home,” she repeated.

“Okay, well, you’re not goin’ home and you can’t get home anyway, you don’t have a car.”