Hold On (The 'Burg #6)(94)

Merry threw his arms around my shoulders.

That felt great.

I slid my hand around his waist.

He tucked me tight into his side.

I fit myself tighter.

And that felt even better.

We watched Trent fire up their minivan and we kept watching as they pulled away, our heads turning to keep them in sight as they drove down the street.

“Bad news, brown eyes. That church lady is f*ckin’ crazy,” Merry muttered when the brake lights on the minivan lit at the stop sign at the end of the street.

“The Lord giveth great dinners with handsome cops, followed by fabulous orgasms and a mom gettin’ to tell her boy he gets to eat pizza with a good man he looks up to,” I replied, and as I did, Merry looked down at me and I looked up at him. “Then the Lord taketh away by sending a batshit-crazy church lady to stand in my yard, throw down with me, and, while she’s doin’ it, say words like ‘salvation.’”

Merry started smiling.

“Not sure the Lord gave you those orgasms, sweetheart,” he returned. “And He sure didn’t pay for dinner.”

“I hear you,” I agreed. “That doesn’t mean He wasn’t shining His light on me the last twenty-four hours, save, of course, the last ten minutes.”

Merry didn’t quit smiling, it was just that his smile turned cocky.

“Guys!” Ethan shouted from the house, and we both looked over our shoulders to see him in the storm door. “What’s goin’ on? Why’re standin’ out there, starin’ at each other, and not comin’ in to tell me why Dad and Peggy are actin’ all crazy?”

I stared at my son, who looked angry and worried.

This meant I sighed, which was a choice I made because the other one was losing my mind that Peg and Trent made my kid angry and worried.

The good part was Merry being there, being close, having a hold on me, and shifting me around so we could walk connected to my house.

The bad part was my kid was in my house and I had to explain to him his dad and Peggy weren’t acting crazy, because, at least for Peg, she just was.

We made it into the house and Merry had barely closed the front door behind us when Ethan launched in.

“You don’t have to tell me what went down.” He lifted his chin. “You told me to go to my room. You didn’t tell me not to open my window so I couldn’t watch and listen.”

He was right. I didn’t.

I made a mental note should something like this happen again to do just that as I replied, “Then I’m not sure what there is to add, little man.”

“You started whispering,” he accused. “I didn’t hear that part.”

“And that’s ’cause you shouldn’t, buddy,” Merry said carefully.

Ethan glared at Merry for a moment but only for a moment.

Then he declared, “Right,” stomped to the phone, and jerked it out of its base.

I wasn’t sure that was good.

“Ethan,” I said warningly.

He turned his angry face to me, then he looked down and punched buttons.

“Ethan,” I said again, moving his way.

He put the phone to his ear.

“Baby,” I whispered, getting close. “Maybe you need to think about this. Don’t act in anger. That can lead to bad things, things you might regret, and I don’t want that for you, kid.”

He looked up at me, his eyes sliding to the side as I felt Merry stop there behind me. Then Ethan opened his mouth.

“Yeah, Peg? It’s Ethan,” he stated. He waited. Then he said, “Dad’s drivin’? Okay, I’ll tell you. I wanna see you again never. You got that? I never wanna see you again. Not you. Not Dad. But especially not you. I heard what you said to my mom and that isn’t right. Dad knows it isn’t. He knows. Don’t know why you don’t. He left us all alone, he can’t come back and be all stupid. And you can’t do nothin’ because you’re nothin’ to me.”

He drew in a deep breath and I drew in one with him.

Then he kept giving it to her.

“I gotta tell you, this sucks ’cause I’m gonna miss Mary and Tobias. But it doesn’t suck because I’m not gonna miss you. You bother my mom again, I’ll tell you to your face. You push it, I’ll say it to a judge. I’m never goin’ with you. Not ever. You find a way to make me, I’ll run away. I gotta look after my mom and you made me hafta do that by making it this way. So, later. You got it in you to be halfway decent, give Mary and Tobias a hug from me. Maybe when all of us are grown up, we can get together and talk about how crazy you are. But that’ll have to wait until we’re all grown up.”

With that, he punched a button and tossed the phone to the couch.

He looked back to me. “Okay. Done. Now we got, like, no time to eat pizza. We’ll have to snarf it down before I gotta meet Teddy at the game, which sucks, and I’m blamin’ that on Peggy too.” He looked to Merry. “I gotta get my bag, then we can go.”

On that, he tramped from the room, Merry and me turning to watch him go.

“Just to say,” Merry started softly, and my thoughts on my kid, worried, my eyes drifted up to him, “not sure how much better I gotta get to know your boy.”

I felt my lips part, but he wasn’t done.