Ride Steady(184)

“I’m not taking him back, Tory. I’m with another man.”

“He said you were getting back together,” she told me, now sounding perplexed. “He said we were through because you were putting your family back together.”

“He lied,” I shared. “But this is between you and him. There is no him and me. When I say I’m with someone else, I’m with him. We’re unofficially living together. And Aaron knows it.”

“That *!” she yelled.

I shook my head. “I know you’re upset and angry, and I’m sorry about that for you. We have an odd relationship, and I can’t say you’ve been my favorite person. You made some choices that affected me in not-so-good ways. But in the end, I got where I wanted to be partially because of them. So I can’t really hold ill will. And because of that, I’ll say right now, it doesn’t feel like it, but you’re better off too. Now you can find someone who’ll be good to you. And Aaron isn’t very good at that.”

“You’re right about that!” she snapped just as my phone buzzed in my hand in the way it did when I had another call.

“Anyway, I’m in the middle of something and have another call coming through. I have to go. But take care of yourself.”

“I’ll start doing that,” she told me sharply. “And he can go f*ck himself.”

“Okay, well… good attitude,” I forced out encouragingly. “Now, I gotta go.”

“Right. Sorry. I don’t even know why I called. It’s uncool. I was just—”

My phone kept notifying me of another call so I interrupted her. “Tory, I have to go.”

“Right. Well… uh… later.”

“’Bye. Good luck,” I replied, took the phone from my ear, dragged down the screen without really looking at it, and put it back to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hey, Riss.”

Aaron.

Why me?

Why?

“Aaron, I—”

“I want you to know I heard you. What you said during our last phone conversation. I know you want me to think on things. I promise I’m doing that. But I’d like you to think on things too. And while you’re thinking, you should know, I’ve finished it with Tory. Until I can get him into daycare at work, Mom’s been looking after Travis while I’m at work. Tory officially moved out tonight.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him she shared that with me already but I needed him off the phone. I’d texted my I’m late alibi to the girls and time was running out for me to get done what I had to get done and get to them so they could be my alibi.

“Thanks for the information, Aaron, but I’m in the middle of something.”

“With Joker?” he asked, derision sliding into his tone.

“No, he’s with his brothers tonight. I’m heading to the girls and I’m driving and you know how I don’t like to talk on the phone while I’m driving,” I lied.

“Yes, I do,” he stated immediately. “And you’re right not to do so. It’s unsafe.”

I rolled my eyes.

He always talked on the phone in his car and not just in his Bluetooth ear thingie.

“So I’ll let you go,” he finished.

“Great. Thanks. That’d be nice.”

“We’ll talk more later.”

I hoped not.

“Goodbye, Aaron.”

“’Bye, honey.”

Ulk.

I hung up, tossed the phone on the seat next to me, grabbed my keys, and before anything else could happen or I could talk myself out of doing what I was going to do, I opened the door, threw my leg out, and hauled myself out of my car.

Quickly, I dashed across the street and up the drive.

Thankfully, Joker’s dad parked his truck outside. I didn’t know why, he had a garage, but he did.

Which was good for me.

So I did what I needed to do.

I went to the passenger’s side (the driver’s side could be seen from the house and the curtains were open), got my key firm in position in my hand, then I dragged the tip hard against the steel from the back gate along the bed across the passenger door and up the entire fender, the paint curling away as I did.

I stopped, took my key away and stared at the mark.

There.

Done.

Did I feel better?