“Awesome. And sorry again I had to call it in, but just some advice, in case you haven’t been in the ’burg for very long: cops keep a close eye on shit and neighbors look out for neighbors. You wanna party, you might wanna take it somewhere else.”

That was taking it too far, and I knew it when hard entered his gaze and he declared, “Should be able to have a good time at my own fuckin’ house.”

I nodded. “I agree. It’s just that if that gets loud, your good time fucks with other people.” I tipped my head to the side, lifting my hand to give him the finger and thumb one-inch. “And worse, you came this close to ruinin’ AC/DC for me.”

He burst out laughing, doing it with his eyes twinkling appreciatively at me.

Shit, shit, fucking shit.

I took that too far too.

“Shame to ruin AC/DC,” he said through chuckles.

“Yeah. Now, I got shit to do. We good?” I asked.

His eyes fell to my tits again, and he didn’t lift them when he murmured, “Oh, we’re good.”

“Awesome,” I muttered, fighting back a nasty shiver. “Later.”

“Later, darlin’,” he drawled.

Fuck, fuck, shit, shit, shit.

I lifted my chin to him, turned, and moved back toward my house, feeling his eyes follow me. I gave a jerk of my head to Ethan and he dashed up the steps of the stoop.

When I got closer, I saw him open the storm, and I also saw he had a baseball bat resting by the wall just inside the door.

My little man looking out for me (and Tilly).

I barely got the door closed when Ethan asked, “You okay, Mom?”

“Yeah, it’s all good. He’s gonna leave Tilly alone. It’s fine,” I assured him, hearing my phone begin to ring. It was in the bathroom and I made my way there, but I did it calling behind me, “We’ll talk about you comin’ out when I told you to stay inside after I see who that is.”

“Not gonna let you go out there without takin’ your back,” he informed me.

That was cute. It was sweet. It was the right thing to do. It was also the wrong thing to do for a kid his age.

But I’d get to explaining that later.

I nabbed my phone, not thinking good thoughts at who the screen told me was calling.

I took the call and put it to my ear. “Ryker—”

“You get injected with a huge-ass dose of stupid since I last saw you?” he asked on a mild bark.

He was watching.

Why was he watching?

Fuck!

“Ry—”

“Told you that guy does not exist for you,” he declared.

“I know, but Ry—”

“Won’t let him do shit to the old broad. Anyway, the bitch went to church. She isn’t even there.”

I closed my eyes in despair.

Of course. Tilly went to church every Sunday. Then she went out with her girls for lunch. She wouldn’t be home until at least two.

Shit.

“Now that you gave him an up close and personal, he’s gonna live and breathe findin’ a way to tag your tight, round ass,” Ryker informed me.

“He has a woman,” I informed him back.

“They’re havin’ problems, so she’s gonna be history in about an hour, seein’ as momma hot stuff two doors down, with a pair a’ knockers made for squeezin’ together and thrustin’ a cock into is his key to tradin’ up in a big fuckin’ way.”

Uh…

Gross.

“Ryk—”

“Don’t know the games you and Merrick are playin’, sister. What I do know is that if you don’t cool your shit, I’m bringin’ him in on this. And I know Merrick, babe. I know that brother better than you in ways he’ll hide from you, even if you both stop dickin’ around and sort your shit out. He finds out what’s goin’ down two doors from his bitch, he will lose his motherfucking mind. And Merrick’s a maverick. Merrick keeps a loose hold on messy. And Merrick’s brand o’ messy makes me look adjusted. The only thing that would make Merrick lose hold on that is someone he digs bein’ in a deep pile a’ shit. Man’ll stop at nothin’ to dig you out, even if it buries him in the process. So listen up, Cher. Keep your ass safe. Keep your kid safe. And keep the man you’re fuckin’ around claimin’ safe. Now we’re done and this conversation won’t be repeated. You don’t get smart real fuckin’ fast, you know where I’ll go. And you’ll know, it gets ugly, it’s you made it that way.”

He then disconnected.

I didn’t move, one hand to my phone at my ear, the other one curled around the edge of the sink, holding on like it was a lifeline.

He finds out what’s goin’ down two doors from his bitch, he will lose his motherfucking mind.

What was going on?

Merrick keeps a loose hold on messy.

I knew that. I’d learned from a lot of experience, as well as making too many mistakes, how to read people.

The good ole boy Merry was surface. You could scratch through that using your fingernail and not a lot of effort.

Man’ll stop at nothin’ to dig you out, even if it buries him in the process.

I knew that too.

Shit.

All that, and Tilly wasn’t even home.

“Mom?”

I drew in breath, dropped the phone from my ear, let go of the sink, and turned to see Ethan in the doorway.

“Don’t be mad, okay?” he asked, shifting and eyeing me anxiously. “I was tryin’ to do the right thing.”

I drew in another breath and forced my body to relax when I let it go.

Then I told him, “I know that, Ethan. And it was the right thing in one way. There’s nothin’ wrong with you wantin’ to look out for your momma. But it was also the wrong thing since I’d told you to stay inside.”

He bit his lip.

I moved to him but didn’t crouch like I used to. He was getting tall, not quite there yet, but he needed to learn to use what he had. What he didn’t need was to learn how to put up with someone being condescending, crouching into him because he was a kid, even if they didn’t mean to be.

“You’re the man of this house,” I told him and watched his chest expand with pride. “But, kid, you’re also still a kid. Ask Colt, Sul, Mike—any of them will tell you a man’s gotta know his strengths and his weaknesses. He’s gotta learn to judge situations right. And they’ll also tell you any kid who’s still a kid, no matter it sucks, no matter the situation scares them and they wanna help, they gotta do what their momma says.”

His shoulders slumped.

God, most of the time, being a mom rocked.

It was just times like this when it absolutely didn’t.

Quickly, I continued, “In that situation, you shoulda got the phone and kept an eye on me through the window. You got a bad vibe, you could call Colt or the police or something. That way, you had my back but also did as I asked. But seein’ as nothin’ like that is gonna happen again, it doesn’t matter. Life is life. You learn from it. Today, you learned.”

Gazing up at me, he nodded.

“Right,” I muttered.

“That guy kinda seems like bad news. Are you sure nothin’ like that is gonna happen again?”

“I think your read on him is right. He’s not a dude like the dudes we like to hang with, so both of us should keep our distance. But I also think his crap is his, so if we do that, it’ll all be good.”

He nodded again.

“Now, I gotta finish gettin’ ready, honey. You good to go to your gram’s?” I asked.

“Yeah, Mom.”

“Right, let’s get to that part of our day.”

He grinned at me and got out of the doorway.

I took in another breath and headed to my bedroom.

* * * * *

Monday Night

Whether it was intentionally good timing or not, Trent phoned at the perfect moment, right before I was about to slide out of my car and hit work for the night shift.

He’d texted twice more since the first two.

I’d been blowing him off.

I needed to stop doing that so he’d leave me alone. He also needed to think on things and I needed to give him the things he needed to think about.

So I took the call with a “Hey, Trent.”