The bathroom echoes with our screams as we both come, and the only thought left in my head is ...Moses is mine, and I’m not letting him go. Never again.
Fifty-Four
Magnolia
When my cell phone rings the next morning, I’m having the best dream and don’t want to wake up. But I do, because the stupid thing is loud as hell.
“Why did I turn my ringer on?” I murmur, reaching for the nightstand. It’s at this same moment that I realize I wasn’t dreaming. Moses is wrapped around me like a kudzu vine, and the heat I was curling into while I was asleep is all from him.
“What’s going on?” he mumbles with a sleep-roughened voice.
“Sorry. I didn’t know my phone was on. I’ll shut it off.” I grab it off the nightstand, intending to decline the call, no matter who it is, but I see Norma’s name on the display. She doesn’t usually call unless it’s important. “Shit. I’d better get this.”
“Okay, mama. You do that.” He yawns and rolls to his back, throwing one arm over his head.
I slip out from under the covers and tap the screen. “Hey, Norma. What’s up?”
“I hope I didn’t wake you. I was trying to wait to call, but ...”
“But what? What’s wrong? Bernie okay?”
At the concern in my voice, Moses opens his eyes and sits up.
“I don’t know. She keeps knocking things over when she reaches for them, like they aren’t where she thinks they are, and it’s freaking me out. We’re on her third glass this morning already, and she swears she’s fine and refuses to go to a doctor.”
“What do you think it could be?” I ask. Hell, for all I know, Bernadette could just be bored and winding Norma up for entertainment.
“I don’t know. I keep watching for signs of a stroke, because that’s all I can think of.”
When she saysstroke, a heavy knot forms in my gut. “Shit. Okay. I’ll be right there. We can bully her into going to the hospital together.”
She sighs. “Thank you, Mags. You know how she is. She’ll kill me if I call an ambulance without her say-so.”
“Don’t you worry, Norma. She can kill me instead.”
When I hang up and turn around, Moses is already out of bed and reaching for his clothes.
“Where we heading?” he asks as he pulls on a pair of shorts.
Could this man be any more perfect?
It takes me a second to remember he asked me a question, and that I’m standing here naked while he’s already half-dressed.
“My great-aunt’s house. That was Norma. She used to be Bernie’s maid. Now I pay her to take care of the old bat, because she’s one of the few people who can handle her battle-ax attitude.”
He tosses a gray T-shirt over his head and tugs it down over his chest and stomach. “She okay?”
“I don’t know. Norma thinks she might be having a stroke. Even if she is, Bernie will never admit it.”
I go to the drawer and pull out a bra and underwear, and then grab a simple dress from the closet. We’re both fully clothed and ready to leave in under ten minutes.
“This the great-aunt that kicked you out when you were sixteen?” he asks as we slide into the Rolls.
“Yeah. That’s Bernie, all right. She, unlike your grand-mère, wasn’t thrilled to be raising someone else’s kid. My mom was a whore, and Bernie told me I’d end up just like her. Guess I proved her right. She’s never let me live it down.”
“Hey,” Moses says, grabbing my hand across the center console. “That’s the last time I hear you say something sorry like that about yourself. Hear me?”
There’s a flutter in my stomach, and I’m so damn thankful he came back.