The only benefit to Donny roaring so loud was that he’d be heard crystal clear through the phone line. I chanced another glance at the screen. The call was connected. I hoped the detective didn’t assume it was a butt dial and hang up on me.
“They’re sleeping, Donny.”
“Then wake them the fuck up!”
Gigi didn’t answer. She just stared at him, her expression a mixture of fear and fury.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you fuckin’ look at me like that!”
Anger crept into Gigi’s voice, bolstering her fear. “How am I looking at you, Donny?”
“Like a ball-busting bitch!”
“Oh, that’s lovely. Exactly the kind of language I want around our boys.”
“What you want doesn’t factor here.”
“I’m their mother!”
“And I’m their fuckin’ father!”
“Funny, you haven’t been so eager to be their father when it comes to child support payments.”
Donny’s face darkened. “Damn straight. I’m not paying you a goddamned dime to live in a goddamned hotel. Not when we have a perfectly good house three blocks away where those boys belong. Whereyoubelong. Just a matter of you remembering it.”
“I don’t belong there anymore,” Gigi said stiffly. “I never belonged there. And neither do Rory or Declan.”
Donny’s eyes narrowed in a seriously scary way. “Careful how far you push me, G.”
God, I hoped Cade was coming. I stole another glance at my phone. The call had been connected for 2 minutes, 21 seconds. I figured even Superman couldn’t fly that fast across town.
Damn and blast.
“Go wake them up,” Donny barked, crossing his arms over his beefy chest. “I’m done fightin’ about this.”
“I’m not waking them up! It’s a school night, they have to be awake to catch the bus tomorrow?—”
“No, they don’t. They’ll be with me, at home, in their own beds. I’ll drive them to school. Or they’ll skip. It’s fuckin’ Halloween.”
“It’s costume day at school, Donny. They’ve been excited about it for weeks. They aren’t going to skip.” Gigi was getting riled up. Her cheeks were red, her eyes flashing. “Rory is going to be a space invader. I made his costume from scratch. Do you know how long that took? And Declan is going as Harry Styles, he’s got the boa and everything. I spent weeks searching the racks at thrift stores all over town to find sequined pants in his size.” She pulled in a ragged breath. “They. Are. Going.That’s final.”
Her husband’s thick, bushy brows pulled in, furrowing his ruddy forehead. “Who the fuck is Harry Styles?”
Gigi’s spine went ramrod. “He’s a musician.”
“Yeah? What kind of music?”
“Pop. He sings that song that’s always on the radio, the one about watermelons?—”
“No fuckin’ way. My son is not going as a pop star in a fucking’ feathered boa.” Donny said the phrasespop starandboalike they tasted bad. “He can borrow a Celtics jersey. That’s a normal costume for a boy his age. Christ. Sequined pants? Are you shittin’ me, woman? You want our boy to grow up gay?”
I thought I hated Donny before I met him. After this conversation, I really,reallyhated him. It took all my strength to keep from physically launching myself across the desk at the asshole, claws-out.
Gigi, I could tell, felt similarly. “Say whatever you want about me,” she whispered, every word infused with emotion. “But don’t you ever —ever— speak about my sons that way. They are free to be whoever they want to be. That applies for costumes and for life in general.”
“Fuck me.” Donny groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “Were you this much of a wet blanket when I put a ring on your finger?”
“Yes!” Gigi retorted instantly. “Apparently you were too drunk to notice!”