“I gotta go, Mom. Goodnight.”
“Okay, bye, I just wanted to say—” I took the phone from Juliette’s hand and pushed the red button to end the call.
“Juls—” I started.
“It’s okay,” she interrupted, but I interrupted that garbage right back.
“That was not okay. How dare she talk to you that way? No one should talk to anyone that way, especially a mother to her child. Besides the fact that she was rude, she was wrong. I understood every word you said. And everything you say matters. You matter. She wasn’t even trying to listen to you.” Fury pounded through my veins.
“Dylan, stop.” Juliette put her hand on my cheek, her thumb over my lips. “Thank you. I like that you’re angry at her for me.”
At least she didn’t try to defend her mom or deny that it hurt. I placed my hand over hers and leaned into her touch, kissing her thumb. “Tell me that you know she’s wrong.”
“That’s just the way it is with her. She rarely understands me. Our conversations are usually short and frustrating. That’s part of the reason why I only talk to her when I’m alone.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“Well, that’s mostly it. I’m usually in a bad mood after a conversation like that and I don’t want to waste our time together being in a bad mood. Also...it’s embarrassing.”
That pissed me off. And explained a lot of Juliette’s insecurities. “I’m sorry she upsets you. But she should be embarrassed, not you. You know that she’s wrong, right?”
Juliette shrugged.
Fuck that. “Baby, she is wrong. It’s on her for not trying harder to listen to you. Even now, with your speech a little more affected, I understand everything you say. And if there’s something I don’t get, I always ask. How can your mom think your words don’t matter? It’s her, not you.”
“You don’t count. You and Audrey are the only ones who always understand me.”
“That’s because we love you. We listen with our hearts.” Too late, it hit me what I’d accidentally insinuated. “Not that your mom doesn’t love you too,” I added, trying to take the sting out of my words.
“You’re right. I know she loves me, but it’s a different kind of love. The love you and Audrey have for me is with full acceptance of me, exactly as I am. I love you so much for loving me like that.”
“I do love you exactly as you are, baby. Your dyspraxia is part of what makes you so kindhearted. Hell, even after what Kayla did to you, what she put you through, you still care about what happens to her.”
“I don’t believe you would have ever loved someone so evil. There must be a good person in there who has just lost her way.”
“I don’t care where she goes, as long as she’s no longer a threat to you.”
“Hey, you’re right!” Juliette grinned. “There was a threat to me and now it’s over!”
“I don’t know why you sound happy about that.” I frowned.
“We got it out of the way and we’re relatively unscathed. You told me how all the firefighters from Station 7 went through terrible things before getting their happily ever afters. This was ours and now we can enjoy our happily ever after!”
I gasped, partly for real and partly for dramatic effect. “Take it back! You can’t say that!”
“What?” Juliette giggled, but as much as I loved the sound, I couldn’t let it go.
“Every firefighter knows there are some things you can never, ever say, and you just did.”
“What?” Juliette repeated with a huge smile.
“No, I don’t even want to say it now.”
“Whisper it to me?”
I sighed, wishing she would get it without making me say the words. I knew it was a silly superstition, but it seemed to be true too often.
I brushed her short curls behind her ear and whispered, “No one is allowed to say that it’s been a quiet shift because that’s when the shit hits the fan. No one is allowed to say that it’s going to be easy because that’s when shit gets hard. So take back your words before you jinx us.”