She laughed. “Only about a hundred times!”
“I’ll walk you out,” Cole nodded, standing up alongside me. “Kat, thank you,” he said sincerely when we were out in the hall.
“For what?” I asked, confused.
“For being with us. For being such a good friend to her,” he said as he shrugged. “And to me,” he added.
“Of course, I love you guys.”
His expression turned thoughtful as he regarded me cautiously. “Hey, I know Sal’s back and—”
“Don’t even think about that,” I cut him off. “Focus on your beautiful daughter and soon-to-be wife. Don’t worry about my bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit,” he argued forcefully.
“Whatever it is, don’t worry about it. I’m fine,” I assured him with a fake smile that he saw right through.
“Mack will drive you home,” he said with a sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to get any further with me on the subject. He’d known me long enough to know when I wasn’t going to share.
“Okay, great.”
When I arrived home I felt a jumble of confusion, joy, and sheer exhaustion, but mostly exhaustion.
My phone began ringing the moment I got inside. Thinking it might be Scar needing something, I rushed to dig it out from the depths of my purse.
“Hello?”
“Katherine?” a raspy woman’s voice demanded. Though it’d been ten years it wasn’t a voice I’d ever forget.
“Ma?” I replied incredulously. What the hell did she want? “What the hell do you want?” I voiced my question aloud.
She barked out a laugh and I winced at the sound. Clearly, she still smoked a pack a day.
“Nice way to greet your mother,” she said as she snorted.
“You never deserved the term. What do you want?” I asked again, ready to be done with the conversation.
She sighed wearily. “Stu and I are in a bind. We need to borrow some money.”
“Who the hell is Stu?” I demanded.
“My boyfriend,” she replied with exaggerated patience as though she needed to speak slowly for me to catch up.
“What happened to Dad?” I asked, sitting down hard on my barstool.
She snorted. “That bastard and I split years ago, Kat. Now, about my situation.”
“Hold on a second,” I demanded abruptly. “Let me get this straight. I haven’t spoken to you in ten years. You’re telling me you’re not with Dad anymore and you only called me to borrow money? You’re shitting me, right?”
“No, I’m not!” she exclaimed. “We took out a loan, we had a sure thing, but it didn’t work out. And now this cock sucker is demanding interest on top of what we borrowed,” she whined.
“And you thought I was your best bet?” I demanded incredulously.
“Well, yeah,” she answered as though I was completely stupid.
“How did you even get this number?”
With several state lines between us, I hadn’t planned on ever seeing or talking to either of my parents again.