“Your boyfriend is an ass.”
I looked up from washing my hands in the bathroom, saw Hoda leaving one of the stalls, and turned off my water. Grabbing the towels, I turned to go, but not before I threw over my shoulder, “Be glad he didn’t fire you.”
My back hit the door. I pushed it open and stepped out into the hallway.
Going a few feet, I thought I’d see Melissa or Liam in the hallway. I was wrong. Matt was barreling down on me. The guys who noticed him just frowned. The handful of girls in the hallway gawked at him. He was storming my way, his frown fierce. “Did you know about Marie?”
I frowned at him. “Marie?”
“She’s gone. Like totally gone.”
“She’s been gone since we had that family dinner.”
Matt’s eyes bulged out. “I know! She should be back by now. No matter how long they say Marie will be gone, she’s never gone this long. A day, two tops. Not this long. Marie doesn’t do vacations. I went by the estate this morning to have breakfast with Ser and Cy, and Marie is still gone. Theresa was there and she was giving your mom the side-eye. You know what that’s about?”
I was at a loss for words.
I blinked. “Theresa was side-eyeing my mom? Not your aunt?”
Matt snorted. “Payton’s not my aunt. She’s Cyclone and Seraphina’s, and yes, Theresa was giving your mom the evil eye, not even the side-eye. I know Theresa. She wouldn’t do that unless Marie still being gone was your mom’s fault.”
“Or she thought it was my mom’s fault.”
“What?”
I repeated, “Or Theresa thought it was my mom’s fault.”
“You saying she doesn’t know? Theresa knows everything. Her and her mama Marie. If something’s going down at the house, they know it.”
I didn’t know why I was getting heated, but I found myself arguing back, “They didn’t know about Quinn.”
“They knew about Quinn.”
“Bullshit.”
He stopped and his eyes twitched. Literally. He scowled. “They knew; they just didn’t know they knew.”
“That makes perfect sense. They knew but didn’t know they knew.”
“You know what I mean.” He looked irate, then he stopped and shifted back on his heels. He reassessed me. “What’s going on here?”
I shot back, “You’re blaming my mother for something you don’t know for sure.”
I was defending Chrissy, and I swore. “Hold on.” I pulled my phone out and began heading to a corner for privacy.
Matt followed. “What are you doing?”
I turned a corner and settled with my back to the wall. Matt stood next to me, his back to the students milling past us. Erik was keeping back even farther, taking point ten feet behind Matt.
I responded, “If I’m taking my mom’s back, I’m making sure I should be.” Because one never knew with Chrissy sometimes. And with that, it was ringing in my ear.
A second later, she picked up. “Well. Well. Well. This is a long overdue phone call. My daughter has remembered she has a mother. That I exist. That I was the one who opened my legs and pushed you out, and it was my womb where you first grew.”
She was gloating.
I sighed. “Can you get on with it?”
She laughed, chirping, “How are you, baby? My very loving and so doting daughter of mine? What can your mother do for you, since you deigned to call me today? I should note the date. Put it on the calendar. Make this a national holiday. I could bake a cake. I could buy a cake. Balloons. I’m seeing it all right now. A parade, too!”
“Chrissy.” I groaned.
“Don’t call me Chrissy. I’m Mom.” A beat. “And until you do, I’ve got more in me. I can go all night long, make you miss your next class and everything.”
“Don’t call me baby.”
“Anything for you, honey bunches.”
“Chrissy!”
She laughed. “I’m just messing with you. What’s up? Are you coming for dinner tonight? That’d be great. I can do this all to your face and in person. Think of the hugs and the patting on the back and the cheek squeezing—”
“Chrissy!” Forget it. I was going back to what I was used to. “Are you behind Marie still being gone?”
Silence.
I waited, my heart starting to pound.
More silence.
Crap. That was the answer right there.
“I just had your back against Matt, Mom. If you were the reason Marie left, call her back,” I said with a soft voice.
More silence, then her voice was just as soft. “You called me Mom again.” She sniffled.
My head jerked upright. Excepting the time I’d been kidnapped, both times, and when she knew I’d find out about Peter, she never sniffled or even teared up. What was going on? I shot Matt a look. He was right. Something was going on at the house.
I spoke into the phone, “Are you okay?”
A second sniff. “I’m totally fine, honey. Really. Just midlife emotions. You wouldn’t know about that yet. And I wasn’t behind Marie leaving, but your father told me that she and her husband wanted to go on a cruise, so he arranged for that to happen. That’s all.”
I tensed.
Something wasn’t right.
“Then why is my brother finding me at my school, and why is he so motivated to do that because Theresa was giving you the side-eye?”
Matt moved closer so his voice could be heard. “Theresa doesn’t give the side-eye unless it’s earned. And she was giving it to you.”
Chrissy sighed on the other end. “I don’t know why she was doing that, but it’s not about Marie. I can tell you that. I didn’t even know Marie was going until suddenly she was gone. That had nothing to do with me.”
“So what did?” That was from Matt.
Chrissy hesitated again on her end.
My stomach fell. My mom was hiding something. I could read the signs even over the phone.
Enough was enough.
“Mom, about tonight.” I held Matt’s gaze as he heard me, and his frown was now a scowl. “We’re coming for dinner. Six, right?”
Once I hung up, Matt was in my space. “What the hell, B.?”
He called me B. It was the first time I got that nickname from him, so I indulged in a moment to savor it.
My brother had given me his first nickname.
The moment was done.
“My mom’s not lying about Marie. I can tell. But she is lying about something. Or she’s purposefully not telling me something, something that she knows I would want to know. That means we’re going there for dinner. You. Me. Kash.”
“Kash is flying to Brazil today.”
“Oh.” He hadn’t told me. Brazil? Wow. “Then you and me.” I raised a hand up in a fist. “Team Batt.”
The scowl lifted. A grin took its place, a fond grin, and his entire face warmed. He laughed shortly before hitting my fist with his own. “We should use a code name like Team Dracula. It’s too obvious, otherwise.”
I was having another moment. Team Batt was a real thing, and my brother was joking about it with me.
“You’re right. Dracula it is.”
He laughed again before tossing an arm around my shoulders, and we began walking back down the hallway. He was taking in everyone. “So this is what a certified nerd building looks like from the inside. I always wanted to know.”
Well. Now he knew.