Chapter 13

Tav washot on my heels as I raced down the stairs, but I turned and put my hands on his chest to stop him when my feet hit the floor.

He sighed and stared down into my face, which made me think of some much nicer activities we could be doing where he might tower over me. "Really, you're coppin' a feel right now?" His lips twitched toward a smile.

I lightly smacked his chest, then tweaked his left nipple through his shirt.

"Damn it!" He slapped my fingers.

"Just stay inside. Keep Ellis in here, too." I swallowed hard. I wasn't afraid of my mother, but hell, she had really thrown me for a loop. I had no idea what she was capable of doing right now, and the less ammunition she had to use in this battle of wills, the better, which meant I didn't really want her to know anything about Tav or Ellis.

"All right, but I'm not going far. If she gets nasty, no promises." He leaned down and planted a sweet kiss on my lips. Every time he touched me, I couldn't get enough. Despite the nuclear explosion I was sure I was about to ignite with Mom, I kissed Tav, enjoying the soft heat of his mouth.

"Okay, wish me luck," I said with a shaky sigh.

"Why did you rile her up?" he whispered, knocking his forehead against mine.

"Because I'll be mother fucked if I'm going to let her ruin this." I pecked a kiss on his stubble-covered cheek, enjoying the sharp scrape against my lips.

"Not the best choice of words," he said, but gestured toward the front door. Mom wasn't déclassé enough to knock after she thought she'd been announced, so I didn't expect it from her, but she would only wait so long before she started blowing up my phone.

Ellis came down the stairs behind Tav. He was cute in his yellow running shorts and T-shirt, even if he was covered in sweat. How she could've been rude to him was beyond me.

"You know, you don't have to go out there." Ellis bit his lip and inched around Tav. "If she's mean, you should just stay in here." He grabbed my wrist, and Tav wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"It's okay. Judah's an adult. His mum can make his life frustrating, but she can't hurt him."

My stomach twisted. I wasn't so sure about that. She was a woman of far-reaching means, but I didn't want to say that to Tav.

I patted Ellis's hand. "It'll be fine. Stay in here and don't come out, okay? You shouldn't have to deal with this."

Ellis nodded, but I had to tug myself from his grip with a surprising amount of strength. "You don't have to do it," he said again.

"I promise, I'm all right." I rubbed his shoulder, and Tav flicked a hand toward the door as if he was all of a sudden impatient to see me get this over with.

We shared a long look.

"Nothing she can say will change the things I've been telling you," I murmured to Tav, then pressed a kiss to one of the hickeys on his neck. Sucking in a deep breath, I spun. My anger fired back to life as I walked toward the door and dragged it open. Mom went to step forward, but I didn't move out of the way, just kept going, forcing her back. I slammed the door closed behind myself.

"You're not inviting me in?" she asked, tone cutting. Mom looked exactly like a woman who had been on vacation. She was slightly sunburned, probably from Dad dragging her to the beach. Her steel-streaked chestnut brown hair was longer than she usually kept it, brushing her shoulders. And, as a finishing touch, she was wearing a tropical shirt flung over a beige tank top and skirt that would've been fine for Florida, but left her exposed to the autumn air. She shivered and glanced pointedly toward the door, but I had my fury to keep me warm and shook my head.

"Your new assistant is rude. And what was he doing exercising when he should be helping you?" She crossed her arms, dragging her shirt closer around herself.

"He's a guest, Mom. Why in the world would he be an employee?" I ran a hand down my face.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, I thought for sure he must be an intern or something. They just don't wear suits these days unless you take them aside and tell them what a proper dress code is."

I ground my teeth. "Mom, most of the interns can't afford suits."

She rolled her eyes, perfectly highlighted with pale blue makeup that made them stand out. "Then they should ask their parents to outfit them properly."

It struck me all at once that I was getting sucked into old arguments, something that always happened when Mom and I were together without a preapproved agenda. "Why are you here?" I snapped, then glanced pointedly at her Audi.

She scowled and toyed with her wedding ring as she stared into my eyes. The gold glinted in the early morning sunshine. I felt like she was trying to figure out how much of this I would tolerate, and she must've made a decision because her lips pursed and she sighed. "To discuss that greedy boy, Tavish Greer."

"Greedy?" I ran a hand through my hair while my heart hammered in the back of my throat. I had to close my eyes for a few seconds and slowly count to ten or I would've told her to get the fuck off my property. "That's really how you want to do this?"

She took her ring off entirely and shook it at me. "I won't have my hard work undone."

"It's my life, Mom!" I was shouting like a teenager and didn't fucking care. I wanted to keep going, yell until my throat was raw and I felt better, but I knew if I did it would turn into a huge rant, and she didn't deserve that much effort. "So, butt out!"

"When we spoke about this subject on the phone, I listed reasonable alternatives. I'm willing to send you anywhere you want to go. I'm willing to ask my friends if they have sons or relatives who would be a good fit for you. There's even a woman in St. Loren who does matches for families like ours with LGBTQ kids, so that we make sure everything will be the way it should be. Just tell me what it would take, Judah. I want you happy, but happy in the best way." She forced a smile, but I could tell she'd rather be wringing my neck.

"Families like ours? You mean loaded? Mom, cut the shit. I love Tav. I've always loved Tav. This isn't going away." There were so many things—worse ones—I wanted to say.

She slid her wedding ring back on and glared down at it. "No."

"What do you mean, no?" I stared at her and could imagine tucking her under my arm like a rolled-up carpet and shoving her back in her car. I needed this to be finished. "You don't get to have an opinion on who I marry," I hissed at her.

She sucked in a breath and shook her head. "Please tell me you aren't thinking about a wedding. He isn't like you. You aren't from the same world. This will fall apart. I could see it when you were younger. He was only going to hold you back." She sobbed as if this was somehow emotional for her.

I backed away because I wanted to do something awful. Say terrible things. I rubbed the nape of my neck and tried to get my thoughts together. "The only reason we fell apart last time was you."

She rolled her eyes and slipped off her wedding ring again, and this time she tucked it into her pocket. "And you really think you would've been faithful to him while you were off at a hundred-thousand-dollar per year university while he was what? Here doing community college?"

"As far as I know Tav didn't get to go to college," I said, glaring at her. "He probably would've come with me."

"Right," she said, her tone flat. "And you would've been fine missing out on all those life experiences you had?" Her acidic tone let me know exactly what she wasn't saying directly. Sex.

"I would've been happy with Tav."

She shook her head. "Your father and I were engaged young because of our families, and let me tell you, what you think you might've done and reality are two different things."

"I would've given it all up to be with Tav!" I shouted.

She took a half step back and glared. A visible vein pulsed faintly in her neck.

This was going fucking nowhere, and I could tell by the bullheaded expression on her face she was gearing up to try to talk me to death, but there was no use. She wouldn't win this. "Where is the fucking contract?"

"Safe." She shook her head, then scraped her hair out of her face when a strong breeze blew it everywhere. "I will pursue the terms if this doesn't end."

"No judge will uphold that load of shit."

Her nostrils flared. "We'll see. He won't have a lawyer to fight it."

I smiled, taking supreme satisfaction in watching her face fall. "But I will."

Her expression wilted to one of contempt, then firmed up into a resolved glare again. "You haven't thought very hard about this," she said, voice silky. It was the same tone I'd heard her use to dominate the management team at her company. It wasn't going to work on me, though.

"What haven't I thought about?" I stared her dead in the eyes, letting her know she wasn't winning this.

"Your inheritance for one."

Shrugging, I grinned. "I don't need your cash. Besides, Dad won't let you do that."

She spun and started walking toward her car, and I snickered because I had her on the ropes and she knew it, but she paused and swung around with a smirk that had adrenaline pounding in my veins. That was the same expression she'd worn when she'd figured out that the bank had been charging too much interest on a big loan for Dailey Tires, and they would have to return millions in fees.

"You do know I hold thirty-five percent of the shares in your company." She walked steadily back toward me until she was glaring up into my face with a triumphant sneer.

"So? Sell them. I don't give a shit. It's a profitable business. You'll make money. Congrats." I was done with this, and I grabbed the door handle, but she ensnared my elbow and pulled me back to face her. As furious as I was, I would never hurt her, so I let her move me.

"Everyone owes me favors. If I talk to the other large investors, most of whom were there in the first place as a courtesy to me, we'll simply vote to force you to divest yourself. You'll have to sell your shares and step away from the company." She grinned, clearly pleased that she'd found a way to get under my skin.

A cold sweat broke out across my back and I shivered. "You would kick me out of the company that I worked hard to build up to show you that I can do this on my own? Just to prove some spiteful fucking point?" I dug my fingernails into my palms and stared her down.

The corner of her mouth twisted until she was frowning. "You can live poor for a while and see what it's like." She sniffed. "See what being with that boy will do for you."

I wanted to scream in her face that Tav was a man now, but she clearly didn't see that either one of us were adults. She wanted to control us like children. "You do realize that I have a track record of building a profit almost from scratch. I will get hired somewhere else."

She huffed and her brow furrowed.

The urge to laugh was strong, but I was too pissed off to do it. "You taught me everything you know, so are you saying all that knowledge is worthless?"

"I could make that difficult for you," she finally spat out, left eye twitching.

I rocked back on my bare heels. "Do what you think you need to do. I'm not dumping him."

I turned and yanked open the door.

"You're serious?" She was nearly shouting now.

"Yes!" I glared over my shoulder at her.

"Fine." She stomped toward her car again.

"You know Dad won't agree to this!" I called.

She stopped and let loose a small screech that made me flinch. "That man will do exactly as I say or else!"

Tav shoved open the door, and she transferred her irate glower to him. "Mrs. Dailey, I love him, I swear. I'm not after anything."

"What you don't get, Tavish, and what you never understood is that I don't care. This has nothing to do with you. Not really. And everything to do with my son." She waved a dismissive hand at him and rushed off to her car like she thought Tav might fly after her to slap some sense into her. Part of me wished someone would do it because I'd stepped into the Twilight Zone. Who did she think she was to dictate my life like this again?

"Touching family moment," Tav said, then wrapped his arms around me.

I leaned into his solid embrace with a sigh.

"She might have her points. This could be difficult."

Shrugging, I pressed a kiss to his neck, contemplating leaving another love bite. "This is only as hard as we let it be. I won't be talking to her either way, which will make it much easier. I have no idea how Dad gets along with her." I shuddered.

He hummed. "Your dad is friendly with everyone. And she's pretty." He pinched my butt, and I grunted before I nipped the side of his neck with my teeth.

"Hurt," I grumbled.

"I asked you not to do this." He framed my face in his hands. "You only get one family."

"Yeah? Would you be giving Ellis the same advice?"

Tav glanced guiltily toward the door. "S'pose not."

"Yeah, well, some people aren't worth having around. What do you think I should've done to appease her? Hide?" I stepped back and glared.

His face pinked up and he shrugged.

"I want to take you out. Do everything with you."

"She's your mum," he whispered.

I knew this had to be because he'd lost his mother, and I felt bad for him, but he had to open his eyes and see that my mother and I had never been close like he had been with his. "If I can lose her over loving you, then I'm not losing much, am I?"

A tear we both ignored slipped out of the corner of Tav's eye and he kissed me, hard and bruising. He cleared his throat as he leaned back.

"She's all threats," I said quietly, not really believing it. I had to hope Dad would talk her out of whatever bullshit she was probably already working on stirring up.

He raised his eyebrows at me.

"She was really mean," Ellis said, leaning a shoulder against the doorjamb. I wasn't sure how long he'd been listening, but it was possible he'd heard at least some of what Mom had said. I couldn't stand the way they were both looking at me with sympathy written all over their faces, so I stepped back and clapped my hands.

"Let's do something fun today. Lisa should already be cooking breakfast, and then we can go."

"Go where?" Tav and Ellis asked at the same time.

I flashed a grin at them. "You'll see."

Breakfast was oats and toast, nothing too special, except for the homemade blackberry whiskey jam that had been dripped and spread liberally over everything. I had trouble looking away from Tav because he had the interesting habit of licking his fingers clean every time they were sticky with jam. Despite his teasing, we didn't linger and rushed through getting ready.

Less than an hour later, we were standing outside the Dailey Ice Track, and I had blue Dailey Tire hoodies draped over my arm.

"What is this?" Tav asked as I used my key to unlock the solid metal door. The building didn't look like much, with only a simple sign of black letters on a white background stuck on the front of a solid concrete wall. We hadn't even bothered painting it. As we went in, we were hit with a blast of cold air, and I tossed them each a hoodie. They pulled on the extra clothing as I flipped on the light switch.

Ellis laughed as he took in the interior of the track. On the left-hand side behind solid safety glass was an area that resembled any mechanic's garage, with a concrete floor, stacks of tires, equipment, and tools. There were four cars lined up, waiting for fun. The right side was an extensive ice track with three lanes. The ice gleamed, and the small Zamboni machine we kept in storage on the far side of the track must've been used recently.

"We've been testing our ice tires here," I said with a grin, then went through the automatic glass doors to the garage side and grabbed a set of keys. "The goal is to get the tires to move as smoothly on the ice as they would on blacktop. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting closer. When we finally figure it out, everyone will be buying our tires for winter. We'll be outfitting the entire world." I hopped on my toes. "And no, I don't design them, but I help get the product out to the stores and I'm the one who lines up the funding. I help put it all together and keep the cash flowing in both directions." I walked over and got into an old brown Buick LeSabre. It was technically a classic at this point, but it was also a tank on wheels. I leaned over to roll down the window. "Come on!"

Tav laughed and smacked Ellis's arm, and then they both ran over to the car.

With whoops of joy, they hopped inside—Tav in the back and Ellis beside me—then we all buckled.

"So, this has those fancy tires that won't let the car slip?" Tav asked, leaning forward to stare out at the ice track.

"Oh, no. That wouldn't be any fun," I said, easing the car onto the ice.

Tav snorted.

Ellis frowned and stared at me. "What are we doing?"

I waited until we were almost in the middle of the track before I jerked the wheel and gunned the gas. The car spun, and I let go of the wheel and stopped touching the pedal. By the time we stopped, Ellis's eyes were so wide I thought they might fall out of his head, and the car had made its way uncomfortably close to a wall.

"Anyone want to get out?" I asked, then flashed them a grin.

Tav cackled, and Ellis shook his head.

"That was amazing! Where did you learn to do that?" Ellis shouted with a wide smile.

"You were sheltered, weren't you?" I asked, shaking my head. "My mom practically had a tracking chip implanted on me, and even I did doughnuts."

"Be nice, he really was watched too closely," Tav said, laying a hand on my shoulder.

"Well, should we go again?" I asked, glancing between them. They both nodded fast.

We did doughnuts with the car until Ellis swore he was going to hurl, and then we parked the Buick and got out two of the cars with the most current ice tires on them. I let Ellis drive one car carefully around the track, and I could tell from his shiny, happy eyes this had been one of the best moves I could make to get on his good side. Eventually, he switched off with Tav and climbed into the car with me. Tav and I sort of raced, but not really, because he seemed like he was too worried about damaging the car, so we took a few lazy laps around the ice track.

"I had fun driving." Ellis gasped as Tav pulled ahead of us. I let Tav get a good lead, since he looked so cute smirking at me in his side mirror.

"Thanks for giving me a chance today," I said.

"Oh, I'm still worried you'll screw over Tav," he said, giving me a scowl I didn't think I deserved.

"I promise I won't," I said quietly.

He nodded and rubbed at the corner of his eye with his pointer finger, then tugged down the mirror to stare at himself. "Tav helped me when no one else would. I'd do anything to help him."

"Including murder me in my sleep?" I asked with a grin.

He only stared at me.

I chuckled. "Point taken. Now hold on. We're going to win this race." I punched the pedal, and the ice tires did their job, not letting the car swerve. Ellis yelled at top volume until we passed Tav, and then Ellis made a thousand goofy faces at him.

My heart hurt for Ellis. He'd really had a lot taken from him, and I felt like I had a responsibility to show Ellis what he'd left home to find for himself. He had given up everything in his world to have the chance to be authentic, and if he could do it, I could pull my head out of my ass and be a good friend to him. Show him how two guys could build a healthy relationship.

"I really do promise not to hurt Tav." I brought the car to a gentle stop.

Ellis rested his head back on the seat and watched me with a small pout. "Don't tell me about it. Just do it." He opened the door and got out, then walked over to Tav so he could gloat about our win.

"Fine, I will," I whispered, and even though I was worried about what my mom might end up doing in retaliation, I had a great role model for bravery right in front of me.