Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

We all pile into the truck and head to my mom’s house, where I lived my teenage years. She’s since given away everything I had as a kid—without asking me, I should add—and converted my old room into an art studio that she doesn’t use.

When we pull up to the curb, I get out first, because I’m expecting Mom to be waiting at the doorstep. Sure enough, the door flies open when the truck parks and she steps out.

“Oh, hello, dear,” she says, much more warmly than she ever does when we’re alone.

Jace gets out of the driver’s seat, and Mom’s eyes go wide.

“Wow,” she mutters, gaze fixed on him. He’s wearing a nice, tight shirt tonight with jeans that hug his ass and crotch in a rather mesmerizing way. He even left the baseball cap at home. “You really scored, Tiffany, darling.”

“Um,” I begin, when another door opens and Leon steps out. Then Quinn, then Eli, until all four of them are standing on the sidewalk behind me.

My mother is standing there, confusion written across her face. “I thought I was meeting your boyfriend tonight, honey. Who are they? Have you joined a gang?”

I stare at her, then shake my head and walk over to Leon, who’s already holding out his hand to me. I take it in mine.

“No, Mom.” I inhale a deep, calming breath. I’ve practiced this in my head. I can do it. “I’m seeing all of them.”

Quinn waves. “Hi, Mrs. Dockett! I’m really glad to meet you, I’m Quinn, and I’ve heard?—”

“ Four of them?” Mom asks, her eyebrows rising ever higher on her forehead. “That can’t be right.”

“No, she has it all correct.” Eli takes my other hand and kisses me on the cheek, as if to prove his point.

“H-h-how…” Mom trails off, glancing between them and me. “I don’t understand, Tiffany.”

“Then how about you let us in and I’ll explain?” I try to keep my game face on. Eli squeezes my hand to give me courage. “All of us.”

Too flabbergasted to object, my mother steps aside at the door. Leon walks in first, keeping his hold on me, and I follow behind. The other three file into the house. I never thought it was particularly small before, but with all four of them here it feels shockingly cramped.

No wonder their den is huge.

“I don’t think I have enough chairs,” my mother frets. She’s completely off-balance, and it gratifies me a little. She leads us all into the dining room, which was clearly set up for just three people.

“There are some folding chairs in the basement,” I remind her.

“Oh, gosh, yes, thank you.” Mom hurries away, leaving us standing in the living room.

Quinn gazes around at the atrociously outdated decor. Everything has flowers on it of some kind, and often the patterns clash. The room is cast in a yellow glow because of the gauzy curtains hanging over the windows.

“Charming,” he says, inspecting the grandfather clock—one of many large items squashed into this little room.

Mom returns a moment later with more chairs, looking stressed and harried. “I don’t think I made enough for this many people,” she says, wringing her hands. “Maybe I should order pizza.”

“It’s fine, Mrs. Dockett,” Leon says, stepping toward her. His voice has that eerie boom to it, the one he uses when he tells me to take my clothes off, or suck on his cock, or take a deep breath when I’m overwhelmed. “We’re just here to meet Tiff’s mother. That’s what’s important.”

Her eyes travel from his boots, up his toned thighs to his thick chest, then to his face. She gasps when she sees his bright blue eyes.

“Wow, you have such dark hair, though,” she says. Then she shoots me a deadly look. “Is this some kind of joke, Tiffany? Are you trying to make me look silly?”

“What?” I don’t know what to say. “Why would I do that?”

“Four incredibly hot men.” She gestures at them. “All of them? Dating you ?”

I can’t miss the way she says you .

“What do you mean by that?” Eli asks, taking a step forward so he’s level with Leon. “You don’t think Tiff deserves that kind of love?”

Mom stares at him blankly. “Love?”

I let out a deep breath. This is going off the rails, fast. “Let’s sit down and eat,” I finally say, hoping the guys will retract their claws. “Do you want me to help you get the food, Mom?”

As if startled from a daze, Mom nods hastily and leads me into the kitchen. The moment we’re alone, she rounds on me.

“You have to be joking,” she says, eyes narrowing. “You can’t date four men, Tiffany. That’s not how it works.”

I return her look. “Why not? They all care about me.” I hesitate. “They love me. And I love them.”

Mom shakes her head like she’s disappointed in me. Not that it would be anything new if she was. “I can’t believe you. What will people think?”

“People will think whatever they want. It has nothing to do with me or the life I’m living.” This is always how it is with her. What other people see has always meant more to her than my actual happiness.

“And what kind of life is that? Sleeping with four men at once. That’s just not how society works.” She rubs her temples. “I can’t believe my daughter would be such a slut.”

It feels like a dagger right through my chest that my own mother would use a word like that. Maybe she’s right. My pulse speeds up, and my breaths start coming short and fast. What if what I’m doing is wrong? What if the life we’ve already started living, that makes me so happy, is corrupted?

I squash my eyes closed, trying to calm my pulse. No. Mom’s wrong. What we have may not look like other relationships, but it means the world to me, and we’ve fought hard for it. I’m not going to let my mother and her opinions influence me. She’s already beaten me down for too long.

I stand up straight. I took it from Mr. Bosley for years, and I’ve taken it from her, too, without argument. But I’m fucking tired of it. I’m tired of making myself smaller, of making excuses, of feeling bad about myself so she can feel superior.

“That’s it,” I say, drawing on all the confidence I’ve worked hard to build since our confrontation with Beatrice. I have Leon, Jace, Quinn and Eli to back me up. “We’re going. Right now.”

I turn around and walk back out of the kitchen without another word, to where the four brothers have seated themselves at the table. They all look up and cock their heads when I come in.

“Come on,” I say, grabbing Quinn’s hand off the table and pulling him along as I pass. “She doesn’t want us here, so we’re leaving.”

“What?” Eli shoots the kitchen a dark look. “What happened?”

Jace and Leon, both perplexed, follow me to the front door.

“She told me in no uncertain terms that she doesn’t approve ,” I spit out. “And I’m not going to spare another moment on her.”

Eli doesn’t follow us as we head for the front door. No, when my mom exits the kitchen again, he whirls on her with a furious expression.

“What did you say to Tiff?” he demands. Mom flinches at the tone of his voice, her eyes going wide. “What did you tell her to upset her like this?”

Mom’s mouth falls open. “I, um…” She clearly doesn’t know what to do with someone Eli’s size getting in her face. “I just said that?—”

“She called me a slut,” I finish for her. I’m not going to shield her anymore, to downplay how much she hurts me. She can own up to her words.

Eli grits his teeth. “You what? You said that to your own daughter?”

Mom shoots me a helpless look. “Honey, that’s not what I meant?—”

“It is what you meant, isn’t it, though?” I say. “You wanted to hurt me. To make me feel bad for how I’ve chosen to live my life. But I don’t feel bad, not one bit.” I twine my fingers with Eli’s. “I’m really happy, for once. I’m loved, and I have a cool new job managing their very successful landscaping company.”

My mother blinks. “Oh, you’re the manager now?” Her gaze becomes scrutinizing. “That’s a lot of responsibility on just you.”

“So?” I snap. “I’m good at it.” Leon squeezes my shoulder, emboldening me. “No, I do a great job. I’ve been basically doing it for years for Mr. Bosley. I’m running everything now, and we have timelines, and we’re writing up more accurate estimates, and…”

Mom holds up her hands. “Okay, I hear you, Tiffany.”

“Do you?” I wouldn’t need to be so defensive if she didn’t always go on the attack. “I’m finally where I feel like I’m meant to be, Mom. And I don’t know why you can’t just be happy for me.”

No one speaks as Mom stands there, frozen.

“Tiffany...”

“What? What else do you have to say?” I realize that I’m so worked up I’m panting. But none of the guys speak. They’ll let me fight my fight with her. “What other nasty barbs do you have? What other holes can you poke in me to make me hate myself?”

My mother looks genuinely wounded. She opens her mouth to speak, but then studies my face, where I must be wearing all my anger and my hurt very plain, and she closes it. Instead, she gestures at the table.

“Come on. Come back inside.” She gives me her best approximation of an apologetic face. “You know I didn’t mean what I said, Tiffany. Sweetie.”

I roll my eyes. Of course she’s backpedaling. I’ve never talked to her like this in my entire life, and certainly not with four huge, hairy men at my side.

“Take a seat, please,” Mom says to the guys. “Maybe we can start over? Hmm?”

Eli glances at me, and I know that whatever I say, they’ll go along with it. I could walk out of here and let my mom believe what she believes—or we could stay here and show her that she’s truly wrong about us.

“All right,” I say finally, sitting down.

When we’re all seated around the table, Mom serves what she has, asking lots of questions about where they work (“Oh, my, you’re doing a job in that neighborhood? How lovely”) and what kind of revenue they have. I explain what I’ll be doing to manage the company.

“Wow,” she says. “And you can handle all that, Tiffany?”

Quinn narrows his eyes. “She can more than handle it. She cracks the whip real good.”

Mom blinks, and I laugh into my hand at the image of me with a whip.

“Really?” she asks. “My daughter?”

Leon crosses his arms. “Yup. She makes sure everything gets done on time, and she’s really kicking ass.”

I hate how surprised she is by this, but she doesn’t make any further comments about it.

The rest of the dinner is, thankfully, uneventful. Mom does most of the talking, without once asking a question of any of them, and Eli rolls his eyes. Jace holds my hand under the table until, at long last, it’s time to go. Mom doesn’t remember their names, but she promises to learn.

“Will I have grandkids?” she whispers to me as we file out the door a few hours later. “How does that work?”

I shake my head at her. “I can’t believe you. But yes. Eventually.” I hop down the front step. “Bye, Mom.”

In the car, Jace puts me in his lap, and wraps me up tight as the truck takes us home.

“I’m really impressed with you,” he says, kissing the back of my neck. “I love how you told her off.”

“It was super hot,” Quinn chimes in.

I smile at them, my pack, my mates.