Mom – Oh no. No, he didn’t. I’m in on this one.
Dad – I’ll flay him alive.
Garrick added Dominik to the text thread.
Dominik – I’m in. He told my receptionist last week that she needed to stop eating so many calories because no one wanted to fuck a woman who would snort like a pig every time he entered her.
***
She says I’m good enough, even though I don’t think I am... going to bust my ass to make sure she never changes her mind.
Because she has always been in my heart.
Lodged so deep inside of it, that I could dig for the rest of eternity, and she would remain right where she was.
Safe.
Protected.
At that, I tapped the tattoo that rested over my heart.
Everyone knew about the tattoo, and the rest that I had.
But no one had looked inside the mechanical gears and read, ‘My Incandescent.’
‘One day, I’m gonna make the onions cry.’
– Harlee’s Secret Thoughts
Chapter 10
Harlee
Yes, I had been right, that following morning, I had felt like t-total shit for how I’d acted.
I’d also woken up to text messages from the Griggs siblings, as well as Misty and Frank.
Not to mention my mother asking me to call her.
So, I took care of that one first.
She answered on the fourth ring, breathless, rushing around, “I’m so sorry, sweetie. If I’d known he’d act like that, I never would have pushed you to go on a date with him.”
“It’s fine, Mama. Don’t worry about it.” I said.
“I’m really sorry. And well, your dad got mad at me, too. Said I’d been missing the way Carter Griggs is with you. Called me a fool. He was right.”
After a few more words were exchanged, I asked, “Did you know that Victor is married?”
She gasped. And then she said, “Just you wait until he comes back into the diner.”
And Sunday morning, I had received a video of my dad, tossing Victor out on his ass, all the while saying, “No man disrespects my daughter.”
It had been epic.
Apparently, a day and a half was enough for the Griggs family to let me be and to process everything.
Because Misty, Frank, Garrick, Ethan, Melanie, Alec, Talia, and Dominik pulled into my driveway at two o’clock that afternoon.
