But if I made the call I needed to make, that would alert Colt—and Merry—to shit happening on my block. Both of them (at least I thought Merry would still be in that space) would intervene.

And I had to live there.

They didn’t.

Anyway, it wasn’t about getting into my dickhead neighbor’s business.

It was about taking care of Tilly.

So I knew I had to do it and was turning to walk out of the bathroom when this knowledge was confirmed.

Ethan was at the door, face pale, eyes on me.

“Mom,” he whispered.

Fucking motherfucker was freaking out my son.

“I got this, kid,” I told him, continuing to move.

He got out of my way and I went to the front door. I slid my feet in some flip-flops that were there that I should have taken to my closet a month ago but didn’t. I just picked them up, vacuumed under them, and dropped them back whenever I cleaned.

When I finished doing what I had to do, I’d wear them to my room and put them away.

I put my hand to the door and turned to my boy, who’d followed me.

“Stay inside.”

He stared up at me, nodding.

I opened the door, pushed through the storm, took a deep breath, and stalked down my walk.

“Did you fuckin’ hear me? I said come out here!” I heard shouted. “I know it was you, you old, fat bitch! You got a problem with me, you say it to my face! What you don’t do is call the fuckin’ cops!”

I saw my dickhead neighbor at Tilly’s door, banging and yelling.

“Yo!” I bellowed.

He stopped banging and swung my way.

I kept walking until I was in Tilly’s yard but still far away from him.

He looked me up and down, dressed and ready for work, only in flip-flops and not the heels I planned to wear. I also hadn’t yet put on my jewelry.

Some of the pissed went out of his face and something else came in it.

“This isn’t about you, babe,” he told me, suddenly friendly and calm.

Crap.

I put my hands to my hips. “I think it is, since you’re shoutin’ at Tilly when she didn’t call about your party. I did.”

His head jerked. The look of me, a full-on good-time girl, he was shocked it was me who made that call.

“Listen,” I went on. “I have a kid. He needs his sleep, even on a weekend. It sucks I had to call it in, but I hope you get me when I say I need to look after my kid. No way I’m goin’ over to your place in the middle of the night to ask you to have a mind to your neighbors. I had no choice.”

He studied me for a few beats before he stepped down off Tilly’s stoop and moved toward me.

I wanted to retreat step for step, but I stood my ground.