He then disconnected.

I didn’t move, one hand to my phone at my ear, the other one curled around the edge of the sink, holding on like it was a lifeline.

He finds out what’s goin’ down two doors from his bitch, he will lose his motherfucking mind.

What was going on?

Merrick keeps a loose hold on messy.

I knew that. I’d learned from a lot of experience, as well as making too many mistakes, how to read people.

The good ole boy Merry was surface. You could scratch through that using your fingernail and not a lot of effort.

Man’ll stop at nothin’ to dig you out, even if it buries him in the process.

I knew that too.

Shit.

All that, and Tilly wasn’t even home.

“Mom?”

I drew in breath, dropped the phone from my ear, let go of the sink, and turned to see Ethan in the doorway.

“Don’t be mad, okay?” he asked, shifting and eyeing me anxiously. “I was tryin’ to do the right thing.”

I drew in another breath and forced my body to relax when I let it go.

Then I told him, “I know that, Ethan. And it was the right thing in one way. There’s nothin’ wrong with you wantin’ to look out for your momma. But it was also the wrong thing since I’d told you to stay inside.”

He bit his lip.

I moved to him but didn’t crouch like I used to. He was getting tall, not quite there yet, but he needed to learn to use what he had. What he didn’t need was to learn how to put up with someone being condescending, crouching into him because he was a kid, even if they didn’t mean to be.

“You’re the man of this house,” I told him and watched his chest expand with pride. “But, kid, you’re also still a kid. Ask Colt, Sul, Mike—any of them will tell you a man’s gotta know his strengths and his weaknesses. He’s gotta learn to judge situations right. And they’ll also tell you any kid who’s still a kid, no matter it sucks, no matter the situation scares them and they wanna help, they gotta do what their momma says.”

His shoulders slumped.

God, most of the time, being a mom rocked.

It was just times like this when it absolutely didn’t.

Quickly, I continued, “In that situation, you shoulda got the phone and kept an eye on me through the window. You got a bad vibe, you could call Colt or the police or something. That way, you had my back but also did as I asked. But seein’ as nothin’ like that is gonna happen again, it doesn’t matter. Life is life. You learn from it. Today, you learned.”

Gazing up at me, he nodded.

“Right,” I muttered.

“That guy kinda seems like bad news. Are you sure nothin’ like that is gonna happen again?”

“I think your read on him is right. He’s not a dude like the dudes we like to hang with, so both of us should keep our distance. But I also think his crap is his, so if we do that, it’ll all be good.”