My shoulders slumped in relief. I didn’t have it in me to duel with Patti, too. I made quick work of opening the doors and flicking on the lights. After I had the cash register up and running, I came back to let Patti in. “We’re good now. Thank you for waiting.”

She nodded, moving around me and into the store. But after a few steps, she stopped and turned. “Was that your mother?”

I tried to steel what little emotional reserves I had left. “Yes.”

“I’d think you’d be happy to see her,” Patti huffed.

“Would you be happy to see the woman who left your siblings alone for three days while she went and got high? The woman who thinks it’s more important to hide her husband than protect her children? The woman who thought you were never good enough for her to love, no matter what you did? That woman?”

Patti’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she spoke. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

I threw up both my hands. “Of course, you didn’t. You were too busy making up stories in your head for who you think I am.”

She licked her lips. “Your father sold my husband drugs.”

“What?” The single word came out on a whisper. None of that computed with anything I knew about Patti and her family.

“He got injured on the job. Hurt his back. The recovery from the surgery was bad, and when the doctors cut him off from painkillers, he needed something else for the pain. Your father was happy to give him plenty of options.” She swallowed hard. There were no tears in her eyes, but the set of her jaw told me she was fighting them. “We almost lost everything. He’s better now. Sober. Working his program.”

“I’m glad.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. Or what to do with a Patti who wasn’t pretending to be better than everyone else in her orbit.

She straightened her purse on her shoulder. “I may have been harboring some anger that shouldn’t have been directed at you.”

I snorted. “May have?”

Patti jutted out her chin. “I’m trying to apologize.”

I grinned. I might’ve gotten a little insight into Patti’s life, but she wasn’t going to become an entirely different woman in one conversation. “Thank you. I appreciate that. But I’d appreciate it even more if your snide comments about me, my siblings, and Griffin would stop.”

Her lips thinned and fixed into a tight line. “He’s a loner. Volatile.”

“Oh, he is not, Patti. You don’t know him. And he’s not going to let you. You’ve already been nasty to him one too many times. And you know what? That’s your loss. Because he’s amazing.”

“I’ll try to keep my opinions to myself.”