Entice (The Fighter Romance Series - Book #2) by Alycia Taylor Page A

kitchen floor and as I did a chill
ran over me as I remembered the way he kissed me…and the way his hands felt on
my body when he leaned me up against the counter. I had to shake that off or
I’d have never gotten anything done. I finished straightening up the kitchen
and went in to make sure the extra room was all set up for my mother. I changed
the sheets although they weren’t really even slept on; it was the hostess in me
I guessed. Then thinking about all the sweat and sex, I changed mine while I
was at it. I dumped all the dirty stuff in the washer that I was still so happy
was working. I looked around, everything looked good. I looked at the clock, it
was time. With a heavy sigh I grabbed my purse and went to pick up my mother.
    I felt bad that I so didn’t want her to come, but I
guessed as long as she didn’t know it that was okay. I timed my trip perfectly;
when I pulled up, her bus was just pulling into the depot. I got out and waited
until I saw her step off and then I went over to help her with her bags. My
mother was beautiful, and sometimes I thought that was to her detriment. Her
red hair was still as red as ever without so much as a trace of gray. She wore
it to her shoulders and the soft layers framed her face. I had to thank her for
the hair, at least. Her green eyes were the same color as mine, but hers were
huge and the first thing anyone ever noticed about her. Her skin was still
smooth and other than a few tiny little lines around her eyes, she seemed to
never age. She took care of her body and a few of her “boyfriends” had even
paid for things like breast enlargement and tummy tucks before they dumped her.
Her looks was what attracted them one right after the other, but her being able
to hang on to them was another story.
    “Hi, Mom.”
    “Hi, baby girl!” She only called me that when she
wanted something…or was for the moment grateful that I was going to let her
stay with me. We waited for her bags to come off the bus and then while she
carried her small overnight bag, I struggled with the roller bag and the
suitcase. We tucked them all into the trunk and got into the car.
    As I started it I said, “So how was the bus trip?”
    “Not too bad,” she said. “I really need a car. I
mean, I was only an hour away but I had to take a stupid, dirty bus to get
here.” I tried not to roll my eyes. I often thought that if these sorts of
things really bothered her all that bad, she’d get a job and start taking care
of herself. As I was pulling out of the parking lot she said, “I can’t believe
Tyler did this to me. I thought he was the one…I really did.”
    Tyler was twenty-seven years old to my mother’s
forty-five. He was a singer in a band that played the seediest bars in Los
Angeles. He hung out with a rough crowd and he had at least three kids that my
mother knew of that he had fathered out of wedlock. Wow, I thought,
sarcastically, I couldn’t believe she’d let that one get away.
    I was trying not to say anything, but I really
wanted to help make her feel better about it so I said, “You’re probably better
off.”
    “Better off?” she said in that high-pitched voice
she used when she thought I was completely wrong about something. “How could I
be better off? I have to move in with my daughter. I had a home and I thought
he and I were going to be a family…” I sighed. She acted like losing a piece of
shit drunk that cared nothing about her and cheated on her to boot was the end
of the world. It was the dramatic component of it all that drove me crazy. She
set herself up for these things…sometimes I thought, just because she was
unable to live without the drama. Since I’d moved out on my own, I had lived as
drama-free as possible because of it…until recently, anyways. I glanced over at
her. I was sorry I did. She was tearing up as she said, “I think he cheated on
me.”
    “Hmm,” I hoped that sounded sympathetic.
    “I don’t think it’s the first time. He