“I beg your pardon,” Mia said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t listen to Chuck. He’s just trying to start trouble. He’s only playing with you. Don’t take him seriously.”
Mia studied them both as she listened to the lilting notes of Damien’s song, praying that he would be at her side soon to deal with his parents. She smiled at Kathy but didn’t answer.
“Damien told me that you thought you were better than him.” Charles continued his attack.
“I never said that, and I never thought it,” Mia defended. “There were other things going on in my life that had nothing to do with Damien.”
“Yeah, we heard. While you were stringing our son along, you were engaged. We know all of that.”
Mia’s head snapped toward Charles and she wondered why she was being attacked. This man was almost an exact replica of the man she loved, broad shoulders, beautiful chestnut complexion, a mouth full of white teeth and a killer smile. He didn’t, however, have Damien’s deep sexy voice, though his own wasn’t bad. And he definitely didn’t inspire love in her the way his son did. No, on the contrary, what she was feeling for the older man was distaste. There was something slimy about him. While his mouth spoke of her hurting Damien, he’d used his eyes to undress her. She’d felt it as surely as if he’d used his hands and she was disgusted.
“Leave her alone, Chuck.”
“I’m just saying I don’t see what all the fuss is about. She’s just a little slip of a thing. I don’t see how she got the boy all twisted up like she did. I want to know her secret. What’s the harm in asking her that?”
“It’s none of your business.”
Mia turned grateful eyes to Kathy before scanning the stage for Damien, praying he would hurry. The show was over but there were still three or four women hanging around him, wanting his autograph, and he was obliging.
“Damien,” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t possibly hear her. But at that instant he turned and caught her eye and his eyes widened in alarm. She could tell he was rushing through the next autograph.
Then he literally jumped from the stage and came toward her. A sigh of relief escaped Mia. This was one time she was grateful to be rescued. She stood and so did Kathy and Charles.
“Hey, you came. I didn’t see you,” Damien said to his parents.
“No, I suppose you didn’t. Not when you kept looking over this way, at this little girl here.”
Again Mia felt dirty. There wasn’t anything wrong with the man’s words, not even with the way he’d said them. But her skin was crawling all the same.
Damien’s arm slid around her and she could almost swear that he was trying to push her behind him.
Damien answered his father’s unasked question. “I didn’t know Mia was going to be here.”
“Then how did she rate a special seat right here in the front while your mother and I were stuck in some funky little corner? And by the way, hot shot, we had to pay to get in.”
Charles was poking Damien in the chest with his finger as he punctuated each word. Kathy was biting her lip and Damien looked extremely uncomfortable. Mia was embarrassed for him. She could understand family humiliation. It was her specialty. Her mother had given her a lifetime’s worth. Suddenly she noticed something she should have noticed before. Charles was feeling no pain. It was obvious he’d had more than a few drinks.
“How come she rates and we don’t? We’ve been the ones supporting you. She had her ass off somewhere doing God knows what, with whoever. But we know it wasn’t you. So why did you reserve a front row seat for her and not us?”
Now it was definitely not her imagination. Damien was positioning his body in front of hers. He was trying to protect her. Instead of feeling the intense annoyance and aversion for his father she had felt a moment before, Mia felt a surge of love for Damien.
“I’ll pay for your admission and your drinks. Just tell me what you spent.”
The emotion in Damien’s voice was pure exasperation. Mia was extremely familiar with that tone.
“Fifty dollars, admission and drinks.” Kathy looked at her son and smiled weakly.
Mia watched as Damien’s hand went to his pocket.
“How the hell would you know? Did you pay for anything?” Charles interrupted. “It was a hundred.”
Observing this family situation from behind Damien, Mia saw Damien tighten his jaw. She also saw as he counted out the money and handed it to his father that he didn’t have anything left in his wallet.
“Now that you have your money, can I please give the two of you a proper introduction? Mia, my parents, my mother, Kathy Morrison, and my father, Charles Terrell.” He continued before anyone else got the chance to speak, “No, they’re not divorced. They were never married. Sorry, Pop, I just thought I’d beat you to it.”
He kissed his mother’s cheek and Mia watched the woman’s eyes as they became veiled. Damien had never spoken a lot about his parents, just that he’d moved back home with his mother. His father, he hadn’t mentioned.
“I told her to call me Chuck.”
“You hate it when anyone calls you Chuck.” For a moment Damien stared at his father in disbelief, then recovered.“Come on, everyone, let’s sit down,” Damien said.
“I still want to know how she rates a front row table,” Charles said as he crumpled Damien’s money and put it in his pocket.
“Ashleigh asked me to reserve a table. I did.”
“You’re banging them both?”
Damien leaned over and whispered to his father and when he pulled away, the man looked Mia over, a slight sneer on his face.
“I’m sorry, Mia. It seems my son thinks I’ve offended you. Perhaps I was wrong in my assessment of you. Maybe you didn’t think you were too good for Damien.”
He turned from Mia to glare at his son. “Maybe it’s my son who’s gotten weak since he moved back home with his mama.” A huge scowl replaced the sneer. “Man, this woman’s got you whipped. I warned you about that.” He then turned his glare on Kathy. “So you finally got your way. You managed to turn my son into a freaking mama’s boy. Well, if I have any say about it and you know I always have,” he laughed crudely, “I’m going to see to it that he changes back.”
Charles laughed at Mia. “Enjoy this while you can because I’m going to go find my son’s balls. And when I do, I’m going to give them back to him and he’s going to start acting like a man again, no more pulling some woman on the stage and singing to her, telling the whole damn audience that he’s in love with her.” He glared at Damien. “Do you think I ever did that with your mother? Hell, no!”
Mia watched as Kathy winced noticeably, as though she’d been hit. “I don’t—
“I agree with Mia,” Damien said, interrupting her, turning to look at her, pleading with his eyes. “I don’t think now’s the time for this.”
“Makes me no never mind,” Charles retorted. “I’m outta here.”
“Chuck,” Kathy stood. “How am I supposed to get home?”
The look he gave her turned what before had been only dislike into something worse for Mia.
“Don’t worry, Kathy, I’ll take you home,” Mia volunteered, ignoring the fact that her brother Keefe had brought her and she was herself without a ride home. Still, Damien’s father needed someone to wipe that look off his face and Damien’s mother needed an ally.
“Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll take you home.” Damien kissed his mother’s cheek and pulled Mia into his arms. “I’m so sorry. My pops had a few drinks. Will you please wait for me? I have another show.”
“I’ll wait.” Mia smiled at his look of doubt. “I don’t have a ride home either.” She watched as he grinned, then retook the stage.
She sat down, barely glancing at Kathy. “Would you like something to…to…eat,” she asked, changing her mind about asking the woman if she could buy her a drink. She didn’t think she wanted to talk to anyone else tonight who’d been drinking.
“Thanks, Mia, but I’m fine.”
Mia looked up and found Kathy studying her, a strange look on her face. “Is something wrong?” she asked, praying she was not opening herself up to attack by another of Damien’s parents.
“I love my son,” Kathy began, “but I’m wondering why you’re with him. I can understand why you broke it off but to do it again…” She tsked. “He’s going to hurt you, Mia. He can’t help it. He’s just like his father.”
Like father like son. Like mother like daughter. Mia had more in common with Damien than she’d ever realized. It was in that moment that her heart broke for him and it was also in that moment that she determined that she would mend both their hearts, attend their hurts. Damien was nothing like his father and she was nothing like her mother.
“Kathy, don’t worry. Damien is not Charles. He loves me.”
“He’s my son, but he’s a dog just like his father. He couldn’t be true to you if you paid him.”
“But he has been.”
“That’s because he didn’t have you. You confused him. He didn’t know how to react.”
“Why are you saying this?” Mia asked, puzzled.
“Because I don’t want you to get hurt.” Kathy’s eyes wandered toward the door. “I’m not doing this to be mean.”
“You don’t believe Damien loves me?”
“He does for now, until he gets what he wants, then…” She shrugged her shoulders. “I think his love will fade and you’ll be all alone and heartsick. With luck maybe you’ll have one thing to remember him by. A baby, a blessing and a curse.”
Mia took Kathy’s hand. “It’s not going to happen, not to us. Damien loves me and I love him. You have no idea of the obstacles we’ve overcome to get here.”
“I know.”
Mia watched as Kathy laughed softly. She was getting a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and wished that the woman would just stop talking. But by the intense look on her face, Mia knew that wasn’t likely to happen.
“I know him a hell of a lot better than you and I’ve known him for a whole lot longer. I birthed him. When he gets what he wants, I promise you he will throw you to the side. The two of them are just alike. They’re two peas in a pod. That might be a cliché, but it’s true ” She nodded again toward the door. “That’s Damien in twenty more years. Look at me and you’ll see yourself in twenty years if you stay with him.”
Mia stared at Kathy, then shook her head and looked toward the stage. Kathy was wrong.
Ignore her
, she ordered her mind. Her future with Damien would be whatever they made it.
“I’ll bet you wish you hadn’t chosen tonight to make up,” Damien said as he climbed back into the car and shut the door. He glanced again at his house and saw the lights being turned off in the kitchen. That meant his mother was going to bed. He sighed, wishing as always that she had more in her life. He had tried for years to dissect his parents’ relationship to understand why they remained in each other’s life, but there was a missing piece he’d yet to find.
Another quick look and Damien could drive away. All was safe; he knew that. He’d walked his mother into the house and checked it, making sure. An old habit, one he’d adopted when he was fourteen. He wished he could stop worrying about her and pretending that he didn’t. Besides, his worrying had not changed things for either of them.
Mia smiled. “How’s your mother?”
“Fine. She’s used to this. I wish I could tell you that I don’t know what happened, that this was the first time I ever saw them behave that way. But it would be a lie and I think you know that.” He pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to talk about his mother right now, not when he was feeling ashamed of his parents and feeling guilty for doing so.
“She made a choice. She doesn’t have to put up with this; she never did. Apparently she wants to.”
“And your father doesn’t have to treat her the way that he does.” Damien turned slightly to frown at her and Mia stopped. “It’s your family. I’m sorry.”
“No, I am. I had no idea that you would be there tonight. And I didn’t think they were coming. They said they weren’t.” He tried for a smile. “It looks like everyone chose tonight to surprise me.”
Mia leaned her head on his shoulder. “Are you sorry that I came?”
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “What do you think? Did I look sorry to you?” He tried for a smile. “The only thing I’m unhappy about is that your first impression of my family is the one you got tonight. My pops is really charming, especially when he tries. I guess it might be my fault that he was so rude to you.”
He gave a half smile. “I guess after I told him everything that had been happening with us he just formed a negative opinion of you. I would have liked the chance to explain to him that I didn’t mean everything I said.”
“Your mother was nice.”
“Yeah, a nice doormat.”
“Damien!”
He glared then at no one in particular. “Tell me you didn’t think that, that you didn’t wonder why the hell she was putting up with that crap from a man who wasn’t even her husband, a man she still holds out hope will marry her? God, what a fool. Tell me something, Mia. Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he asked, shifting the focus of the conversation from his parents, not wanting Mia to play psychologist and scrutinize his emotions. Hell, he’d done enough of that to last him through eternity.
“Tell you what?”