“You know, no,” Greta told her. “Until right now, the way you’ve behaved my whole life, Mom, that never occurred to me. But you’re standing here talking to me. You’re standing here trying to explain to me. We both know what you did to Andy was hideous and tragic. What I want to know is why you felt the need to torture me.”
“You coulda been somethin’ too,” Tawnee fired at her. “You coulda used the looks I gave you, that voice I gave you to go places. You didn’t. But you did manage to hook yourself a man who was rollin’ in it. And what? Every time I came to you for help, you acted like I was a huge pain in your ass. And he was worse. He treated me like a snake in the grass. You ever been treated like that, Greta, you’d know. You’d get it. You’d get pissed about it. So if you think I should feel bad for playin’ with that asshole, you’re wrong. You say your momma didn’t give you dick, but I did, you just never paid attention. But I taught you that too, girl. People treat you like shit, you don’t let that lie. You treat ’em like shit right back and you do it ten times better.”
“I think you might just be crazy,” Greta whispered.
Tawnee studied her daughter a beat before she said, “You don’t understand me.”
“No, I don’t,” Greta confirmed.
“You’ll never understand me,” Tawnee stated.
“No, I won’t,” Greta agreed.
“You don’t want my present,” Tawnee went on.
“No, I don’t,” Greta repeated.
“Andy won’t want his either.”
“No, he won’t.”
“So we know. We know what I always knew. I’m standin’ here in front of you, tryin’, and you’re throwin’ it in my face,” she kept at Greta.
Greta didn’t flinch or hesitate.
“Yes, I am.”
Tawnee’s focus intensified on her daughter’s face and her shoulders straightened before she decreed, “You also don’t understand I made you what you are. All you are, Greta. From your looks right down to your grit. I gave you all ’a that, girl.”
“You’re forced through the seven circles of hell, you get to the other side, you don’t turn and thank the seven circles of hell for making you pull up the fortitude to endure. You take hold of what you earned after you got free and you get as far away from them as you can. Unfortunately, my seven circles live and breathe and can drive a car, so they keep following me.”
“Well, that’ll be done now, Greta,” Tawnee spat.
“Finally, something from you that I actually want.”
Tawnee’s head jerked, her mane of fake, golden curls jerking with it.
Before either of them could say more, Hix cut in.
He did it because it was time.
He also did it because Donna’s Ram had parked at the curb and she was out, making her way up his walk.
“I think this has run its course,” he stated. “Now, Ms. Dare, you’re about to be served. If you break the protection order you’re about to receive, I’ll charge you with criminal harassment and I’ll talk with our prosecutor to see you serve time. The maximum is five years. The good part of that is, it won’t matter you only have three hundred and twenty-two dollars since your accommodation will be courtesy of the state. The bad part of that is, your accommodation will be courtesy of the state.”
Donna had arrived while he spoke and she lifted up the envelope with the order in it that Tawnee automatically accepted when he stopped.
“This protection order lasts fourteen days,” Hix continued. “The minute it expires, we’ll be requesting a permanent one from the judge. I can’t speak for him, but he’s not been feeling beneficent these days, especially about the fact that people keep fucking with Greta. So my guess is, he’ll grant it. You can’t be within one hundred yards of her. If you are, I’ll do everything I can to put you in prison. If you harass Andy, we’ll get a protection order for him too. And after your scene at Sunnydown, the photos the judge saw that you took of Greta, the effort you clearly put into that, and the statement he read from Greta’s ex-husband as to how you used those, I doubt Judge Bereford will deny that request. So my suggestion is, get out of Glossop, get out of McCook and don’t come back.”
Slowly, Tawnee’s gaze went from studying the envelope to Hix.
Then it went to Greta.
Hix waited. He felt Greta waiting. Donna didn’t know what was happening but she also waited.
He didn’t know what he expected. He didn’t expect much. The woman was what she was. She was also a mother.
So he expected something.
Greta probably expected nothing.
And that was what she got when Tawnee turned to his steps, walked down them, right to her car. She got in, slammed the door, started it up, pulled out into the street and drove away.
She didn’t even say goodbye.
“Okay, that woman is, well . . . that woman,” Donna started after the silence of Tawnee’s departure stretched long. “But I’m not feelin’ even a low hum of Christmas spirit on this porch. What’d she do now?”
“She gave me the only thing of value she’s ever given me,” Greta answered.
Donna looked to his woman. “What’s that?”
“She left,” Greta answered, pulled from his hold, walked around him and into his house.
Hix looked to the door she closed behind her and then to his friend.
“It wasn’t even half as much fun to serve her as I thought it would be,” she quipped worriedly, watching him closely.
“Thanks for comin’ out, Donna.”
“Think you best get in there and look after your woman, Hixon,” she replied quietly.
He nodded.
She turned to leave.
He went into his house.
Greta was standing in the doorway to the kitchen pulling the strap of her purse over her shoulder.
“I have my coat on, might as well go get Andy,” she announced. “If we missed anything, I’ll go get it. Andy likes going to the store.”
“Just a minute,” he replied, moved to her and got in her space, putting his hands to either side of her neck and bowing his back so he could set his face in hers. “You okay?”
“Yep.”
“That was rough,” he noted.
“No it wasn’t. It’s just her.”
Carefully, he reminded her, “Can’t believe it, we never talked about it, but it’s clear that’s the first time she spoke to you about your dad.”
“I don’t have a dad, Hixon. Just a swimming bunch of cells that came out of some random guy I never met and never want to meet. It isn’t a loss, darlin’. Honestly. You can’t lose something you’ve never had.”
“Babe—”
“It’s done. To rejoice would give her time and emotion, which she doesn’t deserve. To be sad or angry would be the same. She clearly kept the trump of knowledge of our fathers close at hand, ready to use when she needed it, but that backfired because they gave us less than even she did, which is saying something. They gave up on us so easily, it’s clearly no loss.” Her shoulders shrugged. “And now, it’s over. I suppose when you finally swat the annoying fly that’s been bugging you for hours, you take a moment to feel the satisfaction of it being gone. Then you get on with shit. I’m getting on with shit. It’s Christmas Eve’s Eve. I’m gonna go get my baby brother.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said gently.
She made a move to pull from his hold but he pressed his thumbs under her jaw and she halted.