At her tone I learned she was just like her son. In other words, she could get pissed.
“Ma, Kia’s up,” Sam returned on a low growl I still heard from my position on the stairs.
“So?” Maris replied and I started backing up.
“I’d say we’d talk about this later but we’re not f**kin’ talkin’ about this later. We’re not talkin’ about this at all,” Sam declared.
“Do not use that tone and language with me, Sampson August Cooper,” she snapped.
“You’re standin’ in my kitchen, in my home talkin’ about my life with my woman awake upstairs. Do not f**kin’ tell me how to behave in my own goddamned home,” Sam shot back on a continued, infuriated growl.
Now I was even more shocked. Shocked stone-still. Sam loved his mother. I couldn’t believe he was speaking to her like that.
“Of the many things I’d like to know, now I’d like to know why you’re so concerned Kia is going to hear us,” Maris stated.
“That’s none of your business either,” Sam returned.
Ohmigod.
“I don’t like that, Sam. Kia is –” she started.
He cut her off, “My woman and my business. Not yours.”
Yikes.
“I cannot believe you just said that to me,” Maris whispered, sounding hurt.
“I did.” Sam didn’t hesitate to confirm.
Ohmigod!
Maris was silent.
I decided to tiptoe back to Sam’s room.
I didn’t even get started. This was because Maris broke her silence.
“You cannot go on like you are.”
What did that mean?
“I can do whatever the f**k I wanna do. It’s my life, Ma. You gave it to me but that doesn’t mean you get to lead it.”
Um… ouch.
“You have no focus, Sam, no purpose, no drive. You’re drifting through life. That is not my son,” she returned instantly.
“Honest to God?” Sam fired back and I knew by his tone she’d pushed him close to the edge. “You do not know what I got or what I don’t got, Ma. And I’m tellin’ you whatever that is, it’s none of your damn business.”
God, I needed to get out of there.
So I did. Carefully rushing back to Sam’s room so as not to make any noise, I stopped in it and frantically tried to figure out what to do. Then I noticed the floor was empty except for the rug. As usual, Sam had picked up his clothes and taken them to the walk-in. So I went to the closet and rooted around in the pile of Sam and my tangled, dirty clothes. I got a bunch of darks, enough to make a load and headed out.
On the landing, I called, “Maris, see you’re up. I know you just got here but I’m doing a load of darks. Do you have anything that needs to be cleaned?”
Memphis yapped and ran up the stairs to meet me halfway.
Hap grunted, “Fuckin’ A, am I at a bus depot? What’s up with all the noise?”
I made it to the bottom of the stairs and saw him hanging over the back of the couch, scowling. I smiled brightly at him and hoped he was hungover enough not to notice it was forced.
“Morning, Hap,” I greeted cheerily.
“Fuck,” he muttered, flopped back and thus disappeared.
I kept the grin pinned to my face as the clothes I was carrying, my dog and I turned into the kitchen.
“Morning,” I said to both occupants, neither of whom were hiding that they were still pissed. So I thought it safe to let my fake grin fade and venture, “Is everything okay?”
Maris looked to the floor.
Sam came to me, wrapped his fingers around the back of my head and pulled me in and up to my toes then commenced in laying a hard, short, closed-mouthed kiss on my lips.
He let me go but didn’t move out of my space when he muttered, “Hittin’ the gym. Be back in a couple of hours.”
A couple of hours?
Sam didn’t mess around working out. I knew this because he was never back before an hour was up and usually didn’t return for an hour and a half. The same with when he ran.
But a couple of hours, never.
“Okay,” I whispered then kept trying, asking softly, “You okay?”
“Great,” he lied, moved away, jerked his chin up at his mother and disappeared behind the stairs.
I looked to Maris. “Did I interrupt something?”
She was watching the back of the stairs, the residual anger on her face now mixed liberally with concern.
She wiped it clean, looked at me, gave me a small smile and didn’t lie so much as evade when she answered, “We’re family. We talk a lot. We share a lot. And sometimes we fight though luckily not a lot. It happens, we get over it. My Sammy’s like his Mama. We sometimes rub each other the wrong way but it doesn’t last long. Promise. Now do you want coffee?”
She was trying to change the subject.
And I was still reeling from what I heard, the tone, the words and most especially that it now seemed very clear that Sam was intentionally keeping something from me.
So, cautiously, I replied, “Love some, Maris.” Then I moved toward the utility room but stopped when I came abreast of where she was across the kitchen from me and I said quietly, “But if you ever need to talk,” her eyes came to mine, mine locked on hers, my heart clenched and my mind made a terrifying, split-second decision. Therefore I continued on a whisper, “I love your son. But I know he can be annoying. You want to talk, I’ll listen and while I do, you’ll know nothing you say will change the way I feel about Sam.”
Her lips had parted, her eyes went bright with tears and I decided I was done. I’d been fearless, taken a risk and threw it out there.
Now it was time to get the f**k out of there.
So I dipped my head to the clothes in my arms and asked, “Any darks?”
Maris shook her head.
I nodded and muttered, “Okey dokey.”
Then I got the f**k out of there.
* * * * *
I had pushed the footstool aside and pulled the Adirondack chair up to the railing of Sam’s deck so I could rest my feet on it.
Memphis was nosing around on the deck for the first time out without a lot of company to keep her occupied. It was a test. But as Sam said she’d do, she was enjoying the space but staying close. I was keeping an eye on her in case she got a wild hair and wandered.
It was late afternoon and Maris was in the kitchen starting dinner. Luci was helping her. Celeste was at the bar keeping them company. And Sam and Hap had gone to the store to pick up some things Maris needed and more booze.