This meant Layne was done enjoying the show. “Why are you here?”
“My son got home after two o’clock in the morning,” Gabby answered without hesitation. “I dragged his ass out of bed an hour ago and he told me what happened last night. He did not call and tell me he was going to miss his curfew. He did not call me when he was in trouble. He came home and went to bed like he lives in a fucking hotel and his mother isn’t tossing and turning waiting up for him and worried out of her brain.”
“You’re tellin’ me this because…” Layne prompted.
“I’m tellin’ you this because you should have told me what was happening and if you didn’t, since you were with Jas last night, you should have advised him to share the minute he got home,” Gabrielle returned.
“We had it covered,” Layne replied.
“I’m his mother!” Gabby shouted.
“Jesus, Gabby, keep it down,” Layne ordered.
“Fuck you,” she shot back.
Layne uncrossed his arms and put his hands to his hips. “All right, woman, you’re his mother and he fucked up last night, he had a couple of beers. He let his girl have a couple of beers. He’s seventeen, that shit is gonna happen. I did it, you did it, everyone does it. It wasn’t right but he was bein’ smart, he didn’t get drunk because he was drivin’. But his girl got slipped a mickey and it freaked him out. He cares about her. He didn’t know what to do. So, if I didn’t advise him and he didn’t decide to let you in on that shit, it’s his call. He had enough to deal with considering his girl got drugged against her will on his watch and her stepdad was pretty fuckin’ displeased. If he didn’t feel like puttin’ up with your shit after that, I don’t fuckin’ blame him.”
“He doesn’t get to decide if he gets to put up with my shit, Tanner,” Gabby returned. “I’m his mother, he’s seventeen. You treat him like he’s thirty-five.”
“He’s a smart kid,” Layne replied.
“Yeah, he is, he’s smart but he’s still seventeen. He’s still a kid.” She threw her arms out and her eyes shot fire. “You let them curse, both of them and Tripp’s only fourteen. You think that shit doesn’t leak to my house? Tripp told me straight out you let them cuss!”
Shit, but Tripp sometimes had a big mouth.
Gabby carried on. “And this business with the Youth Group, I don’t know what’s happening with that, all I know is, neither of my sons have found Jesus. It’s not like I haven’t heard people talking about that so it makes me think I should know what they’re doing there because my guess is you’re involved somehow, it’s dangerous and no seventeen and fourteen year old boy should be involved in one of your operations.”
He skirted right around Youth Group, a topic which would make Gabby’s head explode, and he had to admit, rightfully so, and he focused on something that might not. “Gabrielle, they cuss at school, they cuss with their friends, who gives a fuck if they cuss?”
“I do!” she yelled.
“That’s ridiculous,” Layne returned.
“It’s being a good parent, Tanner,” she snapped back.
“Do not go there, Gabby,” Layne warned. “I’m a good Dad.”
She nodded and crossed her arms on her chest. “Oh yeah, yeah you are. The best Dad ever. The coolest Dad in the world. News flash, Tanner, you didn’t have one so let me educate you.” she announced bitingly. “Bein’ a good Dad does not mean bein’ a cool Dad it means bein’ a Dad.”
Layne took two steps toward her and as he did it he watched her brace which he figured was a good call on her part, considering he’d lost patience and didn’t hide it.
“I know my boys, I know what they’re capable of and we communicate. They’re both almost men and they gotta learn how to be good ones,” Layne told her, his voice low, rumbling, he was pissed. “You made it clear from the beginning, even before we got divorced, that we were both in this parent thing on our own. We never agreed, you never compromised. So, you do it your way, I’ll do it my way but since you made that decision, you don’t get to get in my face and tell me to do it your way. I’ll raise my boys as I see fit.”
“Right, so it’s okay they curse, fuck this and shit that, and it’s okay your fourteen year old son is already dating and he can’t even drive and it’s okay that your seventeen year old son is fucking his way through five different high schools. That’s all okay because,” she stepped back and flung an arm toward Rocky, “that’s the kind of man you are and that’s the kind of man you’re teaching them to be.”
“What’s that mean?” Rocky entered the conversation on a hiss.
Gabby swung to her. “You don’t have children, Saint Rocky, so you won’t get this but it is not okay and does not teach good lessons to have Dad banging the high school literature teacher right under their noses.”
Before Layne could speak, Rocky did.
“You know that’s not right,” she whispered but she was whispering in order not to yell.
“I do?” Gabby flung back.
“You know it’s not right,” Rocky repeated.
“You know what’s not right? Someone like you, who has it all, who’s always had it all, taking more. Taking more and more and more,” Gabby snapped, striding to Rocky and Layne moved with her so he was at Rocky’s back. Gabby didn’t even look at him when she stopped two feet from Roc. “You don’t have enough with your clothes and car and mansion, you need my kids too?”
“You don’t care about your kids, Gabrielle,” Rocky said quietly. “You care about Layne.”
Gabrielle’s torso shot back and she pushed out a puff of air. “Please.”
“You want him, you’ve always wanted him,” Rocky replied.
“Had that,” Gabby stated, her mouth a sneer, not glancing at Layne, “got rid of it.”
Layne rolled his eyes to the ceiling but Rocky laughed and it was laughter without humor so he rolled his eyes back to his woman.