“Well –” I started but she cut me off.
Looking me up and down, she said, “’Spect he hasn’t met your parents either and ‘spect it’s not for the same reason we haven’t met you.”
I read her inference and this was because it was hard to miss.
“Actually, my parents are both deceased so it would be difficult for Ty to meet them but if they weren’t and I’d actually met them before they died, which I didn’t, then he would have.”
Okay, so I was getting mad. I could feel the sass rising in me and I was trying hard not to throw it but unfortunately not succeeding.
At this point, Ty’s father moved forward.
“I’m Irving Walker. Irv,” he told me as he got close then his hand extended.
I tipped my head back to look at him and saw he wore an expression that held some curiosity, some uncertainty and not a small amount of cautious warmth.
Therefore I took his hand, squeezed it and introduced myself, “Alexa. Alexa Walker. Everyone calls me Lexie.”
He smiled and his smile was near as beautiful as his son’s.
Then he released my hand and jerked his head down and to the side to indicate the woman.
“This is Ty’s Ma, Reece.”
I looked to her, decided to make an attempt at civility and extended my hand. “Hello, Reece.”
She held my eyes then hers dropped to my hand then they came back to mine. Then she lifted her cigarette to her mouth, wrapped her lips around it in a weird way where it looked like half the tip was between her lips, she sucked deep and all her sags contracted in a highly unattractive way then she let the cigarette go on a sucking noise and blew out an enormous plume of smoke. It was so enormous I dropped my hand and took a step away so as not to get caught in its fog. Surprisingly, so did Irv.
“Reece,” he muttered, sounding pissed then, “Jesus.”
Her eyes shot up to him and she snapped, “What? Look at this shit.” Then she swung an arm out indicating me but that arm flew wide indicating, I guessed, everything in our local vicinity. She dropped her arm, leaned toward Irv and hissed, “Look at this shit.”
I did not like being referred to as shit or the home my husband provided for me being included in that and I felt my eyes narrow as my control on my sass slipped a hefty notch.
Reece wasn’t done. “My eyes don’t deceive me, those wheels are brand new. Though, my eyes could be deceivin’ me since I’m blinded by the fuckin’ rocks she’s wearin’ on her fuckin’ finger. Now tell me, how does my idiot son go down for some bullshit crime probably some white man committed then he gets outta prison, hooks himself a class act like this bitch, puts that fuckin’ rock on her finger, her ass in a brand new set of wheels, keeps his fancy-assed condo, gets his job back that pays him near to sixty fuckin’ grand a year and, all that, he’s got no time for his Momma. He’s got no time for his Daddy. He’s got all that, he don’t share the love with the two people responsible for him breathin’ on this earth.”
There was a lot there to get pissed at, a lot that deserved some sass thrown, my control snapped and I was going to throw it.
And I opened my mouth to do that but Irv got there before me.
“Weeks, woman, I watched you work yourself up to this shit, fuck,” he growled the last word then turned to me. “Knocked her up thirty-seven years ago. Biggest mistake in my life. Keep makin’ ‘em. She tells me she wants to go see her baby, time has come, here we are. She don’t wanna see her baby. She’s pissed like she’s always pissed and like always, I got no clue why she’s pissed. Her son is home, he’s married to a beautiful woman, he’s gettin’ his life back and she’s pissed. What the fuck?”
I had no answer to his question but even if I did, I had no shot at answering it, Reece spoke.
“What the fuck, Irv, is that I get here and I see all this.” She again flung her arm out, multitasking by flicking the cigarette in her other hand between Irv and me into the street. “Same old shit. Same as always.” Her droopy eyes came to me. “This one,” she jerked her head to Irv, “served me a lifetime of a whole lotta nothin’. My boy, though, he knows how to get himself somethin’. Does he share? No. God, he gets outta prison and still he’s got ways to get himself somethin’ and still he does not share.”
Irv probably opened his mouth to retort but I was done.