Bitter Truth (Hawthorne Vines #1)

I choke back an unamused sound. The absolute last thing I’d ever tell my mother is where I work. I’ve done plenty to ruin my own reputation. I don’t need her showing up, wasted and willing to steal anything she can get her hands on to make my life even worse.

“Look, Mom, I gotta go, okay? I have some stuff I need to work on.”

“Okay, well, give me a call anytime, baby. Your mama loves you.”

I grit my jaw.

“Love you, too.”

When I hit the fork in the path, instead of taking it toward my cabin, I follow it toward the warehouse. Just beyond a small incline there’s a bench that overlooks the entire property and the rolling hills in the distance. I’ve found myself out there on quite a few evenings since moving.

When I get there, I take a seat and look out over the long rows of vines, the nearly full moon casting light across the landscape.

I do love my mother. When I told her that at the end of our call, I wasn’t lying. But our relationship is incredibly complicated. Drunk Sonia is loving and kind and forgetful. She’s a mother who gushes about her children but can’t remember what day it is. Sober Sonia is angry and unkind, and she resents her sons for ruining her life.

So I’m in this horrible place of preferring my mother when she’s wasted enough that she forgets all the reasons she hates us. Because when she’s sober, she likes to remind me that I’m the one who made her fat and ugly, that I was an ungrateful and needy child, and she likes to remind Ash that he’s the reason she’s alone.

Nobody should have to deal with a relationship as unhealthy as ours is with our mother. But the alternative is something I don’t like to imagine, so we continue to listen to her blathering when she’s half a bottle deep because it’s the only kind of mothering we get.

I whip my head to the side at the sound of footsteps, and my eyes widen when I see Murphy coming up the path.

She stops when she sees me.

“What are you doing here?” My words come out far more irritated than I intend, but at the same time, she’s truly the last person I want to see right now. Not after that chat with my mother. Not when I’ve tried to avoid thinking about Murphy all day.

Her head jerks back. “I came to sit on the bench. Same as you.” She pushes her chin up and stalks toward me, almost like she wants to prove a point. “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to leave.”

Then she plops down beside me.

I let out a sigh that sounds more like a growl and push up from the bench.

“Fine. Take it.”

Murphy snorts. “You know, you’re a lot more charming when you’re helping a woman in distress.”

Once I’m a few feet away, I spin around and look at her, my frustration from the day boiling over.

“And you clearly don’t seem to realize when your presence isn’t wanted.”

The stricken look on her face is only there for a moment before her eyes turn to stone, but it’s long enough for me to realize that what I’ve said is incredibly unkind.

Even though I was only speaking about this specific instance, this one evening when I just needed a few minutes to myself, it’s pretty clear that I’ve touched a deeper layer of pain in her.

I want to apologize. To tell her that I’ve just had a shitty conversation with my mother and that what I said was uncalled for.

But before I can, Murphy pushes off the bench and heads toward the path that will eventually take her back to the main house. Her gaze, filled with disdain, lances through me as she passes.

Her silence says more than her words ever could.

And as I watch her form disappear into the darkness, part of me thinks that maybe having her hate me will be better for both of us.

Chapter Five

MURPHY

It takes everything inside of me to get up and ready for the day on Monday morning, my brief interaction with Wes still fresh in my mind as I get in the shower. It certainly made clear to me the type of guy he is.

Charming until he doesn’t get what he wants.