Page 127 of Savage Heart

“Unfortunately, yes, I was the biggest jackass. And I’d rather not give any more true confessions than that.” I give Otis a pointed look, and he just laughs.

“Nope, you tell her or I will,” Otis says.

Everyone’s staring at me, and Iris tilts her head, like Out with it.

“I, uh . . . may have had something to do with your new car,” I mutter, shooting Otis another dark look.

Iris gasps. “What?”

“And?” Otis waves his hand.

“And all of Betty’s repairs.”

Iris’s mouth falls open.

“And?” Otis continues.

“Come on,” I growl at Otis.

“Don’t you growl at him,” Iris says, and I can’t tell if her eyes are flashing with anger or shock and amusement.

“Uh . . . when I heard your mom was in Shadowbrook, I . . .” I glare at Otis again and shake my head. “I had her moved to a nicer room.”

Iris’s hand covers a sob. “The nicest room in the building. Have you been paying for that? She’s been in there for six years!”

My jaw ticks, and I run my hand through my hair. “I never wanted you to find out about that.”

Otis points at me, his eyes widening. “What about her hospital bill when Linc was born? I always thought they were giving her a break on the cost, but . . . was that you too?”

“No, that wasn’t me,” I say.

“That was me,” Mom says.

Iris chokes back a sob and is in Mom’s arms. “I love you,” she whispers. “I never knew.”

“I wanted to keep it that way,” Mom says, laughing lightly. “I love you, sweetheart.”

Iris is in my arms in the next second. I hold her tight, smoothing her hair back, and then laugh when she gives me a playful punch in the gut.

“You are something else,” she says.

“It doesn’t make up for how I treated you,” I say. “But hopefully it shows that I never stopped loving you.”

She lifts on her tiptoes and says so only I can hear, “We’ll have to work on the ways you show your love.”

I smile. “Let me count the ways.”

“Okay, okay, there are kids present,” Dad says. “Six, if I’m counting right.”

“You can count me in that number,” Otis says, chuckling. “So seven.”

“Okay, eight,” Dad says, raising his hand. “Iris and Evelyn are the only adults in the room.”

Everyone laughs, more than a little relieved to have a lighthearted moment.

A knock startles all of us, and Dad opens it. Jennifer and Brandon stand there, looking spent.

Jennifer moves toward Iris, looking like a shell of the woman I know.