Push

12. He Saw His Mother

TOBY

Tanya's messages were coming in hot.

Quit stalling.

My sister wasn't wrong. I didn't need to drive around the block three times to find a parking spot closer to my mother's terrace. I did need to send Gwen a thank you for the photo of Noah at bath time, but I probably didn't need to spend ten more minutes scrolling through all the other photos of him I'd saved on my phone. I was absolutely stalling.

Get your ass inside.

More dots flashed on my screen.

NOW.

Tanya wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy at the best times, but our mother's dinner invitation had probably made her pricklier than usual.

Invitation.

That was a laugh.

I could imagine a thousand places I'd rather be than my mother's beachside terrace at Bondi. Hell sounded like a cozy backup option. Pluto might even be nice this time of year. But the Sullivan siblings never had a choice about whether we made the trip to see our mother. We rocked up, or we suffered her wrath.

I heaved a sigh and grabbed the bottle of wine from the passenger seat. There was no way this dinner wouldn't end up a trainwreck. I squashed the dread to the pit of my stomach and grew the balls to get out of the car.

My mother's terrace loomed like a gray storm cloud over the beach. Somehow, I dragged myself off the street, onto the checkerboard-tiled porch, to stand frozen at the open doorway.

"Someone's keen."

I turned to find Tanya hidden in the shadows. She was flopped on the chair in the corner, her face eerily lit up by the dull glow of her Kindle and her sneakers propped on the porch railing. My mother would lose her shit if she saw that.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked.

"Enjoying the view." Tanya gestured to the hedge blocking her hiding spot from the street full of parked cars. "It's magnificent."

"You're avoiding Mum?"

"Obviously."

I leaned across the porch, cautious to keep my voice low. "Do other people dread having dinner with their mother?"

"In normal families? No." Tanya's mouth flattened. "I think those people actually enjoy spending time together."

"How'd she convince you to drive all the way up here?"

Tanya shrugged. "Mother dearest shared her plans for your murder. And honestly..." Her grin was sly. "I could do without all the paperwork dealing with your funeral, Tobes."

"Mum's pissed off then?"

"You haven't talked to her since everything blew up?"

"No."

Tanya looked vaguely impressed. "Teach me this sorcery."

There was no sorcery. I stuck my head in the sand and pretended the world wasn't blowing up around me. Real grown-up. "Work's been busy." Not a lie. I'd taken on more patients to keep myself locked away from Ian and Kayleigh as much as possible. "I spend all my spare time with Noah when I can."

"You see the little raisin today?"

"Yeah." I smiled for the first time in hours. "Gwen's cooled off a bit over the last week. She's been letting me come over in the mornings to take Noah out for a walk before work."