She studied his face.

Then hers turned spiteful.

And that was in her tone when she said, “I see, still Lance’s boys.”

“Yes,” Toby agreed.

“I think you can find your way to your car,” Johnny put in. “I’ll call the dogs up from the balcony. You’ll be good.”

“This was a waste of my time,” she hissed.

“You know what’s funny, you not once mentioned the abuse of your parents which ruined you for marriage and motherhood. Sierra, trust me, really, trust me,” Toby stated pointedly, “when a parent does you wrong, that settles in deep. So now we know what you took from us, we weren’t missing much. Good to have that confirmed. But you not letting us have our grandparents, tellin’ Dad they weren’t fit to be in your life or ours, were we missing something?”

“They were vile,” she spat.

“Because they refused to spoil you or because they were assholes?” Toby pushed.

“I don’t need to answer that question, and anyway, they’re dead so what does it matter now?” she returned.

“You clearly don’t know the importance of family, but we do. Though, since they’re gone, you’re right, there’s no going back. There’s also no point in making this last any longer,” Toby replied.

“I wish I hadn’t come,” she murmured, moving to the door.

“Well that’s too bad, because I found this all pretty fucking enlightening,” Johnny muttered, starting to move toward the doors to the balcony.

“You shouldn’t curse in front of a lady,” Sierra snapped at his brother.

Johnny put his hand to his chest, bowed to her and said, “My apologies.”

“Why do I think that’s sarcastic?” she asked.

Johnny dropped his hand. “Why are you still here?”

“That’s why I think it was sarcastic,” she bit.

Johnny sighed.

“Call the dogs, brother. We need to get to Margot and Dave’s. They’re all probably worried,” Toby said.

“Please do not give my regards to Margot and David,” Sierra called from the door bitchily.

Toby pinned her with his eyes. “Believe this, we’ll talk about you for five minutes and then you’ll go back to bein’ what you’ve always been. A bad memory.”

She glared at him, turned to the door and stormed out, slamming it behind her.

The dogs went crazy outside and they heard her muted screech.

“Fuck. The dogs,” Johnny muttered, then hustled to the balcony doors, opened one and let out a loud whistle.

Toby nabbed his beer and threw back a long pull.

The dogs made a ruckus rushing into the house.

A few pets and some murmured commands and they cooled it.

“The only thing that sucks about that is Dad never knew she was such a monumental bitch,” Johnny remarked.

“Yeah,” Toby agreed.

“Tobe.”

Toby looked to his brother.

“Moving on,” Johnny said.

Toby tipped his beer toward the door. “I still don’t get why she showed.”

“Maybe ’cause her husband’s divorcing her and she can’t live without attention? Or he’s pissed she made him wait twenty-six years to get married and he’s sick or fading, and she found out he’s givin’ all his money to his girls? Or maybe she does give some kind of fucked-up shit she left us behind and wanted to get to know us and instead of simply saying, ‘I made a mistake, I wanted another man who was not your dad and I kept making mistakes after,’ she screwed that whole thing by bein’ her? Who knows, Tobe? Who gives a shit? She screwed that whole thing by bein’ her. I’m not interested in a new mystery involving Sierra. It’s over. I’m just done.”

“All right, so what if somewhere down the road, Addie and Iz’s dad shows and it’s about as pleasant?”

Johnny moved to reclaim his beer, answering, “Only thing I know about that shit is, if it happens, we’re sure as fuck not gonna be hangin’ with Margot and Dave, waitin’ for them to show and share how it went down.”

“Word,” Tobe replied.

Though he hoped like fuck their father didn’t show, because Toby putting his foot down neither he nor Johnny was out of their space when their father was in it after making both of them do that when their mother showed was not gonna go over easy.

Both him and Johnny downed some beer.

“We better get to Margot and Dave’s,” Toby muttered.

“Yeah,” Johnny agreed.

They moved to get their coats from where they’d thrown them on stools at the island.

Toby was shrugging his on when Johnny called his name.

He looked to his brother.

“I change my mind. The only good thing about that was Dad never knew what a monumental bitch she is and she’d left him for a man with more money,” Johnny said quietly.

“Yeah,” Toby replied in the same vein.

“Sucks that, in the end, it’s good he pined after a memory that wasn’t real. But still, it’s good. I think it’d be worse, he knew he made the mistake of makin’ a family with a woman like that.”

For Lance Gamble, that would be worse.

“Yeah, Johnny.”

Johnny started moving to the door.

Toby went with him.

“Life is fuckin’ whacked,” Johnny said, opening the door.

Tobe stopped to look him in the eye and repeated one last time. “Yeah.”

Though he wasn’t sure he felt that way.

He was beginning to think that shit worked out the way it was supposed to.

Toby dropped the side of his fist on Johnny’s shoulder twice before he moved out the door.

Johnny slapped him on the back twice as he moved out the door.

The brothers jogged down the steps.

They got in their trucks.

And they drove to Margot and Dave’s.

“I’ll tell you one thing, I’m not surprised that awful woman was a gold digger,” Margot proclaimed.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Addie chimed in. “If I see that awful woman ever again, I’m gonna do what I wanted to do. Slap her across the face. Then I’m gonna key the fuck out of her fancy-ass beemer.”

“Adeline, language,” Margot admonished softly.

“Okay, key the ef outta her fancy-dancy beemer,” Addie amended.

“I’m still stunned,” Izzy announced. “I mean, what was the point? At Christmas no less!”

“Her husband’s shot of her,” Margot decided. “She’s over the hill and can’t sink her hooks into a fresh one. So she decided to try something new. Her problem, she couldn’t fake being a proper mother and didn’t realize my boys were raised to be savvy, so they wouldn’t buy her bull-hockey and sent her on her way.”

“Margot, you said bull-hockey,” Izzy noted in surprise.

“Well, that woman is full of bull-hockey,” Margot retorted.

“What’s ‘bull-hockey?’” Addie asked.

“Bullshit,” Johnny answered.

“Johnathon!” Margot snapped.

Johnny grinned at her then lifted his bottle and threw back some beer.