sighed. Chauvinistic redneck. Harassing a woman was probably the highlight of his Saturday night. He deserved a swift kick in the shins. Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to lose her temper.
Ignore him. He’ll go away.
A stained T-shirt and hairy arms obstructed her vision. The man wedged himself between her and the door, flashing a smile that was all dingy teeth. He rubbed a lanky hand over the grizzled stubble of his chin.
“Not right for a lady like yourself to be all alone this late at night.” The words slurred. He ran his bleary eyes over her face and down her chest, leaning back to survey her legs.
Trailer trash. Cheap. Easy. Her lip curled. She knew the words were flashing in his head.
Cissy ran her eyes over him, taking stock of his scrawny build and unstable frame. His hands trembled. Probably from too much liquor and too hard living. Harmless fool. But a fool nonetheless.
“I’m not alone.” She elbowed her way to the other side of him and refocused on the bathroom door.
“No, not anymore.” He shoved his face in front of hers. Delight pooled in his eyes. He licked his lips and leaned forward.
“I wasn’t alone before you joined me,” Cissy bit out. “Now, I suggest you take your ass on.”
His smile faded. It took a moment for his unfocused gaze to register the soft words as a rejection. He blinked hard. “What’s that?”
The bathroom door banged open. Two blond boys tumbled out, shoving at one another before barreling into them.
“Aunt Cissy, they ain’t got no paper towels in there,” Kayden, her six-year-old nephew, declared, dragging his palms over the other boy’s shirt. Frowning, he looked the drunk at her side over from head to toe. “Who’s he?”
Cissy quickly gathered the boys against her legs, unable to contain the grin that spread across her face. She lifted an eyebrow at the man’s confusion.
His head swiveled, taking in the boys, then her and back again. It was clear rambunctious twin boys were not part of his agenda. He moved around them, limbs wobbling.
“You bothering my aunt Cissy?” Kayden clenched his fists and pulled against her hold, attempting to follow the man’s stumbling steps into the bathroom.
“N-no, not at all,” he stammered, easing away with an uncomfortable laugh. “Just making polite conversation is all.” He nodded. “Was nice meetin’ you.”
“You, too,” she called out with a saccharine smile.
“I’m starving.” Jayden, the eldest twin, disentangled from her clutch and clamored up into a nearby booth.
Kayden tore away and settled beside his brother. They bent over a menu, leaning into each other.
Cissy frowned and thumbed through the bills at the edge of her pocket to calculate for the third time. Seventeen dollars and sixty-two cents. Unfortunately, her count had been correct the first time and remained so ever since. She slipped the bills back into her shorts, making sure all the coins were settled underneath, then plopped into the booth across from the boys.
“Aunt Cissy, they have triple-decker cheeseburgers.” Kayden shoved a greasy menu in her face. His eyes sparkled as he pointed to the colorful close-up of a burger meal.
Mmm. Her mouth watered. She smashed it shut so she wouldn’t drool on the table.
Seventeen dollars and sixty-two cents. She had to stretch that as far as it would go.
“And onion rings.” Jayden bounced in his seat. He scooted to his brother’s ear and shielded a conspiratorial whisper behind his hand.
Snatching up the mug in front of her, she forced a mouthful of coffee past the lump in her throat and winced as the bitter brew seized her taste buds. Her stomach churned and rumbled. She rubbed a hand over her belly. Even the leftover gummy bears from twelve hours ago would be a blessing right about now.
“They got hot-fudge sundaes,” the boys sang in unison. “With whipped cream,” they taunted.
A groan emerged as she imagined a cool dollop of sweet cream melting on her tongue. Seventeen dollars and sixty-two cents! a voice screamed inside her head.
“That’s they have hot-fudge sundaes,” she corrected. She held out a hand, unable to still the tremor running through it. “Boys, hand me the menu, please.”
They grumbled but passed it over. She located the items they requested and forced her fingers to trail across the sticky laminate to the price. A quick estimate of the total informed her the purchase would leave two dollars and eleven cents in her pocket.
“So can we? Can we?” Jayden pleaded, tapping the table with the heel of his hand. “We’ve been good all day, Aunt Cissy.”
Good was an understatement. They hadn’t uttered a peep when she’d been evicted that afternoon. Evicted. Cissy scoffed, turning to peer into the darkness outside the window.
So what? That seedy apartment wasn’t fit to live in anyway. And she’d told the landlord so. The sleazy pig. She’d stabbed her finger two inches from his filthy mouth and advised him not to proposition the next female tenant. She might have the money to sue him.
Throwing her hands over her eyes, she groaned and slumped into her elbows on the table. Why did she have to do that? Her temper tended to cost her a lot of things, but a bed for the boys was too high a price.
After she’d unloaded on the landlord, there had been no choice but to stuff the boys, herself and the entirety of their possessions into her beat-up Toyota and leave. A quick pit stop for gas and they’d undertaken the journey from the busy interstates of Atlanta to the isolated stretches of Deep South Georgia roads.
Cissy rolled her eyes and dropped back against the thin padding of the booth. Things would’ve been okay if her cousin wasn’t so dang irresponsible. Kip had promised them a place to stay. But when she’d banged on his door with a hungry twin on each arm and in desperate need of a restroom, there’d been no answer.
It wasn’t until ten minutes later that he’d cracked the door open, drunk and disheveled. He was so sorry. He’d forgotten they were coming. He just needed a minute to get the room ready.
She’d been okay with that. Really. She had to be. Kip was the last bit of family she had left. And the boys needed a bed for the night. She had almost talked herself into it. Or she had, until a busty brunette had slumped in the doorway to coo at the boys, her curves barely concealed by the grimy sheet gripped against her.
One look at the woman’s makeup-smeared face and slack expression had her clamping a hand over the boys’ eyes and hauling them away again. No way was she exposing them to that! She’d find something else. She’d cut corners somewhere and they’d splurge on a motel room for a few nights.
But after driving six counties down, she had yet to find a motel. The drive had sucked away most of her money. And dinner would take almost every penny she had left. Her last emergency stash remained in the glove compartment. And it was tiny. Forget being able to pay for a motel room for more than one night.
“Please,
