Polished Slick (Natural Beauty) Read Online Free

pursed—evident even at that distance. She was obviously ready for confrontation.
    He’d give her one.
    “You picked a bad day, woman,” he mumbled, and cut the ignition.
    His mother made her way down the steps as he fetched his laptop case from the back seat.
    “ Why didn’t she just wait on her own porch?”
    Kate had picked across the yard in her little dainty espadrilles to his front bumper by the time he slammed the back door.
    He anticipated her question, and responded to it, before she could even get the words out of her mouth. “Soon,” he said. He took a wide berth around her.
    “Um.” She jogged to catch up. She’d never talk to a man’s back, especially not this one’s. “How soon, Jeremiah? Next week? Next month? When ?” Popping an eyebrow up, she tucked a swatch of light brown hair behind her ear, exposing the moon-sized diamond in her lobe.
    When he didn’t answer immediately, she cleared her throat.
    “Jesus.” He gritted his teeth and sidled around her, holding his door key out in front of him like some kind of sword while she trailed at his heels.
    She was quick when she had a motive.
    “I don’t know. I work a lot of hours, and moving is disruptive.” He jammed the key into the lock and gave it a frantic jiggle while she yapped.
    She wouldn’t follow him in. Fact. The farthest she ever went was the threshold, where she stopped as if some force field prevented her entry. In truth, she believed the trailer had the taint of Satan. She’d said as much. Vocally, and often.
    Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of discouraging her visits, because although the trailer was his, the property it was parked on belonged to his father.
    Kate had kicked Jerry out of the main house about five years ago because she honestly believed that with his first piercing, he’d opened himself up to possession. Since then, he’d become more and more in league with the demonic with each stud, expander, and barbell he got. He let her think what she wanted.
    His parents had let him park his trailer in the side yard of the Rouse property as a temporary thing, but Kate had wanted him to move so she could expand her garden. Her garden was nowhere near where Jerry was parked, but he didn’t want to be where he wasn’t wanted.
    If he could leave now, he would, but some things took more time to do the right way. Most people wouldn’t know it, but he was the kind of guy who strived to do things perfectly on his first attempt.
    “It needs to be soon , Jeremiah, or so help me I’ll cut your electric and make sure you can’t get mail here.” She waggled an index finger at him.
    “Fine, Mom .” The door gave way and he strode over the threshold, pushing the knob even as Kate put her head into the gap to speak.
    “You really don’t want to do that.” He sounded pissy and didn’t care. She was doing the equivalent of putting her head in a lion’s mouth.
    She backed up a pace, eyes narrowed.
    “How does Dad feel about you rushing me off the family property, anyway? Haven’t seen him in weeks. He still alive?” He already knew the answer to the first question. He just wanted to hear her newest spin on it.
    Her nostrils flared. “Louis and I discuss everything.”
    “That wasn’t the question.”
    “Rude. Must you be the ever-present thorn in my side?” She sighed and flicked a dismissive hand at him before stomping down the stairs. “You take it up with your daddy when he gets back from God-knows-where. I can’t even keep up with his schedule.” She stopped and pointed at his face. “I’m warning you, Jeremiah, you can fluff up your fur all you want, but you will respect me.”
    “When?”
    She grunted in a most unladylike fashion and threw her hands in the air.
    He laughed at the misguided woman’s expense, finally feeling his blood pressure decrease to a healthy level.
    After more than thirty years of antagonism, nothing that woman could say could stress him out any more than he already