Read Online Clutch (Custom Culture) by Tess Oliver - Free Book Online

extremely hard. “Mom,” the icy tone in my voice caught her attention quickly, “he’s never coming here again. We are through and don’t ever fucking call him again.”
    I’d spoken quietly, but, almost as if he had some kind of bad language radar, my dad popped his head in over hers. “What did I just hear you say to your mother?”
    Mom turned around and placed her hand against his chest. “It was nothing, Carl. Just girl talk.” She’d extinguished the potential explosion quickly, not out of worry about me but out of worry that her little dinner party would be disrupted.
    Dad hesitated in the doorway and shot me an admonishing glare before walking away. Mom’s face was a shade paler as she stared hard at me from across the room. “Get changed out of those trashy shorts and come to the table. We’ll talk about this later.”
    I could hear Jason discussing a classic car meet and an investment opportunity as I trudged down the hallway.
    “Do you think Jimmy will be able to—” Dad snapped his mouth shut as I entered the dining room. Apparently, I was not even allowed to hear a conversation about Clutch.
    I scraped the feet of the chair along Mom’s sparkling floor as I yanked it from the table and sat down hard.
    “Don’t slouch, Taylor,” Mom said sounding like Mrs. Biddle, my witch-faced second grade teacher. I over exaggerated a ramrod straight posture and plopped my elbows on the table. These people still treated me like a bratty, little girl, so I decided to roll with it. Mom’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head when she saw me place my elbows on the table.
    Jason smacked my arm, and I dropped back into the slouch. “So, Mom said you had a little fight with Adam?”
    I smiled and shook my head. “Wasn’t a little fight. We’re through. Not that I see any reason why I have to discuss this with you.”
    Sarah’s mouth dropped but Jason quickly placed a hand on her arm to stop her from commenting.
    Mom picked up the potato bowl and handed it to me. “Let’s pass the potatoes around. I added some parmesan cheese to them, so they should be extra tasty.” Pollyanna had returned but I knew better. I knew that the anti-polly could emerge at a moment’s notice. She was almost scarier than Dad because with him he was always pissed off about something. He never put on the fake shit, and at the moment, his jaw twitched with anger.
    “When did you break up with Adam?” He looked questioningly at Mom. “And why did no one tell me?”
    Mom shrugged as she spooned peas and carrots onto her plate. “I was going to tell you after dinner. Besides, I’m sure it will all work itself out.”
    I laughed loudly, another no-no at the dinner table. I knew that everything I was doing would get me into deep trouble, but I could no longer play along with their creepy little game. “I had no idea that my dating life was such an important topic. Really you people need to get lives. And, nothing is going to work itself out, Mom. I was using Adam and it was wrong, so I broke it off.”
    Mom turned to me looking like a woman who’d been inhaling far too many cleaning chemicals. “What do you mean you were using him? For what?”
    “To keep all of you off my back.” I smiled to myself. “Although, Adam didn’t keep me off my ba—”
    Jason stood so abruptly his chair nearly flew back. “Taylor, we need to talk out in the kitchen.” I was waiting for fire to come squirting from his nostrils. “Now.”
    I walked casually behind him to the kitchen, but I could have bounced a dime off the tension in his shoulders. He shut the kitchen door behind us and flew around to face me. Still no flames but I was sure I saw a stream of smoke drifting out of his ears.
    “What the hell are you doing? You’re going to get shipped back to Florida. Is that what you want?”
    I stared at him and he seemed flustered by my silence.
    “This is all about running into Clutch today, isn’t it?” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t