Page 23 of Wilde Abandon
He probably had some big important meeting.
“I visit my mom every afternoon and make sure she’s got everything she needs and is taking her meds.I have a night nurse who watches her, but she’s alone during the day, so…”
He wanted to check on her.Such a good son.Too bad his mother didn’t deserve it.
“Why do you do it?”She wanted to understand.
“When the social worker contacted me about her health, I thought, ‘Good.She deserves it.’She never did a damn thing for me my whole life.Why should I do anything to help her now?And then I thought this was my chance to tell her how I feel and what my life has been like because of her.
“But if she cared, she’d have reached out.She never did.Not a birthday card, a Christmas gift, not even an attaboy for graduating top of my class.I realized the only person I was trying to make proud was myself.And your dad,” he tacked on.“Because he was the only one who believed in me.”
“That’s not true.I thought about you all the time.I wondered what you were doing, and what you’d be like in every grade I started.As I grew up and changed, I wondered how tall you’d be now, if your face had changed, if the shadows in your eyes were gone, if you were lanky, pudgy, or built.Did you still have this soft, silky hair?”She brushed her fingers through the side of it like she used to do when they were kids and she wanted to soothe him the way her mom had done for her when she was sick.
His gaze sharpened.“How’d I turn out in your eyes?”
“Smart and gorgeous.I think that’s really hot.”
“You’re creative and stunning, with a whole lot of curves you didn’t have last I saw you.”Wicked delight lit his eyes now.
“You’re not the same boy.I’m not a girl anymore.”
He leaned in.“No, you’re the woman I want.Desperately.”
She grinned.“That’s a mutual thing.”She pumped the brakes.“But we’re still doing the catch-up thing.”
He nodded.Letting her know they’d go at her pace.“About Tanya…I couldn’t live with myself if I let her die alone and didn’t at least attempt to understand her, what happened, why, and whether any of that meant I could find a way to forgive her.”
“What she did to you…it’s a lot to carry.”
“It’s hard to forget.At least the nightmares are gone.Or were.”
She understood exactly what he meant.“Until you came back here.”
“Everything I’d locked down so I could survive got stirred up.That’s partially why I wanted to see you so badly.You always made me feel better.You still do.I thought you’d be different now in some way, but deep down you’re still my Melody.The girl who loved me is still you.”He seemed to catch himself and what he said.“I didn’t mean—”
She pressed her fingertips to his lips.“I know what you meant.”And it was true.She did love that boy.Her tiny heart had ached for him.She’d missed him desperately.
The man had her full attention and her heart.But was what she was feeling the kind of love that Lyric and Mason and Jax and Layla shared?She wanted a bond like her sister and brother had with their partners.It was palpable.When they looked at the ones they loved, you could see it in their eyes and feel it surrounding them.
Right now, she was feeling a whole lot of attraction and gratitude to have Fox back in her life.But was it the forever kind of love her sister and brother had found?
Maybe not yet.But she wanted it to be.
He winced.“I really have to go.”
“I’ll come with you.”
He went still.“Why?”
“Because I want to see if the woman I’ve seen and interacted with around town is who she’s showing you, or if she’s trying to manipulate you.”
He narrowed his gaze.“What do you mean?Has she said something to you?”
She gave him the cold, hard truth.“Only every time we meet.And it’s not pretty.She blames me for them taking you away from her.”
Anger filled his eyes.“That’s not true.It’s her fault.She could have taken me away from him.She could have been a hell of a lot better of a mother than she was.She could have tried to get me back.She refused to do any of the counseling or parenting classes she was ordered to take to get visitation.”
She put her hand on his cheek.“And you were better off for it, because she doesn’t know how to love.Not even her own son.”