I sit up again, and meet his eyes. I miss my mother more than words can say, but as I conjure up the happy times we had, warmth soothes my soul. “You would have loved her.”
“If she was anything like the amazing daughter she raised, then yeah, I would.”
“She tried to make my childhood as normal as possible. Every Sunday we’d bake these cookies. Ohmigod, Jackson they were so good. Just a simple sugar cookie, but I can almost taste them now.” He smiles at that.
“That’s a great memory, Rach.”
“After baking, we’d go to the park, have a picnic, fly a kite. We didn’t have a lot but she’d always have those little gummy green leaf mints for me as a treat.”
He groans. “I haven’t had one of those in years.”
I lean against him again and let the happier memories push out the demons. My eyes slide shut, exhaustion from a long day and even longer night pulling me under.
“Rach?”
“Yeah.”
“You never did tell me what you wanted for your birthday.”
“One more day with my mom,” I whisper.
A lifetime with you.
14
Jaxon Jaxon
Jaxon
It’s Sunday afternoon and upstairs, the sound of Cassie’s feet running down the hall, followed by Rachel’s, put a big smile on my face. I put my wrench away and glance at the calendar hanging over my workbench. We’re halfway through November which means it’s been two weeks since we were at Jericho’s pub, two weeks since he warned me that Sarah was finally clean, and coming home. Apparently, as Jericho explained, Jessica had stopped into the bar and he overheard her telling a friend that she’d texted Sarah about my new freshman—Jessica’s words, not Jericho’s.
But I’ll believe it when I see it and while I’ve always wanted Sarah in Cassie’s life, Rachel, Cassie and I have fallen into an easy routine. Rachel left her job and has been helping me out around here. We fall in bed together every night, and every morning we get up well before Cassie and carry on as if there is nothing going on between us—that what we have is a business arrangement only—with a few added perks, of course. Only problem is, I want more going on between us, which has my thoughts drifting back to the night she opened up to me. She’s still afraid of her ex, which means she could so easily run again. But no way is he going to find her here, right? And if he does, he’ll have me to deal with.
Then again, are we even enough for her to stick around?
The door to my shop opens and in walks my in-laws. My head rears back in surprise. There are no plans for them to take Cassie today, but they’ve been known to stop by unexpectedly from time to time. Likely to try and catch me off guard so they can find some reason to take Cassie away from me.
“Judy, Karl,” I begin. “What a pleasant surprise. Cassie is upstairs if you’re looking for her.”
“Actually, we’re here to talk to you,” Karl says as he slowly approaches.
I grab a rag, wipe the grease from my hand, and ignore the knot tightening in my stomach. Something is very wrong here, but I keep a poker face and gesture to the two clean chairs.
“Have a seat, or would you rather go upstairs?” I ask, and point to the ceiling.
“Here is fine,” Judy says and brushes the chair to check the cleanliness of it before she sits.
“Have you heard from Sarah?” Karl asks, getting right to the point.
“Not since that text over three weeks ago.”
He eyes me carefully, waiting for a reaction when he says, “She’s coming back.”
Giving no indication on whether I think that is a good thing, or a bad thing, I lean against the counter and my mind races. Why now after all this time? Was it really because I was with another woman? Why would she even care? She was the one who chose to leave us. It wasn’t the other way around.
“When?” I ask.
Karl hesitates and I resist the urge to scoff, because yeah, his pause tells me he’s as skeptical as I am. “She said soon.”
Like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it.
“Jaxon, I was just wondering if you wanted…” Halfway down the stairs, Rachel stops speaking and blinks. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.”
“Rachel,” Judy says tightly, like the name has left a bad taste in her mouth. Rachel freezes, and anger shoots through me. They can treat me however the hell they want but they’re not going to be mean to Rachel.
“Is there a problem, Judy?” I ask between clenched teeth.
She touches her beads. “No, it’s just.” She turns her attention from me to Rachel. “Cassie’s mother is coming home, and well…”
“Well, what?” I ask, bringing her eyes back to me.
“I…should go. Cassie wants her hair braided.”
“What did you want to ask me, Rachel?”
She hesitates for a second then says, “I’m making lunch and was wondering if you wanted a ham or chicken sandwich.”
“Whatever you make is fine with me.”
Rachel turns to go, and I focus back in on Judy.
“I don’t like that girl trying to be Cassie’s mother,” Judy says quickly, her lips pinched so tight they accentuate the lines on her lips, a gentle reminder that this has all been hard on her too. “Not when she has her own.”
“Cassie’s never had a mother, Judy. Not since the day she was born,” I say flatly, honestly, wanting to get the point across, without gutting her. The truth is Judy is angry, angry that Rachel is here and her daughter isn’t, but no way am I going to let her direct her feelings at the wrong woman. Rachel has been nothing but good to us.
“She’s all Cassie talks about, Jaxon,” Judy shoots back. “It’s not healthy. That child needs stability. Not some barely legal girl who’s going to breeze out of your life as easily as she breezed into it.
