Page 70 of The House on Blueberry Lane

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

JAYE DREW IN a long labored breath as he and Velvet finished their warm-ups. The outfit she was wearing was so hot-looking, he was panting before they even started the chore of loosening up their muscles. Although, there was a certain part of his anatomy that couldn’t loosen up. Instead, he could feel it getting hard every time he caught sight of her.

As they took off jogging toward the fields, keeping a steady pace together, he looked at her. “Is your outfit new?”

A smile stretched her lips, lips he enjoyed devouring every chance he got. “Yes. It was a thank-you gift from Ruthie for helping out with her shower.”

“She did a great job selecting that outfit for you. You look great in it.”

“Thanks.”

They didn’t say anything for a minute and then he said, “I went to see my mother a while back.”

Velvet stumbled and he was convinced she would’ve fallen if he hadn’t reached out to steady her. “You found her?”

“She wasn’t lost, Vel. Not really. Since my college days, I’ve known where she was and how to get in touch with her if I wanted to. I never did. Neither did Dean or Franklin.”

“I didn’t know.”

“The reason you didn’t know was because I didn’t tell you. That was another mistake on my part. I should have shared more with you instead of holding it in.”

Velvet was quiet, and Jaye wondered if she was remembering all those times she’d tried getting him to talk about the mother who’d deserted him, his father and his brothers. One thing she did know about him was that he never displayed much emotion. For years, he’d thought that was a sign of weakness and made a point to keep his emotions in check. Whenever she’d broach the subject of his mother, he’d clam up.

“She’s living in Texas with her fourth husband. Husband number two, the one she ran off and left us for, passed away after ten years of marriage. However, he left her pretty well off.”

“Who was he?”

He remembered what his father had told him. “She met him at a department store of all places. He had a wife and she had a family. After they sneaked around, having an affair for six months, he decided to divorce his wife and she decided to ditch her husband and children. She divorced Dad, then the two of them moved to Texas.”

After they rounded a bend in the trail, he said, “He died of a heart attack ten years later. Within a year, she married husband number three, a man twelve years younger. He nearly broke her financially. Husband number four was her divorce attorney.”

Velvet eyed him. “She told you all that?”

“No. When I got older, Dad told me about husband number two. And before deciding to go see her, I hired a private investigator. He supplied information on the others. I wanted to be prepared, to know all there was about her.”

“Were you prepared?”

He didn’t say anything for a minute and then admitted, “Not as much as I’d have liked.”

Jaye saw they had already covered the first lap and were back at their starting point. “It’s time for you to split to get dressed for work. Let’s finish this conversation this evening over wine and sitting in our rocking chairs.”

She smiled. “I’d like that, but don’t forget I have gymnastics class after work. Then I’m joining Sierra and Teryn for dinner at the Green Fig.”

“Alright. Thanks for the reminder. I have a dinner meeting with Reid and Vaughn at the Lighthouse.” Since moving here, he’d discovered the cove’s lighthouse-turned-restaurant was one of the best places for fine dining, and you had to make reservations weeks, sometime months, in advance.

There was no need to tell her he was meeting with them to discuss his offer to buy the first piece of oceanfront property in Reid’s new development, and his plan to give it to her, hopefully, as a wedding gift.

“I understand Reid and his wife are leaving on a cruise this weekend,” Velvet said.

“Yes. They’ll return for Vaughn and Sierra’s wedding, and then they are leaving again to take their granddaughters to Hawaii for their college spring break.”

“Sounds nice.”

“Yes, it does.”

When Velvet leaned toward him and tilted her mouth up, he knew what she wanted but teased her by planting a kiss on her cheek. She frowned. “Enough with those cheek or brush-of-the-lips kisses whenever we jog, Jaye. Why are you holding back when I know you can do better than that?”

He grinned. “Can I?”

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