Joy nodded. “No, we don’t.”
“We had a really fucked-up childhood. Dad was a drunk. Mum just … she just existed. Didn’t really show us any love, not really.” He lobbed a humorless laugh. “I mean, she wasn’t like Yanna, but she certainly wasn’t warm and loving like you, either.”
Joy smiled. “Everyone has a different idea of what it means to parent. And every parent loves their children in their own way. I’m sure your mother and father loved you and Jordan in their own ways, you just didn’t feel it. Their love was misdirected. Misguided.”
“She defended our father,” Aiden blurted out. “Tried to keep Jordan and me out of his hair so he wouldn’t get mad. But she always made it our fault that he got mad. Not that he was just an angry drunk asshole. But she also enjoyed the prestige that being the mayor’s wife gave her. She worked a lot, too, so wasn’t home much. I guess, I just never really saw what being part of a loving, supportive family was like until I saw the way Rayma and her sisters are with each other. How all of you Harts are. Banding together to take care of your own. Or even an extension of your own like Rayma.”
“Rayma is a Hart as much as any of my sons. She is family,” Joy said, her voice just barely clipped, but enough to drive home the point that there was no extension or adjacentness to Rayma. She was family through and through.
“I see that now. But just the way everyone had come together to help Rayma and Jordan, to protect Rayma, it’s… Nobody in our family, on either side, the Lassiters or the Archambault side banded together to help us—ever. They all left Jordan and me to the wolves. Called us turncoats. After we did what was right. Because it was the right thing to do. Our father never should have gotten away with hitting Dallas.”
“No, he shouldn’t have. You’re right. And the fact that your family all thought he should have is very concerning.”
He sighed. “Anyway, seeing what a real family is like, combined with the guy last night, and I’ve been hit with a few epiphanies.”
“I can see that.”
“Oona and I have slept together again—twice. And although I think we’ve reached a truce, I think I want more. I watched her today as she took control of a situation that was quickly making Rayma spiral. Oona handled it with a cool, sexy confidence that just … mesmerized me. I liked that Oona side of her. She was business-like, but also, patient, and kind. Understanding. She calmed down Rayma and the woman on the phone like a badass.”
Joy simply smiled.
“I want to pursue something with Oona. I mean, there has to be a reason that this has all happened, right?” Wow, he said that out loud. He really was having some epiphanies. Normally, he would be the first to scoff at anything even remotely attributed to the fates or universe.
But the fact that he met Oona, that she was supposed to be his therapist, then they sat beside each other on the plane and were staying under the same roof, had to mean something. Add in the fact that the sex between them was explosive. He couldn’t just ignore that, could he? She lived in Montreal for goodness sake. Of all places. And yet, there they were, working together to save a wedding and repeatedly falling into bed with each other.
Joy’s smile slowly fell. She sipped her coffee. “Have you mentioned this to Oona?”
He nodded. “Yes. She said no. Or, at least she said no in the most roundabout way. Said we should table this discussion until after the wedding.”
“She’s a smart woman. I was going to tell you the same thing.”
“But I think she’ll say no afterward, too, and I don’t understand why. She wanted this, too. Back in Montreal, in her office, she asked me out. So now that I’m asking her out, is she turning me down?”
“That’s a question for Oona. After the wedding.”
“I’m going to go to counseling and anger management.”
“Good.”
“If that’s what she wants me to do. If that’s what I need to do to be with her, I’ll do it.”
Joy nodded slowly and a cunning look of understanding fell across her fine features. “Ah. Did you say this to her?”
“Of course I did. I want her to know I’m serious.”
“Maybe she wants to see it before she believes it. And, having a goal in order to power through challenges is great, but it needs to be more than just ‘getting the girl.’ You need to do the work for you. Not for her. Not for anybody else, but you. Otherwise, it won’t stick.”
He nodded. But he was impatient when it came to Oona. He’d fucked up so much, he just wanted to run to her, find her, and declare his feelings. Apologize and kiss her without any end date on when he could do that. Without any truce or cloaked-hate between them.
“I’m just worried that if I wait until after I’ve done the work, it’ll be too late. That she’ll be dating someone else, or be over me. Not interested or … I dunno. Why can’t I see her and do the work? I’m not that broken. I can still function.”
Joy sipped her coffee and smiled. “I don’t think you’re broken at all, honey. Maybe a little banged up, disoriented perhaps, in need of a tune-up, but you’re not broken. However, and I’m usually one to give facts and not pander to the fates, but, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. And if it’s not, it’s not. And, if you like her that much, shouldn’t you just want her to be happy, regardless of who that’s with?”
Yes.
No.
Fuck.