Page 44 of Embracing the Change

You’re mine.

I take care of those I love.

You’re…

Mine.

Those…

I…

Love.

“Nora,” he called. “Am I being clear?”

“Jamie,” I said quietly, “I can handle Roland.”

“Then handle him, or I will,” he threatened.

I noted he was agitated. Significantly.

And someone shoot me, I couldn’t abide that.

“You need to calm down, honey,” I whispered.

“I will, when your ex is handled.”

I reached out and curled my fingers around his forearm.

“I’m not your mother, darling,” I reminded him carefully.

“I know you’re not,” he retorted tersely.

“Maybe we should talk about your depth of reaction to this,” I suggested. “Roland did not treat me right, but he’s not your father.”

“It isn’t about my father.”

My brows shot up so far, he had to see them over my marvelous, and large, sunglass frames.

“Right, it’s not entirely about my father,” he allowed.

“Then perhaps whatever the rest of it is, is what we should discuss.”

“The first time I met you, you were pouring water down the throat of my drunk and very stoned wife.”

I took my hand from his arm and withdrew into my chair.

“You wanna talk?” he asked, his Texas twang becoming more pronounced, “We’re talkin’.”

“You don’t have to go through that again.”

Evidently, he did, because he kept talking about it.

“In order to deal with her confidence issues in that kind of environment, oh…and the fact she was already well on her way to becoming a junkie, she snorted a good deal of coke, got so high, it freaked her, so she’d already downed a bottle of wine before we even left for the event.”

“Jamie—”

“The next morning, it took a fight the decibel level of which meant our neighbors called the police for her to admit that to me.”

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