Page 20 of Gone Away Home

Mom gasps and covers her mouth with her hand. I can see the apologies in her eyes, but they aren’t necessary. “You sacrificed your happiness for ours,” she whispers, “didn’t you?”

Dustin sighs and nods, but I’m the one to reassure her. “I didn’t know how Dustin felt back then,” I try to explain, “but I did have a huge crush on him. I thought he was the most attractive guy in school, and I spent much of freshman year doodling our names together and daydreaming about being his girlfriend.”

“Is that why you left?” There’s a broken look on Mom’s face as she asks Dustin, “Is that why you decided to enlist?”

“Yes,” he admits, his voice strong and sure, “I couldn’t continue to sit on the side lines and not be able to go after the one person I wanted.”

“You both deserved to be happy. You still do,” I add and Dustin nods in agreement.

“It was probably puppy love,” Thad tries to brush away our feelings and our past. I’m a little surprised, I’ve never known him to be a dismissive man. Even mom looks shocked. “You should have gotten over it.”

“That’s just it, Dad,” Dustin growls, “I never got over it. I missed Zayla like hell every single day and I couldn’t shake the feeling of being lost without her.” He tries to soften his voice, but it doesn’t quite work, “Recently I realized life is too short to have regret weighing me down. And not being with Zayla foryour sakes, or because I was too afraid of judgement, has been the biggest regret of my life.”

“This is disgusting,” Thad sneers and I gasp while leaning back against Dustin’s chest. “I’ll never support you in this and if you insist on parading your relationship,” he sneers the word, “in front of us then I don’t want to be around you.”

Dustin stands up quickly, lifting me with him and making sure I’m steady on my feet before he takes a menacing step closer to Thad. “You better watch what you say to my woman,” his words are dripping with barely contained violence, “I won’t allow you to disrespect her in any way, dad or not.”

The way he’s defending me, not caring who he’s going up against, makes me fall deeper in love with my man. Just another way he’s shown me what love truly means and how he’s in this with me for the long haul.

“You need to leave.” Thad’s face is twisted up in a scowl as he stares at us.

“Oh, please let them stay, Thad,” Mom pleads with him. “We haven’t seen Dustin in years and Zayla doesn’t come around very often either. Please don’t kick them out. Let them stay for dinner.”

Thad looks at Mom and his eyes soften, but I know he’s not going to change his mind. Not now. Maybe not ever.

My heart swells as Mom tries to defend us, but it also scares the hell out of me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Thad would ever hurt her physically, but I don’t want this to be a wedge between them either.

The tick in Thad’s jaw tells me he’s not going to budge on this, no matter how much mom begs.

“We’ll leave,” Dustin sounds almost relieved. His eyes harden, but he doesn’t yell or raise his voice. “Know that when you choose this path it means you’ll be missing out on a lot. You may find you have regrets of your own when you wrap your head around this and get your head out of your ass.”

While I’m sure he wants to hint at how we’re not doing anything to prevent me from getting pregnant, just to twist that knife a little, he holds himself back. I’m thankful since that could turn this awkward situation into something even worse.

As we pass Mom, I kiss her cheek and Dustin does the same. Thad doesn’t say a word, he only watches us walk right back out the door.

The moment we’re back outside, I take a deep breath. Dustin is there to wrap his arm around my shoulders and tuck me into his side.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. We’re going to be just fine. I’ll never apologize for being with you,” his voice soothes some of my frayed edges. “Let’s go home. I’ll cook you something delicious and then you’ll be my dessert.”

“That’s not really an offer I can pass up,” I try to joke, but it falls flat.

“Come on,” he leads me to the car and helps me inside. “I need to worship my woman, and I can’t do it in the car. I’ll cook after.”

Even though that was a horrible confrontation, one there was no way to fully brace for, I’m looking forward to spending tonight as just the two of us for our first Thanksgiving together. He’ll help me forget the shame twisting inside of me.

“No more fear,” he murmurs as he grabs my hand and starts to drive.

“No more fear.”

CHAPTER 9

DUSTIN

There are certain things about Jasper Ridge I’ve always loved. Like right now, as I look around the town square where the giant Christmas tree is being put up while the space is being decorated, everyone is coming together and helping. People are all over the place with smiles on their faces and it’s getting me in the mood for the next holiday even though Thanksgiving was only a few days ago.

When I see Jasper, I give him a chin lift because if it weren’t for him keeping the range closed then I probably wouldn’t be able to be here with my woman. Finding Zayla in the crowd is easy for me. My gaze keeps gravitating toward her, no matter what heavy shit I’m being asked to carry or how high I need to go on a ladder to get something hung exactly right.

She must feel my eyes on her because she turns and gives me a bright smile and blows me a kiss. Fuck, this woman and what she does to me. I wink back at her and hope she can see how I’m just counting down the minutes until we can get out of here and I can bury myself inside of her.

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