Page 30 of Thornhill Road

“What? No, Jen, that’s not the point.”

“It istotallythe point. In fact—” She twisted so she was leaning against the armrest closest to me. “I understand your boundaries. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they are absolutely necessary. You can’t get mixed up with a grieving family member. You just can’t. Even if he’s the perfect guy, it ends up being a right place/wrong time sort of situation. Then by the time things could work, they just don’t.

“But in this case—he’s not grieving. He doesn’t seem to care at all.”

“Right, okay, so shouldn’t that be a red flag?” I argued, leaning against my own armrest.

“I don’t know. There are two sides to every story, and it kind of sounds like you haven’t gotten either one.”

'Lived with an alcoholic the first sixteen years of my life. Just in case that shit’s hereditary, never touched the stuff.'

Jenna was kind of right. I still only had fragments of their story pieced together. But from the sounds of it, Mustang had his reasons as to why he’d cut his dad out of his life. I still wasn’t sure if that was enough to justify my actions.

“It just seems messy. Like—sorry your son won’t talk to you, and you’re probably going to die all alone, but I did meet him and now we’re sleeping together.”

With a nod, Jenna conceded, “That’s fair. But, honey…”

She paused long enough for me to realize she hadn’t conceded after all.

“This is going to sound heartless, but it’s the truth. Their relationship is not your responsibility. It’s your job to make sure Ed is cared for and comfortable as he journeys through his last stage of life. In the meantime, you have to take care of yourself, too. If this guy wants you, and you want him, and you think it might go somewhere…”

“What about the fact that he’s a Wild Stallion? He’s like a bad boy on steroids.”

“So, you have a type. Who cares? You’re consistent. You like him, right? I mean, what are you supposed to do, walk into a bank and chat up a loan officer until he asks you out?”

I grinned, and she laughed, knowing she had a point.

“And is it so crazy to think that if he never talks to his dad, but you get the chance to know him a little bit, you could share what you learn about him with Ed? Maybe that could be enough.”

I leaned back in my chair and considered what she said. It felt like a fairytale of an idea.

In a lot of ways, Jenna and I were opposites, but we weren’t always perfect at balancing each other out. We both drew our hope from the same well, and I kind of liked her perspective of my situation.

But I’d snuck out that morning, likely ruining my chances of anything with Mustang.

“We don’t even have each other’s phone numbers. Maybe last night was the start and the end of it.”

“He managed to ask you out the first time without your number…” She shrugged. “All I’m saying is, don’t be so quick to close the door on it.”

“Yeah, and what about you?” I asked, ready to change the subject. “What kind of guy are we going to get to check all your boxes?”

She scrunched her face at me. “Dating issooverrated.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

Except, it wasn’t so bad when it involved a badass biker who owned a badass biker bar and a blue Harley.

Mustang

He woke in bedalone, and he was not happy about it.

He didn’t even have her number, and that pissed him off even more. It made him the cat and her the mouse. There was only one place he knew he could go to catch her, and he didn’t relish the idea of going back there.

If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have bothered.

But he’d had his third look, and she blew his damn mind.

He thought about the way she rested her cheek on his shoulder, melting into him as he pushed ninety on the highway, like she’d done it a million times.

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