Page 145 of Taeja

Damon laughed as he sat beside his mother. “Do you need me to find the news channels?”

“No. The news doesn’t keep me entertained,” she said as Zain sat on her other side. She glanced at him as he propped his feet up on the table, her brows creasing. “Are you tired?”

“No, Mom,” Zain answered.

“I’m tired,” Damon said, kicking his feet up on the table and yawning.

Kacian slapped his shin with the remote. “Take your dirty shoes off my table.”

Damon hissed, yanking his foot back. Rubbing the throb, he glared as Zain covered a laugh with a cough. “You’re driving.”

“Where are you going at this time of the night?” Kacian pried as she shifted her focus to the TV. “Going to look for Taeja?”

“No. She lives with us now.”

Kacian smiled. “I’m getting grandbabies soon?!”

“No,” Damon said with Zain almost simultaneously.

Kacian’s joy dwindled. “I’m fifty-years-old and neither of you have given me a grandchild. Are you going to wait until I can’t remember my name? Or does she want to wait until marriage?”

Damon cleared his throat as he stopped rubbing his shin. “We haven’t talked to her about kids yet.”

Kacian sighed, gently taking Damon’s face between her aged hands. “You haven’t told her yet, have you?”

Grief’s cold fingers tightened around Damon’s heart, pulling his face away from Kacian’s comforting touch. He managed not to think aboutitfor the past few hours, but the memories resurfaced. “No.”

“You need to tell her about Eloise.”

He sighed and focused on a family picture resting on the mantle. Zain’s eyes were staring through him, but he brushed it away as he spoke. “I will, but it’s hard for me to talk about El.”

“I know you loved El, but she’d want you to move on and be happy. It’s not fair for you to string along Taeja.”

“I’m not stringing her along. Taeja knows I love her.”

Kacian froze. As she recovered, her tone became lighter. “That’s great, Damon. If she loves you too, I’m sure she won’t have any hard feelings about El. And if she does, she isn’t the one for you. For either of you.”

A strange feeling settled in his chest. It wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t anger.

It was sadness.

Taeja brought him joy in ways he thought he couldn’t feel again. She truly cared for him and if he didn’t know before, earlier today proved it.

The thought of her not being ‘the one’ and finding someone else… it genuinely made him sad.

“She’s the one,” he stated. “It’s just that… Taeja loves love. I know we haven’t talked to her about certain things yet, and we should because she’s putting in the effort to be a good girlfriend to us. But what if she doesn’t look at me the same when I tell her I was married? You should’ve seen her face when I told her I loveher.” He smiled at the memory. “Her eyes were so bright, and she had this big, beautiful smile that lit up her face. She said I’m her first for a lot of things, and I feel like it’ll hurt her to know that she isn’t the first one that I—”

“I understand.” Kacian placed her hand atop his thigh, squeezing it. “But you should tell her that, not me. The only thing I can tell you is what I said earlier: El would want you to be happy. It’s been years. She wouldn’t want you living this way. You can’t block your future by living in the past.”

Her last words grabbed his attention. ”You think Taeja’s our future?”

Kacian nodded. “I haven’t heard you talk about anyone like this since El. You didn’t even talk likethisabout El. And for you—” She looked at Zain. “Anyone who has tolerated you for this long has to be the one for you.”

Zain looked from Damon to scoff at Kacian. “I’m hard to deal with?”

“Sometimes,” Kacian said. “I’m your mother. I’m always right.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Damon said, standing. “Tell Dad goodnight. We’re leaving.”

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