Page 73 of A Series of Rooms
He moved, stepping past Liam and closing his hand around the doorknob. It was as if there was a magnet connecting his heart to hers, a bond pulling him toward her that no amount of time passed or betrayals committed could have broken. It fueled his body with the courage to push the door open and step inside.
“Mom?”
She turned instantly. The eyes that stared back at him were sunken into the ghost of a face he had once known better than anyone’s. It was so different and every bit the same as he remembered, and both realizations ached.
“Jonah.” Her voice was a wispy nothing from behind her fingers.
Standing before her, even sheathed in the bulky material of his oversized sweats, Jonah was stripped down to the bone. It was as if every memory was painted onto his skin, an open gallery of his shame. Regret knocked into him, nearly staggering him back. He was overwhelmed by the urge to fold into himself and disappear.
This had been a mistake. How could he have ever thought there was a chance they could come back from this?
She took the first step forward, leading with a hand outstretched, but it dropped to her side before she made contact. “Your face,” she whispered.
He didn’t know what to say.“It’s not as bad as it looks,”would have been a lie.“I’m okay,”would have been an even more egregious one. Before he could grasp at a response, her gaze trailed higher.
“Your hair,” she said.
He reached up to run his fingertips over the short, soft buzz. It had taken a long time to get used to, but even longer since he had really thought about it. Shepard had made him shave it the first time he’d caught lice from a client’s dingy hotel room.The last thing I need is another outbreak in the house.Jonah had felt so filthy, like a plague of disease to the others. He had kept it short after that.
“It will grow back,” he said, hating how it sounded like an apology.
As if hearing his voice broke the final thread of her control, she closed the distance and threw her arms around Jonah, startling him to momentary stillness. His arms hovered close without touching, eyes wide and blinking over her shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” she cried against his chest.
They were the words he had wished for. Words he had long abandoned hope of ever hearing. Now, on the receiving end of them, after too much time, he only felt numb.
Could it really have been that simple? After all this time, could she really cross the wasteland between them in only a few steps?
Torrents of conflicting emotion warred inside him as his hands came to rest on the back of her sweater. He caught Liam’s eyes over her shoulder, an unobtrusive observer against the far wall. Liam smiled at him, but Jonah thought he sensed a current beneath the surface; something wary and concerned.
When his mother’s legs buckled beneath her, it was Jonah who was left to hold their weight off the ground.
CHAPTER 33
Jonah
Liam,
Went out to get some air.
Be back soon.
Your friend,
Jonah
He left the note on the nightstand, just as he had the first night they met.
He still remembered it well: sitting up with the rising sun to watch a stranger sleep while the clock ran out. He remembered hating having to write the note, knowing he had to run back to a life outside of that room when morning came.
Jonah wasn’t running now. Not far, anyway. The hotel had a rooftop accessible to guests, and Jonah neededspace to breathe.
He was careful not to wake Liam, stepping noiselessly across the carpet in his socked feet. In the hallway, he moved quickly past the row of doors, knowing his mother lay sleeping behind one of them, Agent Ellis in another.
The reunion had taken more out of Jonah than he’d had to give. There was already more than a year of distance between him and his mother, but the one thing Jonah craved most, once they’d both gotten their bearings, was space.
He was grateful when she had opted to get her own room for the night, but a part of him couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t the only one who needed a moment.
