Page 116 of Burning Love
Rather than go through the garage, she went to her entrance.
It hadn’t stopped her mother from rushing down the stairs.
“Why are you home? What happened, Talia?”
“He’s such a jerk.”
“What did he do?” Her mother came toward her for a hug.
She stepped back. She didn’t need to cry any harder than she was.
“We talked. He forced it and it went exactly as I thought. Nothing I wanted to hear!”
She ran to her room and shut the door, then dropped on the bed sobbing.
34
ALL THOSE THINGS
Four days later, Jace got out of work, went home and slept for a few hours, then left to drive the two hours to his old hometown.
He pulled into the cemetery and made his way to his mother’s tombstone. He hadn’t been here once since the day they buried her.
Someone put flowers there and cared for the plot.
When he saw the sash that said “wife” on the planter, he knew it was Jeremy. Guess his mother found the love she wanted after all. It was too bad that she didn’t get to experience much of it.
He looked around and wondered what the hell he was doing here.
He’d spent days thinking of what Talia said and trying to figure it out.
She said she wanted him but then wouldn’t consider moving in with him.
Did she want him to say he loved her?
It was probably that. But she wasn’t saying it to him either.
He could barely get her to talk about anything and had to all but trap her into the conversation on Thursday.
That didn’t scream that she loved him. It was hard for a guy to say that the first time if they didn’t think it would be returned.
“Why did you do it?” he asked. He was talking to thin air.
“You messed up so many lives with your decision. You made it harder on yourself. Dad would have never taken me from you.”
He knew that now. His mother had a habit of being impulsive and she had to have been back then too.
There was no going back in time or changing anything.
He had to move on, as his father said.
Exactly what his mother had done when she had to. He realized that his life wasn’t all that messed up.
He might not have ever known his father if things hadn’t turned out the way they had.
He wouldn’t have experienced what love was like in an accepting family.
And he wouldn’t have found Talia.
