Page 35 of Burning Love
She called him out on being burned, then brought up his mother innocently enough later on.
An idiot could have figured it out.
He supposed that was why he was so confused and willing to let the door to his life open a crack more than it had before.
“Lauren would love to see you settled down,” his father said of his wife. Jace’s stepmother.
Lauren had been nicer and more accepting of him than he would have thought.
Jace knew his presence hadn’t just been a shock to Dean Rigby, but also to his wife and two young daughters.
Then for Dean to secure an apartment so that Jace could finish his last few months of high school in a familiar place was more than most men would do.
He hadn’t planned on going away to college, but made that decision to not have to live with the man and his existing family he barely knew.
If Dean hadn’t given him enough space for them to grow together, he wasn’t sure where their relationship would be.
But it was bigger, better, and stronger than most had with their fathers.
“Kelsey is married and has given you both two grandsons. What more do you want? How about Janey? Does Lauren want her settled too?”
“Janey is only twenty-five. She has plenty of time to figure it out. You’re the oldest.”
“And a lost cause at this point in my life. I’ll help you get the cutter.”
The two of them went to his garage to pick it up and bring it to the bed of his father’s truck.
He thought his father would leave after, but he only followed him into the house.
“It looks great in here,” Dean said. “I want to check out your half bath.”
He moved with his father down the hall. “It was a quick project and nice to have done.”
“You did a great job. You do a great job.”
“I learned from the best.”
He meant that.
That was where his father and he bonded.
Dean had told him he could work for the construction company on school breaks and in the summer or he could get another part-time job, but he’d have to work.
He’d already been working before his father came into his life so it wasn’t a hardship for him.
Rather than find some part-time job where he didn’t have a lot of control over the hours, he gave construction a try to find he enjoyed it.
He needed those demo days to work off some hidden aggression over the changes in his life.
Little by little, his father and he meshed and the past twenty years made up for the first seventeen they weren’t in each other’s lives.
“If you don’t have plans this Sunday, Lauren wanted to have a cookout with everyone. I wasn’t sure of your shift schedule.”
“I get off that morning.” And Talia would be gone for the day too. Might as well get a meal out of it and visit with family.
The two of them hadn’t done much more than send a few texts since she left on Saturday night. He had to work tomorrow and then again on Saturday, getting out Sunday morning.
“We’ll eat later in the day if that works.”
