Page 74 of A Montana Secret Admirer
Shock morphed to disgust then fury as his eyes bounced from his mother to Reese and back. His small hands balled into fists, and tears brimmed his eyes as his face turned a bright red color.
“Tegan—” Serenity started toward him, but Reese took her hand. Out of desperation or something else, he couldn’t be sure, but he couldn’t let her go, not like this. Her sharp stare shifted from where he held her to his face. The conflicting emotions he read in her eyes said it all. She cared for him… but she needed to think of her children first. “Reese, I’m… sorry… I have to…”
He released her like the touch of her skin burned his. He blinked back his own terror and emotion as she took a step away from him. Then resolve flooded his veins. “I can come, too.”
“No.” Her response was sharp, biting, and it made his head rear back with surprise.
“But—”
“He’s my son, Reese. I need to handle this.”
The words she didn’t have to say out loud were more than clear.You’re not part of this family. You don’t have any power here. He doesn’t belong to you.
Would he ever?
The knot of pain in the back of his throat continued to grow. All he could do was nod and take a step back. She didn’t tell him that she’d call him. Nor did she promise that they’d finish what they’d just started.
Tegan took precedent, and he understood it completely.
What about her own happiness? He couldn’t figure out where she was about that. Maybe she wasn’t ready to think about it after all.
And where did that leave them?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Serenity’s heartwas still beating ferociously against her rib cage when she finally found Tegan hiding beneath the kitchen table. The thundering in her chest had little to do with being caught by her son. It had less to do with the rushing through the house as she shout-whispered his name to no avail.
It had everything to do with what had just happened between herself and Reese out on that front porch. Reese was her secret admirer. He was the one behind the sweet notes and the flowers. Of course he was. She wasn’t stupid. She’d figured it out early on—she’d simply let her doubts cloud her judgments like she had a habit of doing.
Serenity shrugged off that thought as she crouched down beside the table and peered at her oldest son in the dark. Right now was not the time to figure out what she was going to say to Reese the next time they spoke. There was too much to think about when it came to him. She’d have to finally tell him what she’d been planning—about her new job and the handful of places she’d looked into renting.
“Hey, bud,” she whispered. She’d worn a dress, and climbing beneath the table wasn’t going to do her any good in the outfit that currently adorned her body. Still, there was no one else present, and she needed to have this talk that she’d been putting off for too long. She cleared her throat and fought the instinct to be embarrassed for showing another man such affection. Tegan remembered what it had been like for their family when his dad was still alive and she worried what he thought of how things had chanced. “What’s the matter?”
Tegan’s face was buried in his knees. His arms were wrapped around his legs as he sat huddled between two chairs. He sniffled, but he didn’t look up at her.
“Tegan,” she whispered, inching closer. She scooted toward him, her own legs bent at an uncomfortable angle. “You can tell me anything. You know that, don’t you?”
This time, his head snapped up, and he glowered at her. “What about Dad?”
She gritted her teeth. This was what she’d figured he’d be upset about, and yet it still hurt her to hear him talking about Finn like he was going to come home any day. Serenity sighed and dropped her focus to the flower that was still in her hand. “I still love your father, Tegan.”
“No, you don’t.”
Shutting her eyes tight against his words, she focused on not crying. She couldn’t let him see how much his words cut to the quick. “Yes, I do. And I always will. Every time I look at you and your brother I remember your dad and how much he loved us.”
“Then why were you kissing Reese? He’s not Dad. He doesn’t love you.”
Somehow, those words stung even more. Reese had never said he loved her. They hadn’t gotten to that point in their relationship. She twirled the stem between her fingers and thumb. Did he love her? Or was this a sort of escape for him until he figured out what he wanted out of life? That training program was the one thing she had noticed lit him up from the inside out. He was passionate about it.
And yet that kiss they’d shared—many of the kisses they’d shared—made her want to believe that he cared for her more than he was letting on.
She sighed. “Love takes a long time. I was with your father from the time I was in high school. Our love is so deep, so strong, that nothing is ever going to break it. Not even if I fall in love with someone else.” She risked looking up at Tegan, not surprised to see the loathing still written on his face.
“You love him?”
Did she? Serenity certainly had feelings for him. She was moving out to Rocky Ridge, wasn’t she? But that wasn’t for Reese. That decision was because she loved it here. She’d found something out in the country that she hadn’t had in the city. Finn had made her happy. He was her other half. But being in this small town had given Serenity a different sort of happiness that she couldn’t find back home. It brought with it a sort of peace—like she knew everything would be okay.
She cleared her throat. “I don’t know, bud. I might.”
