Page 110 of Other Side Of Never
Once again, I was putting my life on hold for someone else’s wishes and wants.I needed to make this decision on my own.
Though it was twice the size of Sage Ridge, their little shoppe was still in a small town, which I loved.The finances for the chocolatier were impeccable, and they seemed to have a healthy regular clientele as well as contracts with several businesses in the area.
But if I took it, I wouldn’t be here to see Harley’s baby born, or Noelle’s, or Nadine and Aaron’s.
Chances were I’d barely see them at all because retail hours were brutal.
And what about Jakey?
This would put another two hours between us.Based on that alone, I couldn’t do it.
I wouldn’t do it.
Which led me back to my first question.
Folding my arms over my head, I leaned back on the pillows and squeezed my eyes shut.
When my cell phone rang, I snapped it up hoping it was him.“Hello?”
“Mom?”
My stomach twisted violently.“Jakey?”
“I’m at the train station.”He hesitated.“I know it’s late, but can you come get me?”
I rolled off my bed and grabbed a hoodie.“Tell me exactly where you are, and I’ll be on my way.”
I looked at my watch.By the time I got there, it would be close to midnight.He’ll have been sitting at the train station by himself in the middle of the night for over an hour.
With that thought, I was mentally back at the zoo, running from one security guard to the next, screaming about my missing child.
“It’s okay,” I murmured to myself as I grabbed the nearest pair of shoes I could find.“He’s not a baby anymore.”
Knuckles white on the steering wheel, my mind blanked.I focused on the road ahead as I drove to pick up the child of my heart.
Which brought to mind the little Iceman who melted it.Because with Jakey here?Gary was soon to follow.How could I bring Gary’s toxicity into Kian and Isaiah’s life?
And Kian just got Aaron back in his life.Would he have room for Jakey who’d been toyed with like a pawn his entire life?Jakey couldn’t take more rejection.
Considering how little I’d heard from Kian, was it even an issue?
Spotting Jakey’s lanky form slouched on a bench, his baseball cap pulled low over his face, I pulled over to the curb, jumped out of the car, and ran around the front to embrace him.
“Are you okay?What happened?”
Pushing him back, I looked him over.
He grabbed my hands and squeezed.“I’m okay, Bridge.”
Back to Bridge.
“Where’s your car?Why didn’t you drive?”
He looked at me quizzically.“That was my buddy’s car, not mine.”
Between the shock of his phone call, my disbelief that he was here, and the certainty that I could feel Gary breathing down my neck, I didn’t breathe easy until I got him in the car.“You want to tell me what happened on our way home?”
“Home,” he scoffed.“I don’t even know the meaning of the word.”
