Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (211 page)

"Your father actually changed his name back to his birth name.  Forrest Brewster was the name his parents gave him when they took him away.  He was born Craig Sheffield."

"Oh."

"Your grandparents were very adamant about him not having anything to do with Selana.  He died of a heart attack.  He always took on so much stress and he never could quit smoking."

Jess felt a little guilty that she'd taken up his habit.  "So I get that he went back to her.  But why didn't he want to see me?"

"He sent cards, letters.  I didn't think you could handle it.  I was going to tell you before you left for school.  But you walked away and never came back, never called.  Ned paid for your cell phone for almost a year after you left."

Sure he had, Jess thought.  Though her mother had went to accounting school after her father had left, Ned had always taken care of the bills, the checking account.  It made her wonder how long he'd been planning to get her out of the picture.  She'd tossed the cell phone in a dumpster about an hour away from home the morning that she'd left. 

"You never told me that my father wrote me letters?  Did he want to see me?"

"Jess, I'm sorry.  Maybe I didn't make the right choice.  But I never imagined that you wouldn't have a second chance with your father."

"Yeah.”   She was so pissed that her mother hadn't told her it almost made up for the worry her mother must have felt at not knowing where she was all these years.

"Selana needs to get a hold of you.  Your father left you some money in his will for college.  Or by now you could use it to get a new car.  Or put a down payment on a house."

"Yeah, sure.  How much?" 

Not that she really cared, but she was curious.

"It's about thirty-five thousand now with interest I believe.  Selana can give you the exact numbers."

"Thirty-five thousand dollars?"

"Yes.  He felt terrible about walking away from you."

"Uh huh.”

"He did.  He never stopped loving you baby.  Do you think you could make it up to your grandparents next summer?  Grandpa's not doing well.  He's practically blind now because of his diabetes.  Grandma is going to be lost without him.  I don't know how much time either of them has left."

"I'll try to make it up.  Will Ned be going with you?"

"No, he has to work.  Why?"

"No reason."  Not one that she could explain anyway she thought.

"Do you have a number where I could call you?  I'd like to keep in touch."

"No phone, no.  I have an e-mail address."

"Is it still the same?  I can send you pictures, the information to get a hold of Selana."

"No, I changed it a while back."  She'd been dumb enough to let too much information out on a social network and some creep had been bothering her for months.  She gave her mom her new e-mail address.

"Honey?"

"Yes Mom?"

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful to hear from you because I'm certainly not, but why are you calling now after all this time?  Are you getting married?  Are you pregnant?"

"No Mom.  I'm not pregnant or getting married anytime soon.  I met someone that was stubborn enough to make me call you."

Daylin chuckled.

"Well, thank them for me will you?"

"Yeah."

"I need to let you go hon.  The kids are about to go stir crazy.  I love you.  You know you can always call me if you need anything right?  I'll try to get that e-mail to you later this afternoon after Ned gets home from his golf game."

"Okay.  I love you too Mom.  Could you do me a really big favor?  Not tell Ned that I called."

"Why honey?  He's been as worried about you as I've been."

Sure he had been she thought.  "It's a long story Mom.  Please do this for me."

"Jess is there something that you need to tell me?"

"No Mom."

"Are you sure honey?"

She knew what was running through her mother's mind must be along the lines of what Daylin had originally thought, but it would harm her mother more than help her now if she told her the reason she'd really left.  His kids weren't in any danger of being thrown out when they turned eighteen because they were his kids Jess thought.

"Yes Mom.  I'm sure.  Give the kids, I mean my brother and sister, a hug and a kiss for me.  I'll talk to you soon okay?"

Maybe when Ned was at work she thought.  She wasn't sure how long her mom could keep it from him that she'd called though.

"Okay honey.  I'll talk to you later.  Call Selana soon please."

"Yes Mom.  I love you.  Bye."

"Love you too, honey.  Bye."

She hung up the phone and fought the urge to throw it against the wall.  She was highly upset at her mother.  But it had been so good to hear her voice.

She turned to Daylin and almost immediately started crying.  It was just too much.  He held her while she cried.  Stroking her hair, her back.  Much as her mother had done when she was a child. 

When she was finally done she looked up at him and gave him a weak smile.  "I'm sorry.”

"No need to apologize darlin’.  You wanna talk about it?"

"Not right now.  Hey, weren't you supposed to take Cameron and Lucy to lunch?"

"Shit.  I'm cooking because those two get real expensive real quick, especially Lucy.  Thanks for reminding me.  I need to get started.  They're going to be here anytime."

She followed him out to the living room where he immediately deposited her on the couch though she'd offered to help him fix lunch.

He'd finished making lunch and Lucy and Cameron still hadn't shown up.  He joined her on the couch.  A brief kiss turned into a major make out session with her perched on his lap when the door burst open half an hour later.

She almost jumped back from Daylin, face on fire as Cameron grinned at her.  "Nice to see you Jess."

"Don't you knock Cameron?" Daylin said.

Cameron grinned again.  "We're family man.  Who needs to knock?  Besides, you were expecting us."

"Yeah, like an hour ago," Daylin said.

"I'm starving," Lucy suddenly cut in.

"Go, help yourselves," Daylin said.

Jess had been wondering how she was going to manage to refasten her bra, when Daylin suddenly reached behind her and fastened it for her.  He kissed her again, and though it was brief Cameron said from the kitchen "Get a room.

"We have a perfectly good one that we plan on making good use of as soon as you leave Cam." Daylin grinned.

"Do we?"  Jess said.

"Yeah," Daylin murmured suggestively into her ear.  "I think we do."

She smacked him in the butt on the way to the kitchen.  He laughed.

"I hope you like burritos.” 

"Sure.”

Once her plate was finished she sat down at the table.  Daylin was still standing at the microwave, warming up his burrito.  Cameron said "So, he convinced you to stay for a while then, huh Jess?"

"Not exactly.”

"I think you should at least stay for the weekend," Daylin said.  "It's not that easy to find a place over the weekend."

"Then I'll stay in a motel."  She wouldn’t look at him as he sat down next to her.

"Jess," he started.

She didn't want to discuss this in front of Lucy and Cameron.  She really didn't want to discuss it all she thought.  "So when are you two getting married?" she asked Lucy.

"Um," Cameron said. 

"He won't let me set a date."  Lucy gave Cameron a dirty look as she helped herself to handful of tortilla chips from the bowl in the middle of the table.

"Baby, we gotta have money for a wedding, for a honeymoon, for a house."

"I told you I didn't need anything fancy," Lucy said.

Daylin snorted.  "Right.  Ya'll are going to be in debt until you're a hundred paying for your not fancy wedding."

"Shut up Daylin," Lucy said.  "Nobody asked you."

"Cameron did when he asked me to loan him the money for that ring on your finger."

"Daylin," Cameron said. 

"Oops," Daylin said.  "Wasn't I supposed to tell her?"

Cameron gave him a dirty look and kicked him under the table.  "Asshole."

"That's me man."  Daylin gave Jess a look.

"If we win a lot of money tonight babe, will you let me set a date?"  Lucy said.

"Sure."  Cameron gave her a weak smile.

Daylin raised an eyebrow.  "The odds on that one sound great."

"No negative energy Daylin.  This is going to be the second luckiest day of my life.  I can feel it.  The first of course was when I finally convinced Lucy to go out with me."

Lucy leaned over and gave Cameron a kiss.  "You're so sweet baby."

Daylin rolled his eyes.  "You wouldn't think he was so sweet if you heard the things he used to say about you before you finally said yes to him."

"Daylin what the hell is your problem?"  Cameron said.

Daylin sighed.  "I'm sorry.  It's just that I met a woman who should be a part of my life and all she wants to do is run away from me."

All eyes turned to Jess.  She wanted to hide under the table.

Cameron cleared his throat.  "Do you two want to come up to the casino with us?"

"I think we'll pass," Daylin said.  "I wouldn't want to spoil your good vibes."

"I guess we'd better get going then."  Cameron sounded uncomfortable. 

"Good luck," Daylin said. 

"Thanks."  He held out his hand to Lucy and helped her up from the table.

"It was nice meeting you Jess.  Hopefully we'll see you again sometime."  Lucy said. 

There was something in her eyes, something that passed between her and Daylin that was different from the secretive look that they'd shared the night before.  It was like she meant what she said.  Jess did not understand these people at all.

Daylin followed Cameron and Lucy to the door, coming back to the kitchen after they were gone.  She was standing at the sink, rinsing off the plates.

"You don't need to do that," he said. 

"I should do something.  You let me stay here for nothing.  You wouldn't let me help you with lunch."

"You gave me a lot more than nothing Jess.”

She wanted to scream.  She wanted to tell him to stop trying to make her feel something she couldn't feel.

"Yeah.  Do you think I could use your computer?  My mom was supposed to send me some pictures and things."

"Sure.”

She followed him to the living room.  He opened the laptop and turned it on, signing onto his internet connection.  He pushed it over towards her.  She started to type in the address of her e-mail provider.  She had to laugh when the browser thought she wanted to go to a porn site.

"What?  Oh.  Sorry.  My mom told me I was disgusting when she borrowed my computer when she was first diagnosed with cancer."

"Your mom has cancer?" she said as she signed into her e-mail account.

"Yeah.  She's dying.  My dad has taken it almost as bad as she has.  I don't know what he's going to do without her.  But do they listen to me when I try to help her?  No, they call me a druggie when I haven't done the shit since college."

"What shit?" 

She was scrolling through her e-mail, beginning to think her mother had forgotten to send the pictures or hadn't had time to send them.  Then she noticed a message from 'momof3mssnJess' and realized that her mother had changed her e-mail address.  She felt a little pang, and turned to Daylin, wondering how someone could possibly go through so much pain.  He made her troubles sound almost petty.

"Marijuana.  It could help her with the pain at least.  I gave her about a hundred articles but neither of them will listen."

"That's sad.”

"Yeah."  He looked away.

She lit a cigarette and opened the e-mail.  The text just gave her grandparents address and phone number which she already knew since it hadn't changed since she was young, and her stepmother's physical and e-mail addresses and phone number.  The rest was pictures.  The address for Selana told her that her father hadn't gone back to the town he'd grown up in.  There wasn't much point in staying here now, but she wasn't going to tell Daylin that.  She figured that it would be easier for both of them if she slipped off into the night.  She figured it wouldn’t take Daylin long to forget about her.  She was beginning to wonder how long it would take her to forget about Daylin though.

The first picture was a scanned copy of her father's funeral announcement.  She had to swallow over the lump that rose in her throat.  It cemented that he was really gone.

There were pictures of her mother and the kids, family pictures with Ned, birthdays, school pictures.  She smiled a little at the side by side pictures of her in the blue dress and Sienna in hers.  Her sister.  It still felt very strange to think of herself as a big sister.