She sighed out her worries. Before, she’d welcomed the quiet of the house and the solitude of her property. Looking out at the surrounding land as they drove, she guessed she’d get used to being alone again.
She refused to acknowledge the voice inside her heart saying, You waited for Dylan to come back to you. He’s here. You can make a life with him.
She told that young girl inside of her, jumping up and down with excitement, to shut up and sit down.
“I don’t know how he managed to keep everything organized. Besides checking in at work, he went home every night to take care of Will’s dinner and bath and put him to bed, and then he came back to the hospital to be with you. If you ask me, I’d say he turned out to be a great dad.”
“Does it make me a bad person that I’m happy someone else didn’t have his baby? Is that stupid? I mean, he adopted a little boy who needed a home and a father.”
“Honey, you aren’t being stupid, and you aren’t a bad person. You’re happy he didn’t fall in love with someone else. I’ll bet you sat up there in your window looking out at the road and the land and wondered a million times if he was with someone else, loved someone else. You probably asked yourself a million times, why not you? Well, I’ll tell you this. I’ve talked to him a lot over the last week and there’s one thing that’s clear. He loves you, has always loved you, and never loved another. Maybe there were other women in his life, he’s a guy, but none of them stole his heart. You already have it.”
Greg wanted to give her an opening to talk about everything that happened the last few weeks. She ignored him and stared out the window as they turned off the highway onto her private road. He stopped at the gate and punched in the code.
She’d had the old fire road leveled and graveled. He drove through the gate and took the curve up the hill to her house. Jessie looked out over the hills and trees as they came to the curve that left them on an open ledge. As far as the eye could see, she had a view of the surrounding unspoiled land. This was where she and Dylan parked on prom night and made Hope.
“Give him a chance to prove he loves you. Give yourself permission to be happy.” Greg’s voice broke into her thoughts of a past she saw in a different light, but still couldn’t change.
“Are you telling me what to do?” she asked, being snotty.
“I’m telling you to give each other a chance to see if the love you both felt years ago is still alive today. Maybe it’s grown into something lasting now. You shared a child. He might have missed seeing her and being with you, but he grieves for her as much as you do.”
“He’s only feeling guilty and nostalgic. He thought I was dead, for God’s sake. He’s just happy I’m alive. He might think he’s in love with me, but now things will settle down. He’ll realize you can’t resurrect the past. Besides, we had one night. That’s all it was. He left as fast as he could without looking back. The only thing linking the past and the present is Hope, and she’s dead. Once he’s had time to grieve, he’ll move on with his life with his son.”
“Who the hell do you think you’re fooling, J.T.? Those are a lot of jumbled-up lies you’re telling yourself. Do you really think he doesn’t know his own mind? The man is in love with you and plans to make you his wife. He’s declared himself, and he’s coming after you. You better be ready, because he’s not the kind of man who takes no for an answer.”
“That’s because no one ever says no to Dylan McBride. He’s always gotten everything he wanted.”
“Including you, so stop fighting it. He wants you and he aims to have you.”
Greg got out of the car and came around to help her out, trapping her between his body and the car.
“You spent the last several years running from every man who tried to get close to you. You haven’t been on a single date or slept with a man since Dylan. For heaven’s sake, let the man catch you. Stop running away from the inevitable. You want him. I see it every time you look at him.”
“Lust got me into this.”
“Lust will get you laid again. It will also help you figure out what you both feel for each other now.”
Conceding a little, she said, “I am having a hard time. Everything I thought was true isn’t.”
“There’s only one thing you have to remember. He loves you both and is torn up about what happened. As devastated as you were by losing her, he’s just as upset, and more so, because he’s lost a daughter and the family he’s always known. I can’t imagine what it’s like for him to know his mother betrayed him the way she did.”