Your Mom
He let out a long breath as if someone had punched him in the stomach. “She didn’t know she was sick yet. I think she found out the following year.”
“What did she die of?”
“Kidney failure.”
I picked up the last one and handed it to him. “She knew by the time she sent this one, though. Maybe this one has what you’re looking for?”
He glanced at me and then down to the card. “I doubt it.”
“Well, let me just say this. She was not a perfect person. She had flaws, like we all do. And you can’t mend fences with her anymore, but you can forgive her.”
His forehead crumpled. “Why would I do that?”
“Because it’ll make you feel better. The Buddha once said that holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
He swallowed and tore open the last envelope without even responding. Then he opened the card, extracted the money and closed it immediately.
“You’re not going to read that one?”
He breathed in and out. “Not yet. I’m not ready.”
I nodded. “Okay. You need a hug?”
His brow furrowed. “No.”
“Can I hold your hand, then?”
He nodded. I slipped my palm inside his rough hand and it closed around mine, holding tight—almost painfully so. I returned the pressure.
We both stared down at the pile of money. “That’s two hundred and sixteen dollars,” I said. “You should go blow it on something fun.”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. How about the Fun Zone in Newport? Or we could go play video games at Dale and Boomers.”
He froze. “It’s crowded there.”
“You still need to work on that.”
He pressed his lips together. Pulling his hand free, he grabbed the money and tucked the thick wad of bills into his wallet. “Dale and Boomers it is, then. Will you go with me?”
“Of course. I’m your friend, right?”
His eyes fixed directly on mine. “I want you to be more than my friend.”
He shoved his wallet back into his pocket and then turned his full attention on me, taking my wrist. The look in his eyes was so intense that I took a step backward.
He took a step forward.
I stepped back again and he followed.
“Jenna,” he breathed.
“Wil—” But I was interrupted when I ran into the wall and his head descended on mine, the grasp around my wrist tightening, the other hand going into my hair.
He wasn’t rough but he certainly wasn’t gentle, and though I found it hot as hell, I had to wonder where this was coming from.
Still, as our tongues tangled and my body heated against his, I was all for forgetting everything but the heated night we shared a few weeks ago when I’d gotten naked with him. All I knew is that I wanted more—I hadn’t stopped wanting more. I’d just stopped pushing for it.
Now, apparently it was his turn.
His chest pressed against mine, his head bent down to my level, his lips teasing and sucking at mine, his teeth nipping. He’d invaded my senses, capturing my desire and turning it against me like a foreign army seizing a fortress. The hand that was on my neck slipped down to grasp my breast, and my nipple rose in happy obeisance to his questing fingers. My eyes rolled back into my head as his whiskered cheek scraped against mine.
Oh goddess. This felt so good. His mouth slipped off mine and he kissed his way across my cheek and down my jaw. “Stay with me, Jenna.”
My first impulse—it was almost on the tip of my tongue—was to say ‘yes.’ But I swallowed and clamped my mouth shut. By that time, my earlobe was in his hot mouth and he was scraping his teeth across it. I almost crumpled against him.
“Say you’ll stay. Promise me.”
“I can’t,” I whispered shakily. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t see each other ‘til I leave…”
He froze, his body as stiff as if it had been carved in stone. Slowly, he pulled his mouth away from my neck.
“I need you to stay.”
I swallowed. “You don’t mean that.”
His face flushed and his handsome features twisted with anger. “Don’t tell me what I mean and what I don’t. You don’t know what’s inside my head,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
I laid a palm against his hard chest, easing him back, but he jerked his hand up and brushed away mine like it was an insect.
“Wil—”
“No, you’re right. Why would I want someone who would just leave when things got difficult? You’re absolutely right.”
He may as well have slapped me. I blinked and my eyes stung.