Just One Touch (Slow Burn #5)(86)

"Oh my darling baby girl," her mother said, her voice choked with tears. "You have no idea how long I've prayed for this day. I never gave up hope of finding you. I've missed you so much."

"Mama," Jenna whispered, closing her eyes as she clung to the older woman.

When the two finally drew away, one of the buttons on her mother's coat caught on Jenna's wrist and scratched her bare skin.

"Oh I'm so sorry," her mother fretted, wiping at the light scratch evident on Jenna's skin. "That button is forever catching on stuff. I really do need to have it mended."

"It's all right," Jenna said softly. "It's nothing. Really."

"Ladies, please have a seat and we'll order something to eat. Jenna's been so nervous over getting to see you again that I couldn't get her to eat breakfast," Isaac said.

"You must be Isaac," Jenna's mother said, beaming at him.

"Oh, I'm being terribly rude," Jenna said, a flush burning her face. "Yes, this is Isaac. He's . . ." She glanced at Isaac standing so protectively beside her and a flood of love washed over her, her heart aching with the ferocity of the emotions she felt for him.

"He's the man you're in love with," her mother said with a laugh. "Oh darling, that much is very obvious, just as it's obvious he loves you very much as well."

"That I do, ma'am, and it's a pleasure to meet you," Isaac said, leaning to kiss her on the cheek.

Tears were bright in her mother's eyes when she took the seat across from Jenna and Isaac. "I'm so glad she has you, that someone has been here for her when I couldn't be," she said to Isaac. "You look at her the way Jenna's father used to look at me. I was devastated when I lost him and my sweet baby daughter on the same day. I've missed them both every single day of my life."



       
         
       
        

Jenna tensed, and Isaac rubbed his hand up and down her leg as he quietly gave the waitress their order.

"I remember him," Jenna said tearfully.

Her mother looked at her sharply. "You do? What do you remember?"

She smiled sadly at her mother. "My birthday party. It was my fourth, I think. It's the last memory I have of him. He was swinging me around and there was a cake with lots of pink flowers and icing."

Her mother's expression changed to one of anger. "Yes, it was your fourth birthday. And the next day he was killed and you were taken from me."

Jenna lowered her head, staring down at the hand clasped in Isaac's. Her stomach knotted. She was suddenly besieged by nausea and she fought back the urge to throw up.

"Are you all right?" Isaac asked, bending his head so he could look into her eyes.

She nodded, not wanting to worry him even more. "I just need to eat," she said. "I'm feeling hungry. Missing breakfast wasn't such a good idea after all."

"I don't like you missing any meals," he replied with a growl. "I don't like anything that causes you so much upset or worry that you can't eat."

His expression eased into one of relief when the waiter arrived with their food. Jenna had never eaten shrimp, and on the commercials she'd seen for various restaurants as well as on the menu she'd absentmindedly perused, it had looked delicious. After Isaac had patiently answered all of the hundred questions she had about the foods she saw on television, she'd wanted to try the seafood the first opportunity she had. And so she was having a delectable-looking pasta dish with shrimp sautéed in butter and Cajun seasoning.

Isaac and her mother had both chosen succulent-looking steaks, and Isaac cut a piece and offered it to Jenna to try. As they ate, the turmoil in her stomach only grew, but she distracted herself by listening and responding to her mother's excited chatter.

Isaac and the others had expressed the need for Jenna not to disclose any of what had happened after her escape from the cult and certainly not that a dangerous threat existed. The only story Jenna could relate was that she had made her escape days before the unfortunate murder of the rest of the cult and that Isaac had found her and stepped in to protect her, and they'd fallen in love in the process.

Jenna's mother seemed to think the story was wildly romantic, though her expression hardened at any mention of the cult. Her only remarks were that the bastards had deserved exactly what they'd gotten.

"But certainly no threat exists to her now," her mother said to Isaac, prompting him to tense.

"I'm protecting Jenna from anyone whose intention is to hurt or exploit her in any way."