Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“She’s so talented,” Taylor gushes, missing her mom’s condescending tone. “She’s doing Dad’s arm, and she re-created a picture I drew for him when I was little.”
“That’s cute,” Jamie says. “Hey, Taylor, would you mind grabbing my migraine meds from the bathroom? I feel one coming on.”
“Sure.” Taylor rushes out of the kitchen, and the second that Jamie and I are alone, she steps over to me, her eyes narrowed.
“I’m just going to cut to the chase,” she says. “I messed up. I was so busy chasing the next story that I didn’t consider what I had here. But now that I’m back, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I think that’s great,” I tell her. “Taylor’s mentioned that she misses you when you’re gone, and she only has a year left until she leaves for college.”
It will suck, having to deal with this woman on a daily basis, but it will be worth it for Taylor to have her mom in her life—
“I think you’re misunderstanding,” Jamie says, her voice low. “I want my family back.”
She steps closer, and that ball of emotion that was already lodged in my throat damn near chokes me, making it hard to breathe.
She wants her family back. Not just Taylor. She wants Shane.
“I’m sure you can understand where I’m coming from,” she continues. “Had you not been the reason your family is dead, you’d still be with them. But they are because you killed them. But I didn’t kill mine, and after spending this past week with Shane and Taylor, I want a second chance, and since my family is still alive, I can have that.”
Her words cause my heart to clench and tears to prick my eyes, but I blink them away, refusing to let her see that she’s affecting me.
“I know you care about Taylor,” she says, “so I’m hoping you’ll care enough to walk away and let her have what she’s always wanted—a family. It might be too late for you, but it’s not for us. So, I’m asking you, as one mother to another, to walk away and let me put my family back together.”
“Are these them?” Taylor asks, walking back into the kitchen and shaking a pill bottle.
“Yes, thank you.” Jamie kisses her forehead. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Well, lucky for you, you’ll never have to find out,” Taylor says with a giggle.
I stand in the corner, watching them go about putting the finishing touches on dinner as Jamie’s words run on replay in my head.
I hate her for what she said, but at the same time, I can’t blame her because she’s not wrong. If Brandon and Brenna were still here, I would be living in the city with them, and there wouldn’t be anybody or anything that could stand in between them and me.
“Have you thought about moving here?” Taylor asks her mom.
“I have,” she says. “And I think I’m going to look at some places.”
“Oh my God! Yay!” Taylor jumps up and down. “I’m going to tell Dad!”
She runs out of the room, and Jamie glances at me.
“Do you see how happy she is? Do you really want to be the one to destroy her happiness?”
“She’s happy because her mom is staying for once,” I choke out, finally having found my voice. “But you’re missing one important detail—Shane. He loves me, not you.”
Jamie scoffs and sets the ladle down. “And you’re missing one important detail—Shane loved me first, and he would be with me again. The only reason why he won’t consider it is because of you. Because you’re fragile and weak and he feels bad for you.”
“That’s not true,” I whisper, swallowing down my insecurity. “He loves me.”
I know he does. I see it in the way he looks at me and holds me … the little things he does for me, the way he makes love to me. He can’t even go too many days without seeing me.
“He’d get over you.” She shrugs. “I can’t make you do anything, but for the sake of my family, I hope you’ll do the right thing and walk away.”
I hate this bitch so much, but what if she’s telling the truth? Taylor deserves to have her family back together, and Shane did say that it was Jamie who walked away, not him. If I wasn’t in the picture and she stayed, would he take her back?
My stomach roils at the thought of not being with Shane, of raising our baby without him, but she’s right. I had my chance at a family, and even though it was an accident, I lost it. Can I be the reason another family isn’t together? Do I deserve another chance at having a family at the risk of another family not being together?
A few months ago, my answer would’ve been no, I didn’t deserve it. But now, Shane has shown me that I’m worthy of love, of second chances, and as much as I hate that it might mean potentially keeping a family apart, I can’t just walk away.