Raffe rushes in with Jackson right behind him. He makes a motion for his son to let him handle this.
Jenny begins to shake her head as she plasters herself against the wall. “No. No, you can’t be real.” She grabs her head. “I’ve made this mistake before. I’m just making all of you up in my mind.”
Brody peeks his head in the backdoor, letting me know he’s watching Aspen outside. Jenny drops her hands, holding them out in front of her as Raffe slowly inches closer.
“I want this to be real, but I know it’s not,” she tries to reason with herself, like none of us are in the room with her.
Raffe wraps his hands around hers. She tries to pull away, but he doesn’t release her. It reminds me of the day he found me hiding under Miss Maggie’s front porch. He didn’t let go of me either. And I’m so glad he didn’t.
“Look at me, Jenny.”
Her gaze frantically bounces around the kitchen, looking everywhere but at him.
“Is this because I touched your butt?” he asks.
Jackson makes a disgusted noise. “Eww, why would you do that?”
Jenny finally looks at Raffe.
“Because it’s the cutest darn butt I’ve ever seen,” Raffe answers his son honestly.
Again, Jackson makes a gagging noise. It makes me smile, because the two of them play so well off of each other. It seems to be working because the color is slowly coming back to Jenny’s face.
Jackson places his hands on his hips. “Well, I don’t know if you should be talking about my mom that way.”
“Get used to it, Son, because I’m never going to stop.”
Jenny blinks at Raffe, and her lips slowly part. A tiny puff of air escapes her.
For a second I worry about how Jackson might react to his dad’s bold admission, but a small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.
“Ugh, can you at least keep it to a minimum around me? No one wants to hear or see their parents’ love life.”
“I’ll try,” Raffe tells him, his gaze still locked on Jenny’s.
Jackson waves for me to follow him outside. “Well, I guess I’ll go finish up. Just … no more butt touching.”
When we get outside, we both turn to creep on them through the window.
“What’s going on?” Brody asks from behind us. He’s sitting on the ground, letting my daughter stuff little flowers into his beard.
“Dad is making his move,” Jackson says excitedly.
“What? I thought she was freaking out?”
“She was, but Raffe isn’t having it,” I tell him. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for her. She’s been alone for so long. I really think she thought we weren’t real.”
Brody stands and hurries to the window to see for himself what’s going on. He brings Aspen with him. They both press their noses against the glass.
Raffe pulls Jenny close, keeping one of her hands in his while he releases the other to wrap his arm around her torso. He begins to slowly dance her across the floor. His lips are moving close to her ear, and I wonder what he might be whispering to her.
It’s strange seeing him so close to someone other than Rachel, but they’re moving as if they’re one. I pull my gaze away to look at Jackson. His eyes meet mine.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” I ask him.
He brushes his thumb over my cheek. “I guess my dad and I are more alike than I thought. We’re both suckers for beautiful women who hide in the woods.”
Brody chuckles at that.
