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“He is. Couple people told me he looks like me,” he laughed.
“Well, you and Tucker are twins.”
He laughed again. “That’s always my answer.”
The door opened again. This time his mom joined them. He opened his arms to her too.
“I’m proud of you, son.”
“Thanks, Mama.”
“Your daddy is proud of you too. Both of you. It takes a big man to own up to his mistakes. Too many people choose to walk away instead. That would have been as much of a tragedy as the one that started all of this.”
Jace wondered when the time would come that he and Tucker would be forced to sit down and talk about it. It had to be soon—he and his daddy were supposed to leave for Crested Butte in the morning. Maybe he should call Billy and tell him they might be delayed for a couple of days.
Blythe was chewing her fingernails, and his mother noticed.
“I’ll go back inside now.” She squeezed Blythe’s shoulder. “Let you two catch up.”
“Thanks,” Blythe looked up at her and murmured.
“How’s my sister?” she asked when Carol closed the door behind her.
“She’s good…I think.”
“I know you talk to her, Jace. She told me about the time you spent together. You can talk to me about her.”
“Yeah, I know. It isn’t a secret.” He laughed. “It. I don’t even know what it is.”
“You’ve helped her.”
“Have I? I don’t have any idea. I was there for her, for a few days anyway, but we didn’t talk much about Zack. We talked around him. More about the things they did together than things about him.” He took off his hat and ran his hand through his hair. “She tells me she needs to do this on her own. That’s another thing I don’t know; what this is.”
“She grew up with Zack. When they met, she was a girl. With him, she became a woman. She expected to grow old with him.”
He knew Blythe was right. And he knew Bree was grieving. But how would she feel months from now? Would she still need him? Would she want him in her life?
Even without it being said, Jace knew he was nothing like Zack. Maybe when she came out of her fog of grief she’d want to be with someone more like Zack.
“She needs time,” he said. “And space.”
“You’re right about that.”
“I feel as though you’re trying to tell me something, in a roundabout way.”
“I think you should consider taking a step backwards.”
She couldn’t have hurt him worse if she’d stabbed him with a knife. “Can I ask why?”
“I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“And there’s a reason you think I’m gonna?”
“I’ve seen you do this more than once.”
Jace wished Blythe would stop talking. He agreed with her; that was the problem. Jace was the fall-back guy. It had happened with Irene when she was trying to sort through her feelings for Billy, after she found out he’d had a baby with another woman.
Then again with Blythe. For a while he believed he was in love with her. Until Tucker came back. And then Jace was left by the wayside. Again.
