AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She fiddled with her hands. “I don’t know if Drake would like that.”
“I know he would. You don’t know how guilty he feels for what happened to your family. He blames himself for destroying your marriage.”
She sat back in her chair, as if she were exhausted and needed respite. “For a long time, I did blame him and Jameson,” she sheepishly admitted.
I tried to keep my facial expressions to myself but surely failed. I was stunned by her admission, to say the least.
“It’s a harsh thing to say, I know. But after Jameson died, I realized it was Cal and I that gave up on our marriage. When he told us to leave, I think he needed me to choose to stay. And when I left, I needed him to chase after me. Neither of us got our wish. We chose not to fight for our family.” She looked up to the ceiling, trying to avoid my gaze. “But I was so tired of the fighting.” She dabbed the corner of her eye.
I grabbed a tissue from a box on the side table nearby and handed it to her.
She took it, still not meeting my eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s come over me. You don’t know me, and I’m sure you don’t want to listen to the ramblings of an old woman.”
Well, if that’s what old looked like, sign me up. She was probably close to seventy but could pass for her mid-fifties. I needed to find out what moisturizer she used. Maybe later. “On the contrary, I would very much love to hear anything you have to say.”
“I’m sure Drake has painted a bleak picture of his childhood.” She held the tissue up to her cheek.
“Actually, he has some very fond memories. I think you would be surprised how his perspective has changed too.”
Her eyes lit up with a bit of hope. “It wasn’t an easy situation for any of us,” she lamented.
I leaned forward, giving her my full attention, hoping she would spill her guts.
“A city girl and a farm boy,” she continued, “may be romantic in books and on TV, but life isn’t a fairy tale with a made-up script. Neither one of us had any idea what we were signing up for.” She gave a weak smile.
“I’m not sure anyone knows what they’re getting at the start of most relationships.” I grinned.
“That’s probably true. Unfortunately, Cal and I were polar opposites. And . . . I came with a child and a lot of baggage from my first marriage.”
“Children make dating interesting, even when you’re dating their dad,” I added my two cents.
“How do Jameson and Drake get along?” She was curious to know.
“Very well. They talk every day. Drake can be surprisingly animated with Jameson. And only Drake can read him bedtime stories now, because apparently, he does the voices better than me.”
Nora smiled. “I’m happy to hear that. I never thought I would see the day that either one of my boys would become fathers. They hated Cal so much,” she sighed.
“You know Drake called him recently?”
Her brow raised. “He’s never mentioned it. Do you know how it went?”
“Well, I imagine it was a lot of dead air. Neither of them is the best communicator, as far as I can tell.”
“You’ve talked to Cal?”
“Yes. I have a bad habit of trying to fix things. Or at least trying to help Drake.”
“He’s lucky to have you.”
“I mean, I think so.” I laughed. “I’m lucky, too, which is why I’d like to keep him. But he really needs to sort out his past. He feels like he doesn’t deserve a family or marriage.”
She clutched the tissue. “I didn’t know he felt that way. I never meant for him to.”
“You all really need to talk.”
She hung her head and let out a heavy breath. “We do.”
“Now that that’s settled, I want to get to know you—because someday I plan on marrying your son.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
It was a surreal moment, watching Jameson talk to his grandma at the table over cookies and milk after school. Thankfully, he took it all in stride. It had to be weird for him to have so many new relatives show up in his life. It probably had something to do with the fact that he thought he might get a second dog out of it. That was a no go. It also didn’t hurt that he loved to talk about himself. Jameson was filling Nora in on every person he went to school with, and how good he was at reading, writing, drawing—and pretty much everything else.
Nora smiled and listened intently to every word. It was like she was soaking in a miracle.
I so badly wanted to talk to Drake, but I figured he was in the air. I was surprised he hadn’t called me before he boarded his flight. Little did he know, I was in the middle of a major plot twist. I had so much to tell him. Nora had opened up to me some more throughout the day over coffee, and while helping Izzy and I string hearts across the ballroom.
