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“I enlisted when I was twenty. Jax was almost twenty-three at the time and already enlisted. We were living on our own, trying to survive. We were doing okay but we wanted more. We wanted college education and careers. We figured we could join the service and get our education but it turned into so much more. We both have our masters degrees. Mine is in biotechnology and Jax’s is in engineering. But we loved serving in the military as commandoes. We have special abilities and we used those to run and maintain our security company.”
“I’m really impressed and you invented that panic button, too. That is amazing. I don’t even have my bachelors degree yet. I’ve been taking classes when I can, but I’m already twenty-four.”
“You’re young enough and determined to get that degree. You’ll do it. You’re going for a business degree, right?”
“Yes. I want to run my own art gallery one day. But I think now, I’ll settle for just being a director of one. But there aren’t any jobs in that. At least at none of the galleries around here.”
Jameson smiled.
“Maybe something will pop up sooner than later.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“What about you? Any family or old boyfriends that might show up looking to reclaim what’s ours?” he asked as he squeezed her hips then ran the palms of his hands up her chest to cup her breasts. She absorbed the feel of his large hands, and then his fingers pinched the material of her bra, trying to pinch her nipples.
She lowered her head and closed her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel sad. She had asked Jameson to tell her about his life and Jax’s, and now she should share more about her own.
“My dad left my mom when I was three. Not sure why, but she always said he cheated on her and that he was a drunk. But my mom wasn’t any better if that was the case. By the time I was fifteen, she was doing drugs. Prescription drugs actually. I was working by then, waiting on tables and babysitting and trying to go to school. High school sucked because we didn’t have a lot of money and I didn’t have a lot of clothes. Anyway, by the time I started applying for college, her habit got worse and she started bringing home money, telling me that when I was in school she was working.”
Jameson rubbed her thighs again and held her gaze.
“I actually thought she was involved in prostitution. She never brought anyone home but she would get dressed in this very tight, sexy dress and leave. Sometimes for days at a time.”
“What did you do about food?”
“I lived on raw hot dogs and whatever I could bring home from the diner I worked at. The boss was a jerk. He didn’t allow anything to be taken for free and I didn’t want to spend my money. Anyway, in a matter of a few months, my mom got arrested for possession and selling. She was locked up for a while. I would visit her in jail, but then I graduated high school and wanted to go to college. I stuck around here because of her. I guess I hoped that she would get better. You know, maybe wake up and see that doing drugs was wrong and that I needed a mother. No such luck.”
“What happened to her?”
Mariana thought about it. How her mom looked and how she found a dirty needle lying on the tile floor and an empty prescription bottle next to her mom.
Mariana tried to get up off of Jameson’s lap, but he didn’t allow it. He gave her hips a little jerk and a squeeze.
“I want to know.”
“I’ll never forget that day. I came in from working all night. One of the other girls didn’t show and my boss made me work her shift. I needed money for books for college so I stayed. If I hadn’t, who knows if my mom would have shot up and took the pills.”
“What?”
“I found her on the tile floor.”
“Oh, baby. Shit, I’m sorry.”
“She was so gray and old looking. Her hair was greasy. There was a rubber strap around her upper arm and a dirty needle on the floor next to her. There was also an empty prescription bottle. She died from either an overdose or just too many different drugs in her system.”
“I’m so sorry you had to see that, Mariana. I couldn’t even imagine having to witness something like that.”
“It doesn’t matter now. She’s gone and she wasn’t much of a mother anyhow. She left me that damn loan she took out. It was a constant reminder of her habit, her life, and all she hadn’t given to me as a mother.”
“That’s gone now, Mariana. No more bills laying over your head.”
She held his gaze and placed her hands on his shoulders.
“I wish you hadn’t done that. It was so much money and it wasn’t your burden, it was mine.”
“You don’t seem to get it, do you? We care about you. A lot. We take care of those we care about and you needed the help. We don’t want you working so much while you’re trying to get your degree. We want you to have time and energy to be with Jax and I,” he said then winked and smiled.
She couldn’t help but to blush then smile back.
