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“Come on. I get it. Parker’s great. We all know it. But I kind of got the feeling that there was something else on your mind.”
“Okay, it’s not a big deal, but…” Sighing softly, she wiped her hands. “Your aunt is a handful.”
The bark of laughter was out as relief washed over him. “Is that all? Sweetheart, that is old news. Trust me. Anyone who has ever met Aunt Georgia says the same thing.”
“No, it’s…I mean, it’s not always a bad thing. She just has a lot of ideas and opinions and she has no problem voicing them. Most of the time, I think Parker wants to muzzle her, but she’s too sweet to actually do it.”
“You pretty much hit the nail on the head there.” Grabbing a napkin, he wiped his own hands. “When we’re all at Aunt Susannah’s next weekend, you’ll see the true family dynamic. Plan to see a lot of eye rolls where Aunt Georgia is concerned.” He paused. “Although…she has definitely mellowed. From what I’ve heard—and I’ve been gone for a long time—it seems like ever since my cousins all started getting married and engaged that she’s become a lot less…bitchy? Yeah, I think bitchy is the word.”
She shook her head and studied her plate. “So, um…there are going to be a lot of people there, right? Like…you have a lot of cousins.”
“We have definitely grown a lot in the last ten years,” he replied as he leaned back to get comfortable. “And you’ll probably get confused with all the names and who’s married to who and all that, but the most important thing about that day will be to relax and have fun.”
“It’s nice that Susannah wanted to do this for Cash. I don’t think he expected that.”
As much as his father was the last thing he wanted to talk about right now, he supposed it would be weird if they didn’t mention him at least a little. After all, he was the reason the two of them had met.
“I don’t think anyone actively hated Cash,” he began slowly. “Mostly they were disappointed in him for packing up and leaving.”
“Oh, come on. Are you saying you, your brothers, and your mom didn’t hate him?”
He shrugged. “I guess, although it sounds awful to say that now with the way things are.”
“I disagree,” she said mildly, putting the remnants of her dinner on the coffee table and out of reach. “I don’t think someone gets a free pass on a lifetime of crappy behavior. I get what you’re saying and it’s probably a good thing not to focus on the bad times, but someone getting sick and ultimately dying doesn’t undo all the hurt they caused.”
This was dangerous territory, but there was no way he could make light of it.
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“You heard all about my past, thanks to Cash. When I went in search of my birth parents, I was angry at them for not caring about me enough to keep me. The older I got, I realized it was probably for the best, but I didn’t know them. It’s hard to stay mad at people you don’t know.” Pausing, she twisted in her spot and fully faced him. “My adoptive mother? Well…I had a lot of anger at her. She wasn’t a great mom, but she did the best she could. I was angry at her for leaving, and I knew it was all my fault. She didn’t even try to pretend otherwise.” Shaking her head slightly, she looked at him sadly. “I miss her, but I’m still mad too.”
“What was your adoptive father like?”
Her expression softened. “He was…the best. I swear he had the patience of a saint and always had the brightest outlook, even when the world was crashing down around us. I think he wanted to make everything better for me and I know it devastated him when he couldn’t.” Reaching for her drink, she took a sip. “I hate all the grief I gave him and apologized for it until he took his last breath. He told me it was all worth it because I was going to be okay. I had my new kidney and that’s what he wanted most in the world.”
Jackson could tell she was getting upset, and he reached out and took one of her hands in his.
“If I hadn’t gotten sick, maybe he’d still be here. If he hadn’t been so worried about me, maybe he would have paid attention to his own health. Or…”
“Hey,” he whispered. “You can’t think like that. You’ll make yourself crazy. He loved you and he made the best choices he knew how. I think that’s what being a parent is all about. There aren’t any instruction manuals, you just…you do what you have to.”
“What about with Cash?”
He chuckled. “That crazy bastard made all the wrong decisions.” But then something occurred to him. “But…maybe he made them for the right reasons. Like…maybe things would have been worse if he stayed.”
She nodded before leaning forward and kissing him. “I think that wraps up our deep thoughts for the day, because this wasnothow I envisioned our night going.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Me either.”
Crawling into his lap, Savannah kissed him again and again and again. Soft kisses, wet kisses, sloppy kisses…and each one of them was making him harder and harder.
Realistically, Jackson knew he was a young guy who had plenty of stamina. But it had been a long time since he’d had the opportunity to put it to use quite like this.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all one-sided and it was even more of a turn on to know that she was just as wild and needy for him as he was for her.
The bedroom was ten feet away, but as she settled intimately against him, he decided that the couch was just fine.
* * *
