Jayce laughed. “Sounds like you’re better off without him.”
“I am now. It was hard at first alone with my job, but I’ve got a handle on it now. He’s a good kid. But it’s exhausting being the mom and the dad.”
“I think you’re doing a damn fine job at it and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”
“Thanks, Jayce. I don’t know why I needed to hear that, but I did.”
He held his arms out. “I think you need a hug too.”
She hesitated and moved into his arms. What would it hurt?
Too much when they closed around her, held her tight and let her feel the security she hadn’t felt from a man in years.
11
GOOD EXCUSE
He shouldn’t have held her in his arms. All it did was awaken everything he’d held dormant for years.
But he would hold it back. At least for now.
The next week was about Archer. Being there for the kid. Giving him something it seemed he’d been missing in his life. A male figure to hang out with, play with and watch sports, even joke and have a good time.
Hearing what Farrah had said about Tucker only pissed him off.
One thing he couldn’t tolerate was cheaters. Which was probably why it rubbed him the wrong way how he went out at his old job.
Would some think he left because he was guilty? He’d thought that over, then told himself if anyone believed that of him, they didn’t know him and he wouldn’t give two shits about their opinion.
He should be more concerned about what his family thought and they knew him well enough to know it was all a load of bullcrap.
“Happy Easter,” his mother said when he came down on Sunday morning. “Do you want anything to eat?”
“I’m good,” he said.
He put his cup in the sink with the plate he’d had. “Late-night snack?”
“Nope. Breakfast. I beat you to the kitchen.”
He’d been up for three hours doing some work at the desk in his old room. He’d come down before his mother was moving, had coffee, made some toast, then went back upstairs.
“Oh,” she said. “Everything okay?”
“I’m good. No issues. Just had a bunch of ideas in my head and was looking things over that we’d talked about last week in the office.”
His mother put her hands up. “No work talk. You know the rules.”
He laughed. “I’m not going to say much more.”
He’d decided but wouldn’t say anything else.
Running into someone last week when he was out, them asking him questions about what he was doing, then busting his ass over it must be nice to not work and live at home, or off his parents.
Yeah, that rubbed him the wrong way.
He wasn’t concerned about money. He could get another job.
But maybe he wanted to give this a shot, and if he did, he was going all in proving his worth, not having anyone giving him shit for having this as a fallback career.
