“All the time,” Liam admitted as he turned to him. “Ineverask because, I don’t know, I don’t feel like it’s myplace. Poppy’s relationship with him was… strained. I think he pretty much just showed up once a month, hung out with her mom, and bounced. And then regarding his girls, I think he was a really good dad, at least from all the family photos.”
Deacon looked over at Teresa, her daughters, and their families. “I just don’t understand how he could do that to them.”
“I know. I wonder the same thing all the time.”
“But… I guess we wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t,” Deacon pointed out.
“True.” Liam agreed, chuckling, then turned toward his brother and lifted his glass. “Well man, welcome to the fucked-up family. I know you’re not a kid, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m here if you need anything.”
“Thanks.” Deacon cheersed and appreciated it more than he actually wanted to admit.
“I always wanted a little brother.” Liam smiled widely.
“Don’t you have a little brother?”
He’d heard him being talked about. In fact, he heard that Frankie used to be engaged to him before she and Liam got together.
“I do,” Liam stated flatly. “He’s kind of a dick, though.”
He’d also heard that. Deacon chuckled as Tabby skipped off the dance floor towards the two men.
“Just the girl I was waiting for.” Liam set his beer down and bowed. “Princess Ninja Flower, may I have this dance?”
Since she was wearing the dress, that was how she’d introduced herself all day, as Princess Ninja Flower. Everyone seemed more than happy to oblige her highness’s title change.
Tabby giggled as she curtsied. “Yes, you may, Uncle Liam.”
She was really enjoying the uncle and aunt thing. He watched as Liam picked his daughter up and spun her around back onto the dance floor.
After witnessing his sister get proposed to, having his first brother-to-brother Taster’s Choice Moment talk, and watching Tabby dance with her aunts, uncles, and cousins all day, Deacon wasn’t sure his heart could get much fuller.
He absently moved his hand to the lipstick stain on his collar. He found it was doing that…all day. It was likeshewas there with him even though she wasn’t. He felt her. He’d used the restroom and sworn he’d smelt her perfume in the back hall by the sunroom. That was how crazy he was getting.
Jen was gone. He needed to move on with his life. He had a family in Hope Falls. Something he’d always dreamed of having. So why was it every time he closed his eyes all he saw was her?
12
You found man.Is soul mate.Love of life.
Jenna turned into JT’s Roadhouse, the sole social hub for all of Hope Falls, and still could not get the conversation she’d had with Yaya on Saturday morning out of her head. She truly hoped the woman hadn’t put a curse on her. Or was it a blessing? At this point she was leaning toward curse.
A man she’d already met? The only man from her past she had any interest in was one-night-stand man, and that wasn’t going to happen.
It was a year and a half later, and she was still fiending for him. Her behavior with him reminded her of a person she promised herself she would never be. The person who raised her.
If not him, who? She had love for Asher, but he was happily married and she’d never actually been in love with him, just like she doubted he’d ever been in love with her. He hadn’t even fought for her when she said she was leaving. He hadn’t even been in their marriage the last four years.
There was no way in hell she was running things back with James. No way. So that left absolutely no one. Her romantic history was a measly three men.
“Yaya’s not a psychic,” Jenna reminded herself aloud as she parked. “She doesn’t have mystical powers, just a thick Greek accent and a very strong personality.”
She cut the engine and glanced in the mirror. Besides her signature Velvet Teddy MAC lipstick, she didn’t have a drop of makeup on. Part of her wished she’d put some effort into her appearance, another part of her was glad she hadn’t. If she had, there was a better chance that men would view it as an invitation to approach, and that was the last thing she wanted.
It was sad that any effort she put in was viewed by the opposite sex as being on display for the male gaze, at least that was Blake’s take on things. Jenna learned about the ‘male gaze’ pretty much overnight when she went from a training bra to a C cup a month before she turned thirteen. It was a harsh reality and one she’d had to navigate without the guidance of her mother, who wanted her to lean into the attention to get everything she could out of it. Instead, Jenna had done everything she could to disguise the changes in her body when she got home from school.
It bothered Jenna then, but now, as an adult and mother of a teenage girl, it sickened her. Jenna used to wonder what her mom would have been like if she weren’t an addict, if she hadn’t had always needed her next fix either from a man or a substance or a shopping trip or a vacation, how different would her life have been…
As she stepped out into the crisp winter night, she shook off that thought, pulled her jacket tighter, and headed into trivia night. They’d stumbled upon a the pub quiz. Robbie and Kiki, who worked at her shop, and Tiana,who’d moved to town around the same time she had and opened up a yoga studio downtown, went out for a girl’s night, and it happened to be trivia going on. They signed up for fun and placed third. Since then, it has become a regular thing.
