“Obviously the person who should go to a hotel is me,” my mother says when we both go silent.
“No,” Faith and I say at once. We both know we’re sleeping together. The chances of me letting her go back to her own bed while she is under my roof are slim to none anyway. I want to get my fill of her while I can.
I ignore the voice in my head telling me I’ll never have enough of her and face my mother. “Looks like you’re staying.”
“Okay.” My mother smiles at us both.
Faith smiles back. “I’ll go pack up my things and move them into your room,” she says, her cheeks only slightly red at this point.
“Great. Now that that’s settled, Mom, come in, take off your coat, and make yourself at home.” I meet Faith’s gaze, shooting her a grateful look I hope she can translate, along with an apologetic one.
This is a turn of events I never expected, having my mother and my… Faith, under one roof. And I have no idea how to handle the situation.
***
Faith
An hour afterJason’s mother arrives, I find myself at an upscale restaurant, sitting next to Jason and across the table from Savannah Dare. She is a lovely woman with blonde hair and light blue eyes, a warm smile, and an easy air of acceptance of having found me all but in her son’s bed.
Once I recovered from my embarrassment and accepted the fact that I really have nowhere else to go if I want to be safe, I realized I’d have to move into Jason’s room. His mother seems to handle it easily enough.
Savannah drinks a mimosa, Jason and I coffee, and after the waiter takes our orders, Jason glances at his mother. “So Dad wants you back?”
I hold back a shocked sound.
Savannah looks at me.
“She knows,” Jason says. “I told her everything about our family situation.”
Savannah raises her eyebrows, obviously surprised her son opened up. But she nods her head and launches into her story. “Before Robert ran off to Barbados with his mistress, he told me he wanted a divorce. For reasons I can’t fathom, he’s returned with a change of heart. He wants me back.”
Jason grimaces, and I know what he thinks of that idea.
“And what do you want?” he asks his mother, to his credit not giving his own verbal input. Yet.
Savannah lifts the glass and takes a sip of her drink. “I had already resigned myself to a divorce, but more than that, your father’s behavior forced me to take a good look at my past.” She glances down at her plate. “I might not have known he wasmarried when we met, but when I found out, I didn’t leave him. That makes me complicit.”
I squirm in my seat, but Savannah seems comfortable enough talking about personal issues in front of me.
“Mom—”
“No. It’s true. I justified it by telling myself his marriage to Emma hadn’t been for love, but that doesn’t make what I did right. The truth is, the man is a cheater. If I take him back, he’s bound to do it again. It isn’t like it’s only happened once, after all.”
Jason nods in agreement. “I hate to admit that you’re right because he’s my father… but you are. And as long as you’re saying these things yourself, I can say I agree with you and your decision.”
Listening to mother and son, I marvel at a few things. One, how close they obviously are, but then Jason said his family is everything to him. Two, the burden he carries on his shoulders. A father he can’t look up to, a mother he obviously loves and wants to take care of, and a past of his own that is heavy and painful. No wonder he doesn’t want to add any more people to his responsibilities.
“Faith, honey, I’m so sorry to put you in the middle of listening to my problems.” The sound of my name shakes me out of my musings.
“It’s no problem, Mrs. Dare. I’m really the intruder here.”
“First, call me Savannah, and second, nonsense. Now tell me how you and my son met.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, then say, “He rescued me when I was stuck with a flat tire one night, and somehow has become entangled in my problems.”
Savannah nods somberly. “Yes, he told me about those issues while you were showering and getting ready. Money does such dreadful things to people. Really. I’m sorry about your brother.”
“Well, he had a drug problem long before my mother passed away and left me a small inheritance. The fact that there was money just makes it all worse. It gives him a reason to come after me. I just can’t believe he’s been able to stay under the radar for so long.” I shift in my seat, automatically looking out the window. As if my brother would magically appear, but of course he doesn’t.
