Chapter Fourteen
Jenny
Ihand Bill a beer and sit down in the chair beside him.
“I love coming up here,” he says. “It’s always a trip to see how much you and this place have changed.”
“Oh, we haven’t changed that much.”
He laughs that I used the word we, but it’s true. This place and me are one.
“I like the new look.” He motions down my frame.
I look away, blushing. He chuckles lightly.
“You sure do remind me of this girl I just met,” he says, settling back in the wooden rocker.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. She’s the damn reason it’s taken me so long to get up here.” He taps his beer on his knee as if he’s contemplating what he says next. “It’s a crazy story.”
“Most of your stories are,” I tease.
The way he smiles at me makes my stomach flutter. Not that I can do anything about it. I know he’s married, and I also know he’s an honorable man. I think that’s what I like most about him.
“This one is off the charts insane. You remember me talking about my new bartender, Lily?”
“Yeah,” I say, my heart aching for a Lily I once knew. I wonder if she ever got away from her father.
“Well, she had one hell of a story. Turns out she was running from her father, a senator. Can you believe that?” he asks.
I feel the blood drain from my face.
He shakes his head. “It’s a long story, but the short version is her dad found her and forced her back to his mansion. Dan had to kidnap her just as she was about to be married off to some abusive asshole.”
My heart is beating out of my chest. Bill is talking about my Lily. I scoot to the edge of my seat, anxiously waiting to hear the rest of my friend’s story.
“Her dad was a real s.o.b. He was a goddamn pervert who deserved to be put in the ground, but we had to let him live.”
“No,” I say.
His gaze narrows. “Don’t worry. He’s locked up, but we had to let him live so we could take down a few other assholes just like him.”
I nod, listening intently.
“Well, she happens to find this journal left behind by one of her dad’s victims, and you’re not going to believe this.” He stops.
“What?”
“Lily is Jackson’s sister.”
My heart completely stops. Lily is with Jackson. They found each other. Somehow they found each other.
Suddenly, the organ in my chest decides to pump again, and I cough. “Oh, what a sweet story.”
“You okay?” he asks, reaching over and firmly placing his hand on the back of my head.
When my eyes meet his, a silent conversation passes between the two of us. He can’t tell me he knows who I am, because then he’ll also have to tell the club. He’s giving me a choice. To keep quiet or come clean.
I blink, tears falling off my lashes at an alarming rate. “I’m sorry. That’s just … like I said, it’s a sweet story. It’s a little unbelievable. It sounds like it was fate Lily and Jackson found each other.”
Bill has always talked to me about the club, his family, and especially about Jackson. I had no way of stopping him, even though it sometimes hurt my heart to hear. What could I have said? Anyway, he always makes a point to let me know how Jackson is doing, making me wonder if he somehow knew …
Now I know he does. He just can never admit it.
“Crazier yet, Raffe knew Jackson’s angel mom, and he’s always kept in touch with her parents.”
I don’t want to know anymore. I stand up, but Bill pulls me back into my chair.
“Jackson has always known them as his grandma and grandpa … turns out they biologically are. They were ecstatic to find out Jackson was their daughter’s son.”
“Please let me go,” I say calmly. “I’m not feeling very well.”
“It sure is too bad his angel mom wasn’t around to see how it all played out,” he says before releasing me.
I nod, jumping from the chair. My feet hurry me to the bathroom, and I lock the door. My hands shake as I lower myself to the floor. Lily is with Jackson. My parents are with Jackson!
Every person I’ve ever loved is together. They’re all together.
My fingers clench the front of my shirt as I struggle to draw in a breath. The way my heart aches to be with them is a pain I’ll never be able to describe, but it can’t be. It just can’t be.
Thirty minutes later, Bill knocks on the door. “I wrestled up some grub if you’re hungry. Hope you don’t mind; I did a little harvesting in your garden. You sure do have some nice-looking tomatoes this year.”
It makes me chuckle sadly. He is literally the sweetest man I’ve ever met … next to Raffe … but he was just a boy the last time I saw him.
I pause my story, waiting for a response from my mom or her friend.
Ray is rubbing his temple. “So, both Rachel and Bill knew. I can’t believe they kept this from you and Jackson,” he says to my mother.
“They did it for me,” I tell him.
“Bill may not have had ulterior motives, but my niece, Rachel …” He shakes his head. “If she loved Jackson, how could she ...”
I jump from my chair, slamming my hand on the table. “Stop. I will not have anyone thinking or speaking badly of the woman who saved my life. She loved Jackson. Do not let this taint the image you have of her. She is nothing less than a saint.”
My mother stands. “Jenny.”
“No. I need to say this. I would be dead if it wasn’t for her keeping my secret. If she would have gone back to the club and sent Raffe up here, I would have ended my life immediately.” I turn away from them. “Rachel talked me into staying for Jackson. In case he ever needed me,” I finish quietly.
“What about me and your father?” my mother asks, not hiding the pain in her voice. “We needed you. I needed you.”
Holding my stomach, I face her. “Don’t make me tell you the things that they did to me, Mama.”
Her face falls.
“I stayed in this world for Jackson and Jackson alone. I will not apologize for that. That one thing took everything in me. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”
When she doesn’t say anything, I wave for them to follow me outside. “I want to show you something.”
Ray takes her hand, encouraging her to follow me. I walk through my gardens and then into the woods. I’ve come out here so often my feet have beaten a path. It ends at my favorite tree.
I walk up to it and place my hands on his trunk. “Hello, my friend,” I say before wrapping my arms around as far as they’ll go and holding on tight.
My mom steps up beside me, and she too places her hands on it. Her eyes fall closed.
“This is my mama,” I say, introducing her to the tree. “You probably already feel like you know her, huh?”
The wind blows, wrestling the leaves above our heads.
“He says it’s nice to meet you,” I tell her.
Her eyes open, and she smiles. “It’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Tree.”
It makes me giggle.
My cheek rests against the rough bark as we stare at each other. “The first time I came out here, I tied a rope to his branches.”
She turns her attention to the branch above us, the color draining from her face.
“I may have stayed for Jackson, but it was your voice that got me through.” I push away from the tree and take her hand, pulling her back out of the woods. Ray follows quietly behind us.
As we step out, I recite a line from her favorite poem. She used to tell it to me every night before bed. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”
Her eyes begin to water, and Ray hands her a handkerchief from his pocket. “You remember,” she says quietly.
“The woods healed me, Mama, but I don’t know if I’m ready for what Rachel has put into motion.” I let my gaze roam over what I’ve created here. “I’m scared.”
She tugs me into her arms. “Don’t you worry, honey. You have nothing to be scared of.”
I wish that were true.
“I see the hurt I caused you. I don’t want to do that to Jackson. Right now, in this very moment, my son loves me. I’m still his angel mom. If you tell him, I’ll just be a crazy woman who’s been hiding in the woods. He’ll never understand, Mama. That terrifies me.”
“I think you’d be surprised by how much Jackson might understand your exact situation. Life unfolds itself in funny ways.”
She chuckles to herself and cradles my face. She’s still the same optimistic woman I remember from my youth.
“But we’ll figure all this out later. There’s no hurry. How about you and I get to know each other again? Let’s start there.”
“Okay,” I whisper against her soft cheek, hugging her tight.