Page 29 of Lone Star Showdown

Jericho nodded and tapped into the specific portion of the report. “Last week, Jason withdrew ten thousand from the donations he’s gotten, saying he needed it for college applications and to pay for a car he’ll use to get to his classes. He then paid cash for a used Kia Rio.”

“He didn’t mention that,” she said with a sigh and sank down on the counter stool next to him. “Where’s the car now?”

“To be determined. The system is scanning parking lots and such, but that’ll take a while. There’s a strip mall less than three blocks from his foster’s place so it could be there.”

Of course, that didn’t explain why Jason was using his bike instead of the car, but it was definitely something Jericho would be digging into.

“This doesn’t mean Jason’s a killer,” Jericho said, hoping to ease some of the fresh round of worry on her face. “Remember, I bought a car when I was seventeen and stashed it outside of Stronghold.”

“Yes, because you were hiding it from your dad, who probably would have trashed it or something. But I doubt Jason’s fosters would do that.”

“No, but after everything Jason’s been through, maybe the car and the money are sort of security blankets for him. If things turn bad, he can go on the run. I know more than a little about that,” he added in a murmur.

“You didn’t run because of me,” Rachel spelled out like gospel. “You stayed because of me.”

Hell. He hadn’t wanted to lay this guilt trip on her.

“I wanted to stay for you,” he emphasized. “I figured if we got through high school, then we stood a chance of succeeding in getting the heck out of there for good. And we did.”

She smiled, but unlike the laughter, the joy of that smile wasn’t heartfelt. “And look where we are now.”

This time, it was Jericho who smiled because where they were was sitting side by side in his kitchen. They were together. Okay, not together in that sense of the word, but Rachel was here, and that was a start.

But he mentally rethought that.

A start for what? A future together that hadn’t worked out for them years ago? Maybe. And just as his mind was starting to whirl with the possibility of that, Rachel broke the silence that’d settled between them.

“I can’t have children,” she blurted.

Jericho did a mental doubletake. “Huh?” was about the best he could manage.

Clearly, that frustrated her because she huffed, and her forehead bunched up. “I can’t have kids,” she repeated, but her voice was a lot calmer than the first time she had said it. “My mother’s ALS, it’s hereditary, and I could possibly pass it on to any children I have.”

Jericho took a moment, searching for the right thing to say, and figuring he was certain to get this wrong. So, he went with a heartfelt generic comment. “I’m sorry.” And he shook his head, not sure why this had come up now.

Rachel must have picked up on the vibe of what he was thinking because she continued, “That’s the reason I didn’t continue things with you after that last time we were together.”

Jericho went with another “Huh?”

Rachel went with another huff. “That last night we were together, you mentioned kids. You said, when I have kids.”

He tried to think back to that. He recalled them talking quite a bit that night and also recalled them spending more than quite a bit of time having sex. The sex was memorable. Even parts of the conversation were memorable. But that specific comment wasn’t ringing any bells.

“How did we even get on the subject of kids that night?” he asked.

“I told you I was managing a group home with teenagers,” she said, obviously not having any trouble remembering the chat. “You said when I have kids, I’d like to skip the teenage years, but here you go, embracing it.”

That was sort of coming back to him, and he decided to fess up. “At the time, we were naked in bed, and your body was pressed right against mine. Consider that…a form of mental instability. I definitely wasn’t aware of what my mouth was saying. I was more interested in kissing you.”

Still was.

But he could see he needed to do some soothing here. And he hated like the devil that something he’d said so off the cuff had gotten to her like this.

“I think at the time I said that, I meant it,” he admitted. “I just figured kids would be in my future.” Jericho paused. Had to.

Was he really going here?

Was he about to tell her?

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