Page 43 of Long Road Home

And if I did, I would be the one being ruined by Jordan. He could never trust me again.

But…what if. What if I could fixallmy wrongs? What if I could repairandheal?

What if I could give Toby the family he desperately needed, and the only one I’d ever wanted?

I’d need a bigger backbone. A better one with strength and resilience and patience filled with hard work.

Too bad you couldn’t pick those up at the local shopping mart.

Fourteen

Jordan

“Need anything to drink, Toby?”

He was sitting in my movie room. I’d bought another Xbox so we could play video games together when we hung out here. His thumbs and fingers rapidly clicked on the black controller.

“Toby?”

“Huh?” He glanced at me and back to the large projection screen.

“Drink?”

“I’m good.”

Damn. This kid got intense with an electronic device in his hand and an apoplectic game in front of him.

“Right. I’m gonna go check on your mom. See what she’s doing.”

He didn’t respond, and I wasn’t surprised.

I took off out of the movie room upstairs and headed downstairs. I’d left Destiny in the kitchen when we took off to start the game, but when I reached it, she wasn’t there. Instead, she was on the patio out back, hands curled around the deck railing and eyes on the golf course. Dinner had been good if not awkward, but she’d loosened up slowly, mostly thanks to Cooper ensuring she was included. Rebecca had been fine, clearly head over heels infatuated with her nephew but when we returned from our short tour of the course, Destiny hadn’t been there.

Physically, she was in the house. Mentally, she seemed like she’d already run back to Houston.

I’d cornered Rebecca at one point and asked her what the hell she’d done. She’d smirked at me.I wasn’t mean. I was honest, and she needed it.

She doesn’t need shit. Not from you and I warned you.I’d replied.

Yeah, well, I’m not afraid of you. But I do love you, and I only gave her something to think about. That’s it.

I’d thrown her another scowl and headed back to Cooper and Toby who were sprawled out on my massive sectional couch. It could fit an entire baseball team and they were already engrossed in the St. Louis Cardinals game.

Whatever happened between the two women still had Destiny strung tight. I grabbed a beer from the fridge and headed outside.

She turned as I opened the slider door and shut it behind me, already pulling my bottle of beer from my mouth.

“What’d she say to you?” There was no point in pleasantries or stepping around the issues. We already had a mountain to scale in the short time she was here.

“Nothing I didn’t deserve.” She turned back, eyes on the course then lifting to the sky and sighed. “She told me you almost didn’t leave for college.”

That’s what this was about. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to go back there.

“Des—”

“She said when I left you were destroyed. And I’ve been sitting here thinking about everything Rebecca said, and wondering if I was always so selfish? All those years I tried to be nothing like my mother, but was I? I mean, is it my bones to abandon everyone I care about?”

Okay, apparently we were doing this.

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