Page 105 of Guarding My Love

She wasn’t going to be complacent in another relationship.

She did deserve better.

Even if she felt like crap.

“He should understand more than anyone what it’s like to need time to think things through,” Aileen said.

“I thought so too. I wonder how much time he normally needs.”

“Have you figured out what you needed to?” Aileen asked.

“No,” she said.

“But you’re miserable having the space when you were happy before and now you are doubting asking for it?”

“Ding, ding, ding,” she said. “And I feel guilty talking to you about this.”

“Don’t feel guilty,” Aileen said. “I had to repair all of my kids’ relationships at some point or another.”

“I heard what you did with Laken and Jamie,” she said.

“I like you a lot,” Aileen said. “That you aren’t even afraid to say that to me. My son, he needs someone to tell him like it is.”

Which only added more guilt on her shoulders. “He says I confuse him.”

“Of course you do,” Aileen said. “Foster is all about facts and data in front of him. He’s been like that his whole life. And when things don’t add up the way they should or he gets overwhelmed, he needs to step back to look at the bigger picture.”

“I thought it was to breathe,” she said.

“That too. He used to get frustrated easily. All my children have different traits and I tried to let them be who they are.”

“And he worries I doubt he is who he is,” she said. “Which is how he gets confused. Even the last time we talked it came up again. But I don’t doubt who he is. I know. I like who he is. We talked about it over a month ago when I worried he’d changed for me. I don’t want that of him.”

“What did he say?” Aileen asked.

“He said he hadn’t changed. That he felt he was who he always was and liked that I knew and understood that. That I accepted it.”

“Do you accept it?” Aileen asked. “Or were you just saying that to him?”

“I do accept it. I haven’t doubted it since we talked. I’ve even told him a few times. I was surprised he brought it up again.”

“Is that the reason you needed space from him?” Aileen asked. “Because he doubts that you are saying what you are? You can tell me to mind my own business. You won’t be the first person to say it.”

If Aileen wasn’t grinning, she might have.

No, she wouldn’t.

She couldn’t be that person.

She didn’t think it meant she would get walked over either.

Aileen was here to help and right now she needed all the help she could get because she might have blown it.

“I think I could have communicated better than I did,” she said. “Or why I needed space. It wasn’t for that reason.”

“Can I ask what the reason was? Foster might think it’s because of what happened with Landon.”

“It’s definitely not that,” she said quickly. “Foster hasn’t told me he loves me.”

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