Page 51 of Her Property

Maybe it would feel good to talk to her about what was going on, if only to release the pressure valve. Not like there was any solution to his problems. Except moving away and forgetting Ruby Lake and Barkley Falls ever existed.

“Just a small one then,” he said. Aubrey pulled him into a side hug and walked him inside.

Five minutes later, Jake was staring down a perfect-looking chocolate milkshake, complete with a swirl of whipped cream and a maraschino cherry on top. Aubrey stood behind the milkshake, her arms folded over her generous bosom.

“I know you’re going to say you don’t want to talk about it, but you know what the deal is in here. My mama told me as soon as I was old enough to reach the stool and read the menu for myself that you don’t just come into Aubrey’s for the home-cooked food. You come for the listening ear and the comfort.”

Jake scowled and reached for the milkshake. When the icy thick ice cream hit his mouth, he sighed with pleasure. “You coerce your customers through the food, don’t you?” he said.

“Oh, you betcha. That stuff’s like truth serum.” She paused and he took another sip.

This was exactly the perfect thing for him right now.

The only thing better would be her.

A thickness formed in Jake’s throat that he would have blamed on the milkshake if he didn’t feel it go all the way around his heart too.

“Did you know your Mama used to come in here to drown her sorrows?” Aubrey said.

Jake choked on his sip. As he struggled to cough and catch his breath at the same time Aubrey poured him a glass of water. She slid it over the counter to him without a word.

“What sorrows?” he said when he was finally able to breathe again. “My mom never cared about anyone but herself. And maybe my no-good father.”

Aubrey shook her head. “He really was a no-good fellow, I’m sorry to say. Thank god the apple fell well off the tree with that one. He wasn’t evil or anything, just… Stella deserved so much more than the hand she was dealt.”

Jake clenched his fists on the counter, then made an effort to open them again.

“She had perfect parents; a loving home. All her needs were met just fine.”

“Sometimes none of that matters, Jake. I’ve seen all kinds of people in here over the years, my mama too. Some of the best people with the most terrific lives come from families where no one cared a bit about them or whether they were breathing. Other times tragic things can happen to good families.”

“What about James then? He was completely messed up because of her. He talked about her all the time.”

Aubrey sighed, pouring herself a glass of water from the pitcher she’d magically procured. “I’m not saying your parents have no influence over your circumstances. Not at all. Just that sometimes surprises happen. Good and bad.”

Jake returned to his milkshake. Maybe she was right. Maybe not. It didn’t matter. He’d finish this up and then head home. Get some rest. And figure out the rest of his life in the morning.

“So what sorrows are you swallowing down tonight, my Jakey?”

Jake finished his sip and looked up at Aubrey. Her face was full and warm, the lines around her eyes from laughing so much the testament to a good, decent life. She and Bill had four kids, and all of them loved their mama to the very ends of the earth and back. He knew that in the way she talked about them, in the way they always kissed her on the cheek when they came in here. Here was a good mother. Here was a woman who’d done it right.

Who’d stayed.

To Jake’s horror, he felt his eyes grow wet. He’d been wandering the streets heartsick for Catherine, but now he found himself heartbroken for his own mother.

“I was out here because I finally found someone I felt like I might be able to really… care about. Even though it’s only been a crazy short time I just knew this was different. I’ve never felt that way about anyone before—I never let myself. Because the last time I left my heart open like that, I was a child. I was innocent and threw my whole heart at her and she didn’t give two shits about me.” Jake swallowed, gritting his teeth to keep the emotion from exploding out of him. He didn’t know any of this until right now. He felt so fucking exposed for saying it. But the way Aubrey had looked at him with such kindness—it was the way a mother was supposed to look at her child. And that open-hearted love you give to someone with nothing attached—that was how you were supposed to love.

That’s what Jake had been missing his whole adult life.

And that’s what he had felt could be possible with Cat. If he hadn’t fucked it up by being so messed up.

Aubrey brushed at Jake’s hair. “Your mother made a lot of mistakes. But one of the biggest ones she made was not showing you how much she adored you and James.”

“She didn’t love us,” Jake choked. “That’s why James went down the hole he did. He was too stupid to lock his heart up in a box. Every time she came back he thought it was for good. And it killed him. It fucking killed him.”

Now Aubrey had tears in her eyes. “Oh sweetheart. She did love you. I know that with all my heart. She told me herself.”

Jake looked up at Aubrey, hating the way his heart leapt even now at the hope that he might be wrong. Hating the way he wanted to pray there wasn’t something wrong with him that made her leave. “What did she say?” he said, his voice harder than he meant it to be.

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