Page 125 of Heart of Dawn
She sighed. “Enough. You don’t have to appease me with small talk. I’m well aware I’m creating a bad atmosphere. And I’m sorry.”
Orion leaned forward. “Mama?”
She took Jasper’s hand, her eyes glistening as she addressed Ori. “We’ve missed you so much, sweetheart. Every day I…I thought I might hear of your death or of your return. I couldn’t… I still… I’m so happy you’re here.” She caught her escaping tears with a serviette.
“Mama…”
“Your papa and I have talked through a lot of things. My terrible attitude to your sexuality, how it must have felt to be rejected by me. And I did reject you, at least that side of you. I didn’t want to believe it, to imagine my son with another man. I struggled, resisted, behaved like a fool. A selfish fool. Whenwe lost you, I… It took a terrible event for me to confront my ridiculousness.” She dabbed her eyes again.
This was amazing and unexpected. I really thought the evening would end with distressing tears, my mate broken by hate.
Ori sniffled. I held his hand through his mum’s words.
She turned to me. “I can see you love him very much.”
“Words can’t describe it,” I replied.
“Good. Please take good care of him.”
“Until the end of time.”
Jasper nodded his approval at me. “You make a handsome couple. Orion gets it from me.”
My mate giggled lightly. “Oh, Papa…”
“I’m sorry, Orion,” Nova continued. “I’m sorry for hurting you, for not giving you the unconditional love you deserve. But you have it now. You always have. I don’t expect forgiveness, but can we go back to how we were before? Start afresh?” She gave him a hopeful look.
“Friends again?” Ori answered.
“Yes. Friends again.”
“Like we used to be before I pooped on everything.” Her shoulders sagged. “I’ll never not be sorry. My beautiful son… I let you down. I let you down. I let you down…”
Orion whimpered, scraping his beach chair back through the sand as he got to his feet. His mum stood at the same time, the two of them letting it all go, hugging and sobbing together.
Rebuilding.
Jasper lifted his drink to me. “To better days.”
I toasted to that.
His parents left at midnight,just after the family shared in a thanksgiving ceremony to the stars. With his mum’s reset, things took a lighter turn with laughter, stories, and celebration.
I was so happy for him. He finally got to be free fromthatbullshit.
“You’re a great cook,” I told him as we waved his parents off into the night.
“Thanks.”
“This spot is amazing. But is your place a shack or a hut?” He’d called it both, but it seemed more like a hut to me. Built from sandstone with a pointed, thatched roof.
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “It’s whatever you feel like calling it.”
“Cute.”
“Don’t you like it?”
“Course I do. It’s as cozy as you are.” I pulled him into a hug.
