Page 67 of Burning Love
She had a handful of close friends but no one she’d confide in completely.
None that knew about Jace.
Hmm, she didn’t know why that just occurred to her.
“I know. Sometimes I get lonely. I’m glad I’ve got you for that,” she said sweetly.
Her mother reached over and patted her hand. “There are times I miss your father. When things like that creep up, it’s nice to have that one person in your life that you can count on one hundred percent.”
She turned to look at her mother. “But could you count on him? He wasn’t around to talk to let alone be a real partner. I’m not trying to be mean, just stating a fact.”
“I know you’re being honest. You missed the most and I’m sorry for that.”
“Why are you sorry? You didn’t die and leave me.”
Her jaw dropped when those words came out unexpectedly. “Oh, Talia. We’ve never talked about this before. I’m sorry for that too. You were so young and I think you didn’t know what you missed like the rest of them.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that he wasn’t there for me. He wasn’t there for you a lot either. Weren’t you ever upset over that? All those kids you had to raise on your own even when he was around. I mean, it was your choice to keep getting knocked up.”
Aileen laughed over the family joke all the kids shared. “I’m not so sure it was always my choice. There were a few of you that snuck through even though we were preventing it.”
She snorted. “Come on. I don’t believe it.”
“I’m not lying to you,” her mother said, laughing. “Let’s see. I think it was Elias that we hadn’t planned.”
“Were you on birth control?”
“No. We were doing other things.”
Talia burst out laughing. “Mom. Pulling out or trying to time it isn’t really fully preventing it. That doesn’t count and don’t delude yourself into thinking it.”
Aileen laughed with her. “Fine. We weren’t trying to get pregnant but not fully preventing it.”
“Who else unless it was the same method?”
“Rowan definitely wasn’t planned. After Elias, your father decided to wear condoms and one broke. So yeah, there you go.”
“He always was the misfit,” she said, grinning.
“True.”
“Why didn’t you go on birth control?”
“There didn’t seem to be a reason to do it when your father was gone all the time. Why would I want to take something daily and put it into my body if he wasn’t around?”
“To stop from having eight kids.”
“I don’t regret any of you.”
“Oh, that’s good to know. Do you think you would have had more if Dad had lived?” She’d like to think not.
“No. You were the last. As you know, most of you were two years or fewer apart. You were four when your father died. I was done. I was exhausted.”
“Why did you keep having them? We were poor. You were tired and alone. I don’t get it.”
“For two reasons. I want to say they are silly, but I love my children, so nothing is silly.”
“I won’t take offense. Be honest.” They hadn’t had a heart-to-heart like this before, but all of them always gave her mother a hard time about the number of kids she popped out.
