Page 77 of Burning Love
“His mother died of cancer. She was a single mother and raising him alone. I guess he had a stepfather who came in his teen years and then didn’t want to raise him. I’m not sure. We haven’t talked a lot. I do know that his father never knew of his existence and his mother told him when she was dying so that Jace had a place to go.”
“You’re joking,” Braylon said.
“No. I’m not. It’s not something we’ve talked about much, as it’s very personal. I think it’s affected him on a lot of levels. I can say that his father was shocked and thrilled. He was married with two daughters, and his wife and other kids accepted Jace into the family as if he was there from the first day. I met his one sister Kelsey. She’s nice and they seem very close. As I said, Jace works with his father.”
“That’s an odd situation,” West said.
“So is being the youngest of eight kids and having your oldest brother think he’s your father because you lost your real father at four and never really knew him.”
That shut her brothers up.
“Be careful,” Braylon said.
“I will be. Can we talk about work now?”
“This is far from over,” West said.
“Yes, it is. Drop it. It’s just over a month that we’ve been dating. I’ve dated men my own age for much longer who you never met. I don’t know why this is being turned into such a big deal.”
Braylon shrugged and had his normal grin back in place.
That told her West put him up to this. Not that Braylon wasn’t worried prior to her defending her boyfriend.
Shit, she was calling him that now too.
23
EATING AT HIM
“How are you doing today?”
Jace turned to see his father standing next to his truck when the question was asked two days later.
“I’m fine, why?”
He was at the site of the new development where his father was throwing houses up faster than he could count.
Dean was driving between projects and checking on them. It was what he spent most of his time doing.
Jace had been told to show up here and they’d put him to work.
“I know what today is,” his father said.
His mother’s birthday.
“So?”
“Jace, it’s not easy.”
“Nope,” he said. “She died too young.”
“Let’s take a walk,” his father said.
“There is work to be done.”
“There is always work to be done, but there is a time to talk to your father and it’s now.”
Since Dean never gave him shit, or didn’t give it to him much in life, he followed him down the road where other houses were going up.
