Page 50 of The Comeback Road
My phone started to vibrate in my back pocket. For a moment, I told myself to just ignore it, let go, give in to what I wanted. But the second it stopped, it started again.
“Saved by the bell,” he murmured, and placed the softest kiss on my temple that had my knees shaking.
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket.Unknown name.Anxiety slithered through me. Jace must have seen it on my face because he took the phone from me and answered instead. “Hello?” His calm demeanor turned to ice within seconds.
“Uh…hi?” a melodic voice parroted back to him, and I knew who it belonged to. Without missing a beat, I snatched the phone from him.Lacy.
“Lacy?” I asked as I fully moved from Jace’s embrace.
“Hey, sis,” she said softly. I could hear the happiness in her tone that I had answered, and there was a bit of an awkward silence before she continued. “I know you don’t want to hear from me often…if at all, but it’s Christmas, and I just…I just wanted to wish my sister a Merry Christmas.” I found it ironic that she said that, considering she had a twin. You know what they say about twins, though—there’s a good one and a bad one. Lacy was the good one, while Tonya had always treated me like a stain on the family name. To her, I probably was, just like she was a stain on my childhood. She’d never reached out, and neither had I. Lacy was the only one who still tried.
“Merry Christmas, Lacy. I hope it was a good one.” Unable to form any more words, the silence continued to be awkward until she spoke again. “You know, I didn’t expect you to answer.”
“I didn’t have your number saved,” I told her truthfully.
“Ah, that explains it…” I could hear the sadness she masked behind her chuckle. “Hey, Lex?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“Why do you hate me so much?” It was as if her anguish in the question reached out and grabbed me by the throat. I didn’thateher, I just…hated everything she had that I didn’t.
“I don’t hate you, Lace…I just don’t know how to separate you from him. From them.” Her twin, her mom, our dad.
“I get that…but he tried. Whether or not you want to believe it, he tried. Your mom…Well, she didn’t make that easy. I’m not saying it’s right. The older I get, the more I understand. But I do remember him trying, if that counts for anything.”
“Maybe one day it will, but right now, it doesn’t,” I told her, unable to keep the bitterness out of my words.
“You know, I always felt I had to choose between a relationship with him, and a relationship with you. It was easier to be mad at you for hating him than understand why you did. Because he was a good dad to me. Still is.”
“You don’t know what that felt like, Lacy, to be left behind, replaced. It’s not as simple as him being a good dad or not. And I’m glad he is to you. He just wasn’t to me.”
“I get it now, but don’t let his mistakes dictate your entire life, Lex. Don’t let him dictate who you are now, who you let in. That’s a sad and lonely way to live. Be better, love better, don’t let his choices define who you are. You deserve happiness, sis. Merry Christmas.” She didn’t wait for my answer, and I heard the dial tone of an empty line.
A weird sense of peace and reckoning washed over me at her words as I stared down at my phone, my thumb hovering over the screen. Without thinking too much about it, I saved her number.Lacy.
“You okay?” Jace inquired. I’d been so wrapped up in the conversation with her that I’d forgotten he was still standing there. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
His eyes roamed over me, trying to suss out any lies, but he wouldn’t find any. For the first time in a long time, I knew I was going to be okay.
“Merry Christmas, Starlight.” He turned to head out the door.
“Hey, Jace?” I called after him, and he stopped. “The sofa is much more comfortable and significantly warmer. It is Christmas, after all.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Lexie
Despite the chill in the air, sunlight streamed through my window in warm, golden rays. It felt like the world was still celebrating the holiday, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel the crushing weight of my choices pressing down on me. Stretching, I couldn’t help the flutter in my stomach at the thought of Jace and the fact that there was a good chance he was still asleep on the sofa. I wanted to sip my coffee on my swing despite the cold, and I found myself throwing on a comfy robe and padding down the stairs at the thought. The scent of something delicious wafted through the air as I opened my door, further coaxing me out of my room, and my stomach started to growl in anticipation.
Just as I was about to reach the bottom floor, I was greeted by the sight of Jace standing in the kitchen, his back turned to me as he flipped something in a pan. There was a casual confidence in his movements that had me gravitating to him and sitting down as I just watched him.
“Good morning, Starlight,” he said, not even glancing over his shoulder. I found myself frowning.How did he know I washere?I hadn’t made a peep. “How did you know it was me?” I asked.
“I feel you when you’re near.” And his hand went to his chest to rub it. But it didn’t seem intentional, just factual. Jace barely gave me time to digest what was going on before he glanced over his shoulder with a grin that lit up the room like sunshine. “I hope you’re hungry. I made pancakes,” Jace said as he flipped one and then moved to grab me a cup of coffee, making it perfectly before setting it in front of me.
“I didn’t know you could cook. I remember Sloan mentioned one time that you burned water…” I said cheekily.
“Who do you think has been cooking all those meals, Lex?” Sloan said as he entered the kitchen, “Can I have coffee too?” He pouted at Jace.
