Page 67 of Love Me Back
I stopped in my tracks and grabbed Jamie’s arm. “Is he not happy to be home? He always talked about going home.”
“He is,” my brother confirmed.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I studied my brother’s face, looking for his tells. He had gotten good at hiding them. But I knew him like I knew myself. He would never be able to hide things from me. “Jamie!”
He released a long, tired sigh and looked away. “He’s different there. Different under Uncle Mando. Harder, more strict. He’s not the man who raised us.”
“Uncle Mando always said he was too soft for the business.”
“Soft is not the word I would use to describe our father.”
“Why is he there if he hates it?”
My brother had a sad look as he shook his head. “Family, Jessie. You show up for family, even if you hate it.”
Later that evening at dinner, I couldn’t get my brother’s words out of my head. I looked around the table at every person there and wondered how many of them were truly happy.
When the kitchen was clean, and my family had gone to the cabins for the night, I followed Grayson into his room. He got undressed and lay on the bed.
Absentmindedly, I began working the muscles in his legs. My mind was distracted as I thought about everything I had learned today.
“Hey, come here.”
Grayson grabbed my arms and hauled me up beside him.
“Was I not thorough enough today? Do you need a few more orgasms to loosen you up?” he asked as he kissed down my neck.
I smiled at the attention, but I wanted to talk. When I pulled away, Grayson pouted like a child who had his toy taken away.
“Why is Addie in school?”
Surprise quickly turned to confusion, and he answered, “Because she wants to be a vet.”
“Does she, though? Or does she feel like that is the best way she can help out at the ranch?”
“School was Addie’s idea. No one asked her or pressured her to go to school.” His voice was hard, defensive.
“That’s not what I’m saying. I was talking to my brother today, and he said he didn’t think my father was happy being back in Mexico. When I asked why he was there, Jamie said,‘You show up for family, even if you hate it,’and I immediately thought about Addie. She won’t tell you, but she hates school. Did she choose that path because she felt she needed to in order to be useful around the ranch?”
Grayson shifted, lifting his body up to lean against the headboard. He rubbed a hand over his face as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I suspected maybe she wasn’t really happy at school. But every time I try to talk to her, she cuts me off and tells me it’s all she’s thought about doing.”
“Which isn’t the same as wanting to do it.”
“No, it isn’t,” he agreed. “But unless she admits it, there is nothing I can do. I won’t cut her off. I don’t want her to think all she’s good for is cooking and cleaning at the ranch.”
“But what if that’s what makes her happy?”
“What?” Wrinkles appeared in the space between his eyebrows, and I reached out to rub my fingertip over them until they relaxed.
“What if what makes her happy is cooking and cleaning at the ranch and taking care of her family?” I sat up on my knees. “I was sitting in the kitchen with my uncle today”—I glared at Grayson—“who heard us in your office, by the way.”
Grayson laughed loudly. “Good.”
I swatted his arm. “Anyway, I was talking to my uncle as I watched Addie moving around the kitchen. And I was thinking about how I hated the kitchen. My uncle read my expression wrong and leaned over and whispered,‘Some women are born tolead, and some are born to serve.’He said both are noble, and it isn’t our job to question what makes a woman feel fulfilled in the life she chooses. Whenever Addie talks about school, she loses the light in her eyes. I watched that happen to Ellie for years when we were in college. I hate seeing it in Addie.”
Grayson smiled at me. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?” He leaned forward and kissed me. “We’ll talk to Addie. But right now, I want to make love to my woman.”
