Page 50 of Burning Daylight
She tilts her head. “You want to know what I think?”
“No.”
She keeps going anyway. “I think that girl out there…Juliette.” Her mouth curls around the name like smoke. “She makes you want things again. Things for yourself. Things you haven’t even thought of because you’ve been so worried about me and Brooke.”
I tense, not wanting to talk about this with her.
Ma leans forward, her voice silkier now. “Don’t deny it, Ry. Isawit.”
My jaw tics.
“Imagine how much easier it would be to have her if you went back and played the game.”
My brows rise, incredulity racing through me. “Now you want me to go back to the town where you claim a man wants to kill me? You’ve really lost it if you think Marcus would let me come back. We’ve tried that before, remember?”
She looks at her nails like she doesn’t care one way or the other if I go. “So maybe you don’t give a choice. Force your father to pull some strings. Lethimprotect you properly.”
“You make them sound like comic book villains.”
“You play his game, so you can gether.”
I scoff. “You want me to use her.”
“No,” she says quickly. “I want you to stop pretending that you don’t already care. I want you to have something yourself, after all these years of living for me.” Her eyes well up with tears and it digs into my chest and spreads outward in a toxic type of hope. “You don’t think I realize all that you’ve given up?”
I stare at her, the air tense and silent.
“I’m not going back,” I say, a finality to my tone. “Last time I listened when you told me to do that, it didn’t end well for me.”
Her face tightens and she sits back, nodding like it doesn’t matter. “Whatever, I’m just trying to help.”
Does she not even realize how wishy-washy she sounds? She wants me to get his money, now all of a sudden I’m supposed to go to Rosebrook Falls?
Delusional. Like always.
I drum my fingers on the back of the couch, my pulse ticking up. “Well, you’re not. How do you even know all these things?”
“Believe it or not, your father loved me. He used to talk to me about things. I was a safe place for him, and he leaned on me.”
Doubtful.I’m not convinced my father has the propensity to love anyone.
I must make a noise, because her eyes soften. “I wasn’t always like this, you know?”
My jaw clenches. “Yeah, I know.”I remember.
She scratches at her arm absentmindedly.
“She doesn’t know who I am,” I say, although at this point it sounds like I’m trying to convince myself more than her.
Ma tsks. “If you say so.”
“Iknowso.”
Her lips twitch like she’s holding something back. “Then you’d better hope it stays that way, because if she finds out, and she’s loyal to her father…” She doesn’t finish, letting the implication hang in the air.
I shift, and she keeps going. “Of course, if youdowant to keep seeing her, you might actually consider what I’m telling you to do. Call your father and maybe you can use what’s rightfully yours to get the girl.”
I throw my head back and groan. “Here we go.”
