Page 6 of The Heart Shot
I choked on my spit, nearly coughing up a lung. “Excuse me?” I finally croaked.
Emma giggled. “It’s well past time, brother.”
“I’ve tried going on a few dates, and I don’t think I’m made for the dating world. It’s…scary out there.” I had been on a few dates recently, and none of them were good.
“Why do you thinkI’mstill single?” she replied, a smile in her voice. “But I know there’s someone out there for you, Jamie. Probably closer than you think. You shouldn’t give up yet.”
I paused. “Emma, why does it sound like…do you know something I don’t?”
“What?” she gasped, the sound far too dramatic to be real. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you hiding something from me?”
“Of course not. Why would you think that?”
“I don’t believe you.”
It was obvious she was grinning as she said, “Trust the process, Jameson. Trust the process.”
“What the heck does that mean?”
“Oh, nothing! I should go. Lots of homework.”
I sighed, knowing it was no use trying to get information out of her. Emma was usually an open book unless she had a secret, in which case she was locked up tighter than a goblin bank vault.
“Wait,” I said, trying to keep her on the phone. It was my turn to pester her like a loving brother was supposed to do. “Have you spoken to Liam lately?”
A long pause filled the phone, and I checked to make sure she hadn’t hung up.
“You know I haven’t.” Her voice had gone from cheery to ice-cold.
“Have you tried to call him?”
“Of course not. Liam made it perfectly clear what mattered to him, and I wasn’t it. That’s all there is to it.”
I wanted to pry, to push her toward contacting him, but I didn’t want to jeopardize our own relationship. Liam was Emma’s childhood best friend, all of Meridel had expected them to get married someday, but ever since he got a record deal and moved to California last year, my sister wouldn’t even talk about him.
“All right. I’ll leave it alone.” I knew when to accept defeat and back off.
“Thank you.” I was certain she was sticking her tongue out at me. “I’ll talk to you later, Jamie.”
My thoughts spun in circles as I hit the red button to end the call, wondering why she felt the need to bring up dating and what she possibly could have been hiding from me. It wasn’t something we ever talked about.
As tired as I was, the thought of going home to my empty house, and spending the evening with only my dog, had my stomach twisting. I did my best to view being single as an opportunity for growth rather than soul-sucking loneliness. Most of the time it was a losing battle.
Thankfully it was Wednesday, so instead of driving home, I went straight to Angel’s Hearth. The weather was unseasonably warm for September, forcing me to wiggle out of my jacket as I walked up to the red brick building where my mother lived. On autopilot, I went through the motions of signing in, and ignored Rhonda the receptionist as she flung flirty looks my way. I turned down the hallway, rode the elevator to the top floor, and walked to the end of the hall toward room 306.
It was still strange to me—her living here. When my mom had come to me a year ago saying it was time for her to move out of my house, it had shaken me. For ten years my life had revolved around taking care of her night and day, and then it just…stopped.
My mom was the strongest woman I knew, evident by everything she had fought to survive over the past decade, but it was hard to let go and let someone else take care of her. Though I knew she was in good hands at this assisted living home, it was still a struggle to turn off the part of me that wanted to care for her.
Now, I had too much free time.
I scoffed at myself. Who complained about having too much free time?
Apparently, I did, because it left my brain free to wander in anxiety over my mom and in loneliness because I was still single at twenty-nine.
The chaos of my life had settled as much as it could, and now all I wanted was someone to come home to each night other than my dog; someone to not only care for but to enjoy the life I had been forced to put on hold for so long.
