Page 63 of Lone Star Country Protector
“What does that mean exactly?” Dalton pressed. “You don’t talk at all or don’t talk on a regular basis?”
Beep. Beep. Beep.The heart monitor picked up.
Blakely glanced at the machine and then tried to catch Dalton’s gaze. No use. His was fixated on his sister.
“Just that,” Jules said on a shrug. “I asked our grandparents if they knew anything about our mother for medical history purposes a couple years back.” Jules kept her gaze fixed on the window. “Once I opened the door, Grandma Lacey came to me and asked if I had any questions.”
“You mean Pandora’s box,” he quipped.Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Jules shot a warning look.
“I’m guessing you did have questions,” he continued.Beep. Beep. Beep.
“That’s right.” Jules turned her attention to the sliver of bagel in her hand. She started to take a bite before thinking better of it and setting it down. “My curiosity started with medical questions, and then things spiraled from there. I wanted to know what she was like and if I got any of my traits from her. I look in the mirror, and I don’t see a resemblance to Dad. I’m not like you and Cam. I’ve always felt like I looked like the black sheep of the family and—”
“No way,” he countered. “You’reyou. You look likeyou.”
Jules pinned him with her gaze. Blakely wouldn’t want to go up against Dalton’s sister in a bar fight, that was for sure.
“Haven’t you ever looked at me and wondered where I got this hair color from?” Jules asked.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I had no idea you felt that way, or I would have—”
“What? Reassured me?” She blew out a frustrated breath. “And force a discussion about our mother on you and Cam when you both seemed capable of letting a sleeping dog lie?”
“You could have given us the benefit of the doubt that we would have been able to handle talking about her,” he pointed out.Beep. Beep.
“The subject never came up,” Jules admitted. “It’s not exactly something we ever discussed. I mean, you and Camden never mentioned anything about our mother, so I guess I figured that you just didn’t want to know, and I should leave it alone.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could come to me to talk about it,” Dalton said. “I guess I haven’t been the easiest person to discuss our parents with.”
“Through no fault of your own,” she said. “I just figured there would come a day when you would be ready to talk about her or ask questions, and part of me wanted to have the information and be ready should that day ever come. At least, that’s another excuse I told myself before I was able to admit that I was just curious where I came from.”
“Growing up, you always did put it on yourself to be the one to take care of Cam and I, even though Cam is the oldest,” Dalton said.
“He has the most memories of our parents,” she said. Blakely wondered if their older brother held on to the most pain too.
“Grandma Lacey did a really great job with all of us,” Jules said, twisting her fingers together. This subject obviously made her uncomfortable. “Learning about our motherhad nothing to do with the upbringing we had, which was the best.”
“Our grandparents did the best they could with the hand they were dealt,” Dalton said. “Can you even imagine being at that point in your life and taking on six children?”
Jules shook her head. “I guess I’ve been thinking about that a lot more lately now that Toby and I…”
Dalton’s eyes widened to saucers. “What? Are you telling me that you’re—”
“No,” Jules said with an expression that made it look like she’d just bitten into a sour grape. The look on her face immediately shut down any notion that she might be pregnant. “We’re engaged, not yet married.” She paused for a few beats. “I know babies don’t necessarily wait, but I’ve always been on the fence about having children because of our situation.”
“I’m not on the fence at all,” Dalton stated with finality. “I never intend to have a family.”
What was it about that statement—a statement Blakely would have wholeheartedly agreed with a week ago—that caused her stomach to sink and a sense of hopelessness to settle in her chest?
She didn’t want a family. Did she?
“Have you met her?” Dalton asked his sister.
“Haven’t decided if I want to or can handle it,” Jules admitted.
“Grandpa Lor said there’s a lot we don’t know about our mother’s ‘situation,’ as he called it,” Dalton said. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
