Page 61 of Slow Burn
“Can’t be helped, Jossie. They’re all over the place,” he said, turning to head back inside. His eyes flashed one last time to Cole before he disappeared inside.
Jocelyn’s pain scraped the air as she stood there, attention tight on the faded asphalt at her feet. Hurtin’ Frank had hurt her, and Cole’s urge to fix it nearly overpowered him. But all he had were his two hands, and he’d promised to keep those to himself.
“Joss,” he murmured, pulling her gaze back to his face.
She didn’t say a word, simply walked toward the truck to get in, so he had no choice but to do the same.
He let the silence hang heavy for a few minutes as he drove them back, waiting for her to roll through her feelings about the conversation. It did a heavier number than either of them had anticipated.
But maybe that’d been Frank’s goal. He sure hadn’t admitted a damn thing, and that stuck out to Cole like a city slicker in a corn field. The question was whether Jocelyn saw it yet or not.
When he couldn’t stand the quiet anymore, he asked, “Wanna talk about it?”
“Not particularly. But I probably should.”
She fell silent again for another stretch, and Cole just let her be, watching the big green trees fly by them as the highway brought them from Whitley back to Cedar Hollow. Whitley had always been a little depressed in comparison, its population much smaller, the way of life even slower. It barely had a business to its name. Meant most of their folks headed to Cedar Hollow for anything worth doing.
“Ned Turner made a comment about Daniel Abbott.”
Cole turned a surprised gaze on her. She sure avoided calling him her daddy at every opportunity. But Cole didn’t remember the comment. He’d been too busy keeping his eye on Ned and that shotgun.
“What comment?”
She kept her face toward the window. “He said he saw Daniel’s car in our driveway that day.”
Suspicious for sure, but he was her daddy. “That wasn’t usual?”
She shook her head. “He never publicly acknowledged us. There was no custody agreement, no relationship between us to speak of.”
There was pain here, too, deeper, more raw. He hadn’t known that. Sure, he’d made connections about the situation—given that she and Natasha were so close in age and Daniel had only married one of their mamas. But he hadn’t realized it was some well-known secret. What a self-absorbed jerk he’d been back then.
“He’d come around before,” she continued when he said nothing. “But not to see me. To argue with her about giving us money.”
“To help take care of you?”
She scoffed. “Yeah, if we moved away.”
Cole sucked a breath in through his teeth. “That what he said?”
She hesitated, brow folding. “It’s what Mama told me he said.”
“Hell of a thing, no matter who said it.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, looking out the window. “But something Frank said… he mentioned Daniel, too.”
He let that sit for a moment. The question was there, waiting to be asked. But it would probably hurt, too. And he was tired of seeing her hurting when he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
He finally dredged up the guts. “You gonna confront him about it?”
Those arms went around her middle again. Trying to keep herself together, seemed like. “Eventually.”
God, he wanted to hold her. “Nobody says it has to be now.”
She sighed and turned to the window again. “Can you drop me at Joe’s?”
She could use the rest. Hell, he needed the break from fighting himself so hard. He wanted too damn much.
“Sure, Darlin’,” he said, making a turn.
