Page 135 of The Last Second Chance
“It takes a long, long time. And a lot of wine. But once you get to that point of understanding, everything starts to hurt just a little bit less. I honestly believe that they didn’t do any of it to hurt you. They both thought they were protecting you in their own stupid, misguided way.” Phoebe patted her leg.
Franklin entered the room carting a tray with steaming mugs, Mr. Snuffles on his heels. He’d sliced up lemon and added a little bowl of honey and a pitcher of cream.
“Thank you, handsome,” Phoebe said, grinning up at her husband-to-be.
Franklin smiled sweetly back at her and Joey wanted to gag a little. Everyone was happy and in love except for her. Stupid Blue Moon.
“So what are you going to do?” Phoebe asked, after Franklin left them again.
Mr. Snuffles jumped up next to her on the couch and cocked his head as if he was waiting for an answer too.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Do you love Jax?”
Joey shrugged. “I guess. But that sure didn’t get me very far either time with him. We’re obviously missing something key to a successful relationship. Any ideas?”
“If I had to hazard a guess, I’d put my money on communication,” Phoebe offered.
“Relationships would be so much easier if we didn’t have to communicate,” Joey grumbled. It was true. She and Jax rarely had a conversation that didn’t begin or end with an argument. And if they weren’t fighting, they were naked. Solid relationships couldn’t be built on just sex, could they?
She hadn’t realized she’d asked the question out loud until Phoebe snorted in her tea. “No, but they sure go better than the ones with terrible sex. And you know what? You can learn to communicate easier than you can learn to be more interesting in bed.”
“You may have a point,” Joey said, picking up her tea and sniffing it. “One last question. You knew all this time why Jax left. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Phoebe sighed long and low. “I’ve been dreading this question for years. Not telling you makes me seem disloyal to you. Like I was protecting Jax over you.”
“Maybe a little. I mean, he is your son and all, but you still should have told me.”
“It was for Jax and your father to tell. Coming from anyone else, including me?” she shook her head. “The only way to save either or both of those relationships is for them to tell you the truth. Me telling you would have robbed them of that opportunity and it would have quite possibly effectively ended one or both relationships.”
“But my relationship with Jax was already over.”
Phoebe smiled. “Honey, you two could run off and marry other people and have six kids apiece and you still wouldn’t be over. There are so many strings tying you two together I pity anyone who tries to keep you apart.”
“John seemed to think that me loving Jax in high school was kind of like a prison.”
“Leave it to a man to describe love as a prison,” Phoebe sighed.
“Do you think I trapped him?”
“I think the decisions you both would have made together would have put you in different places than where you are now.”
“So Jax wouldn’t be a big-time Hollywood screenwriter?”
“And you wouldn’t be a partner in the stables you helped build,” Phoebe pointed out.
Joey couldn’t imagine a life without her horses, without Pierce Acres, without her cozy home tucked away on a hill.
“Hmm. Well, you know there’s really only one thing that’s going to repair your relationship with me since you’ve been lying to me for all these years,” Joey said, delicately sipping her tea.
Phoebe rolled her eyes and pulled a battered recipe card out from under the couch cushion. “Mercenary,” she said.
“Thank you Great-Aunt Felicia,” Joey said, triumphantly holding up the raspberry cream cheese coffee cake recipe.
30
The dayof Blue Moon’s 45thAnnual Sit-In And Good Cause Carnival dawned crisp and bright with temperatures promising a balmy high in the mid-forties.
