Somebody's Lover: The Jackson Brothers, Book 1

that.”
    “Yeah.”
    His mom wiped at her streaming eyes. Jace hugged her beneath his chin and kissed the top of her head.
    “I’m sorry I put you through that, Mom.” Then he eased back to look at her. “Forgive me?” It seemed such a blithe and easy phrase, yet he needed it as much as he’d needed his father’s forgiveness.
    “Of course, I do. You’re my baby.”
    He kissed each cheek, rested his chin a moment in her hair filled with the scent of flowers and baby powder.
    “Go tell Taylor how you feel. Tell her we’re glad, too.”
    “She’ll want your blessing, Mom. It’s been bugging her, what you’d say about it.” About someone taking Lou’s place. Not just Jace, but anyone.
    “I always knew it would happen someday, but I didn’t want things to change. I didn’t want to lose her.”
    He understood what his mother meant. Taylor had said the same thing in the truck that first night. Finding a new man would change things more than anyone wanted. It was long past time for that change, though. Lou was gone. They all had to face it.
    “I’m not sure she’ll choose me, Mom.” But he would make sure she knew she had a choice, that life as a woman hadn’t ended the day Lou died.
    She patted his cheek. “She’d be crazy not to jump at a man like you, honey. But I’ll love her no matter what.”
    “So will I.” Ignoring the ache around his heart, he turned.
    “Jace.” David’s voice stopped him. “I was wrong. What I said about Taylor was wrong. I never thought that. I just”—he spread his hands—“Lou’s death has been eating at me.” He wiped a palm down his shirt as if he were suddenly sweaty. “But Dad’s right. About everything he said. And I was way out of line this morning.” It was probably the closest David would come to accepting that maybe Lou had made a mistake, too.
    “It’s fine, David. It’s...it’s really fine.”
    And it was. Jace couldn’t pinpoint precisely why, but it was. His family felt whole for the first time since Lou died.
    He couldn’t say the same for him and Taylor. He didn’t deserve a damn thing from her if he didn’t have the courage to tell her exactly how he felt.
    Fuck was a good word in its place, but it didn’t come close to the meaning of love .

    * * * * *

    Evelyn held Arthur’s hand. The heat had risen inside the truck cab until she’d had to flip the key in the ignition to roll down the electric window. Jace and David had long since gone.
    “I love you, Arthur. I wish you’d told me how you felt.”
    “You wanted me to tell you I actually hated my son because of how he died?”
    He stared through the windshield, a big handsome man even at fifty-nine. If she hadn’t had Arthur, she’d never have made it through those dark days after Lou died. She realized now that she hadn’t helped him through. He’d bottled it all up inside.
    “You didn’t hate him, Arthur. You hated that he was gone.” She soothed his hand with a stroke.
    “I did hate him, Evie. I hated him for going up without backup, for being careless, for not listening to everything I taught him, for leaving his cell phone in the truck instead of taking it with him. I even hated him for leaving Jace with all the blame on his shoulders. I hated him for everything.”
    God in heaven, she’d had no idea the weight Arthur had carried. She stroked his cheek.
    “Maybe you hated yourself for not being there that day.”
    He grabbed her knee, squeezed almost to the point of pain. “I didn’t want you to hate me for those terrible thoughts.”
    “Arthur, you’re the most important thing in the world to me. I could never hate you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you.”
    “No, Evie, I’m sorry. I wasn’t good for you. All those nights you cried yourself to sleep, I wanted to hold you, I really did.” He drew in a breath. She felt his pain inside her own body. “But I kept seeing him lying there, the ground beneath him dark with his own...”
    She petted him, comforted him, wiped away the tears. “Shh, my darling. You did your best for me, for all of us.” It was so easy for women to pour out their hearts. But a strong man couldn’t let the pain out.
    God worked in mysterious ways. If Jace hadn’t fallen in love with Taylor, if Taylor hadn’t returned that affection, if poor little Jamey hadn’t fallen out of the tree. If David and Jace hadn’t almost come to blows in the parking lot...Arthur would have carried his pain in silence and killed himself