In the Wind by Bijou Hunter Page B

you."
    "I miss you too, baby. Cooper told me you're in Texas staying with the McLaughlins."
    "Yeah," I say, waiting for the lecture.
    "He also said you plan to stay there, so he sent Jace to bring you back. How you feeling about spending time with the ex?"
    Realizing my mom knows not to give a lecture, I miss her even more. "It's weird. He wants to be friends again. He's also been kissing me."
    "Do you want to be his friend?"
    "Maybe."
    I hear voices from Mom's end before she asks, "Do you want him back?"
    "No."
    "It still counts as lying when you do it on the phone."
    Smiling, I sigh. "I don't know. The kissing feels good, but I still hate him. Besides, does it really matter what I want? It sure didn't when he dumped me, so I don't see why it would it now."
    "Jace is still a young guy, and young men are stupid, Sawyer. When Tucker fell for Maddy, he messed with her birth control pills. When Cooper fell for Farah, he scared her and put Nick in the hospital. Jace is like most young men when they fall in love."
    "Maybe," I say, thinking about my brother-in-law Nick who for some reason married Bailey. I've always suspected when Cooper hit him, Nick suffered a brain injury.
    "Jace is impossible to read. He says he wants to be friends then he kisses me then he acts as if we're just friends and then he acts like he might be into Bodie. She might be into him too. They talked this morning."
    "Have you asked Bodie?"
    "No. I'm afraid she'll say yes, and I'll have a death match with her. I'm not sure I can win that."
    "What can one of those crazy McLaughlins offer Jace that you can't give him two-fold?"
    "He left me though."
    "He's a messed up guy. His parents got massacred. The fuckers even killed their dog. That'll mess up a kid, and his fucked up brain never really got fixed. Therapy might help Farah and Tawny, but Jace seems as fucked up now as when he first came to Ellsberg. He just hides it better."
    "So maybe I shouldn't want someone so fucked up."
    "Maybe you shouldn't, but the heart doesn't take orders."
    When I say nothing, Mom continues, "If your pop had dumped me, I wouldn't have moved on either. He was mine, and no other man would do. Holding onto what I loved wouldn't make me weak. It'd make me strong enough to be alone rather than with a man who gives me less than I need."
    I think about how my parents didn't make any sense on paper. They made sense in every other way though. I always figured I'd find the same kind of right.
    "Jace feels right to me, but he left me before, and I'm afraid to look like a fool by trusting him again."
    Mom doesn't speak for a minute. "You're scary when you're pissed. Try being less scary and see what happens."
    "What if I give him another chance and he breaks my heart again?"
    Mom says something to a person in the background. "I'm going to need to go, but here's what I think. I'll be home in a few weeks and you'll fly home to visit me. If you want to live in Last Dollar or anywhere else, I'll support you. It'll kill me to have you far away, but you're a woman despite what Cooper says. So when you come home, if you and Jace aren't working out, he'll stays here and you'll leave. He gets until then to fix things. If he fucks up, you can ditch him."
    "If he fucks up, I'll still have a broken heart."
    "Pain is part of life," Mom says, sounding sad and likely thinking about Pop. "You have to take the bad if you want to enjoy the good. If you love Jace even half as much as I love Kirk, the pain will be worth it."
    "I miss Pop so much," I say, my voice breaking.
    "Me too, baby. I feel him with me here. Every time someone gets on my nerves, I bitch to him in my head, and he laughs. It's not much, but I can't let him go."
    "I never want to let him go either."
    "Then don't. Know Pop still loves you, and he's watching over you. He raised you to be brave and strong. Don't let Cooper, Jace, or anyone else make you feel weak."
    "I won't."
    After saying I love you, we hang up. Sad over missing my parents and