“As simple as that, huh?” my mom spits out, still having her claws extended, ready for a fight. This is where Billie gets her attitude and grudges from. Dad’s more forgiving and understanding than my mom happens to be. That woman can hold a resentment for years.
“Do you want to be part of your granddaughter’s life, Mom?” I challenge her with my inquiry.
Her eyes narrow into tiny slits as she gifts me with an evil, scary-as-fuck look. “Are you saying that if I don’t forgive being kept from my granddaughter, my blood, that you’ll keep me away?” The hiss she ends with has me stepping back an inch or two. Jacey is now attached to my spinal column; her tits are smashed into my mid-back and I can’t help but close my eyes and try to think about purple unicorns and pink cats. It’s the only things I can think of in order not to pop a boner at her closeness.
“Pretty much,” I conclude as Jacey’s other hand grabs the bottom of my T-shirt. I can feel how shaky she is, her hands are twitching in nervousness. As her breathing picks up in pace, the hot air that leaves her is like a whisper on my neck. Bumps are forming up and down my body.
As I go to react to my mom’s venomous tongue, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. We have enough evidenced compiled. You can let Jameson go. With Jacey’s affidavit, the check stubs and other proof that has been collected over time, we have enough to pursue legal charges against him. My lawyer’s text gives me a fleeting moment of delight before reality comes crashing back into my life. I send a thumbs up emoji, because I need to be paying attention to the happenings inside of this room. I find my sisters have now come to the house and haved joined us in this spectacular showdown with our parents. I nod my head at them. This is my indirect way of letting them know that we have work to do later on today. If possible, anyway, a lot depends on our parents and the conclusions they choose to make.
“I still feel like there’s more to talk about, but we can do that over time. There’s no need for all of this open hostility,” my dad speaks up.
“I agree, Keith,” Mona, Jacey’s mom, speaks up and agrees.
“I still have questions, but Keith and Mona are right,” my mom concludes as she plants herself on Jacey’s couch.
“That’s some progress anyway,” Jacey says. As she whispers these words to me, a tingling sensation runs up and down my spine. Again.
I pull her along with me as I make my way over to her stuffed chair. I grab her by her hips and position her in my lap. There are two reasons for me doing this, one is so we can present ourselves as a united front, the second is because I don’t want anyone to witness the way my dick is standing at attention and made itself predominantly present in my tight jeans.
“So, how do we proceed from here?” David, Jacey’s dad, pipes up and asks.
“This is a bit awkward,” Mona interjects as she is inserted in her husband’s lap, much in the way I’ve positioned Jacey in my own. But I doubt it’s because David is facing the same issue as I am currently.
“Our first priority is and always will be, Hadley. We both agree that we don’t want her growing up feeling tension and becoming torn between everyone. If there isn’t forgiveness in your heart for Jacey, then you don’t need to be around Hadley. Y’all can go ahead and take yourselves home if that’s the case. Neither of us want her to become attached to any of the four of you only to have y’all ripped out of her life later down the road. It’ll be easier on her if she never meets you as opposed to perceiving your anger toward her mother.”
“Rayne, we’d never do that,” my mother supplies. “It’d be wrong for Hadley to be in the middle of anything. Out of all of us, she’s the innocent one in all of this.”
“I agree with Nicole on this one,” Mona interjects her thoughts.
“Is nobody listening to me?” I scowl at everyone. “She’s a perceptive little girl. She’ll catch on if you all have hurt feelings toward her mother. You either all forgive Jacey and move on from here or get the fuck out.”
“There’s no need for foul language, young man,” my mom scolds me.
“I’m a grown-ass adult, I can talk any way I please. And right now, I’m upset that what I’m saying isn’t sinking into y’alls brains. It’s simple, yes, I forgive her, or no, I can’t and we’re leaving right now. Which one will it be?”
16
Jacey
I feel as if the timeclock should be ticking by and the theme song from Jeopardy should be playing in the background with Rayne’s last words spoken. I can envision Alex Trebek in the background saying time’s up.
And just as if it’d been rehearsed, I hear Hadley calling out for me. “I’ve gotta go get her. Do you want me to bring her out here, or keep her occupied?”
“I need you to stall for as long as you can, Jace,” Rayne says in a sweet tone directed toward me, yet his eyes never leave the parents.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I tell him as I get up from his lap. His hands go under my rear end as he pushes me up in assistance to stand.
As I go to walk away, his hand reaches up and grabs me by my wrist. “Are you forgetting something?”
“Um, I-I don’t think so,” I reply, biting on my bottom lip as I contemplate if there’s something else he needs from me before tending to Hadley.
“Your lips, Jacey,” he says in a commanding tone.
“What about them?” I absently ponder. It goes over my head of what it is he wants from me.
“You shouldn’t take them from the room without placing them on mine.” He winks at me.
Confusion swamps me. I know this is something he never let me walk away from without doing, but that’s when we were a couple, we aren’t that any longer. Are we?
He squeezes tighter gaining my attention. “Jacey, please.”
The word please spouting from his mouth is what ultimately helps me decide. Leaning over, I lightly brush mine against his before quickly pulling back and running away. I didn’t used to be shy when it came to kissing him in public, those displays of affection never bothered me in front of our families. Around them was the only time I could be free and enjoy the couple that we were. But we’re not a couple now, so why is he insisting that I kiss him before leaving a room? Confusion once again swamps me, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around things. Are we truly and irrevocably working our way back to one another, or is he trying to make a point to our family that we are one solid unit no matter what?
No matter which it is, I need to keep my guard up and not allow it to crumble until he and I have had a chance to sit down and discuss it like mature adults. Mind made up, I walk into my girl’s room and see her sitting up on her bed, her tiny fists rubbing her eyes, trying to wipe the sleepy haze from them.
“Did you have a good nap, baby girl?”
“Yes, Momma. Where’s my daddy’s?” she asks with sleep still evident in her voice.
“He’s in the living room, Hadley. Let’s get you to the potty and wash your hands then we’ll go see him, okay?” I don’t want to tell her about our other guests in case Rayne’s kicked them to the curb.