follow him because I feel a trembling hand land on my shoulder before a sweaty body drops down behind me. “Mom?” Kevin’s voice is filled with the fear I haven’t heard in weeks.
“Damn you,” I whisper aloud, but I don’t know who I’m cursing. Is it Maris with her piss-poor timing or Jennings?
I shoot a glare at Maris, who merely shrugs. Internally cursing everything, especially wretched timing, I conclude Jennings has to find a way on his own to come to grips with the fact my love for him is strong enough to last across a continent. So is his son’s.
He has to come to the conclusion I have—that love can be felt no matter where you are. All that matters are the people who love you, I think fiercely.
Pressing my lips against Kevin’s sweaty head, I just hope he does it before it undoes a summer’s worth of bonding between father and son. As for me, I’ve already accepted nothing will change my feelings for Jennings in this lifetime. Not ever again.
Hours later, Jennings comes to the house. I’m drinking wine in the solarium when I hear Maris let him in. I don’t call out, despite the increase of my heartbeat. It started raining not long after Jennings ran off, effectively ruining the rest of the afternoon for everyone, not just for me and Kevin.
Because I knew Kevin ate so much at Brad and Rainey’s, I’m not overly concerned he said no to food when Maris asked if he was hungry, mumbling, “I think I just want to go online and game for a bit, if that’s okay, Mom?”
I gave him a swift hug. “Your dad will be back soon,” I promised him. I prayed I wasn’t lying.
Now, it seems I wasn’t.
Jennings makes his way toward me. I hold up a hand to keep him at bay. “I don’t care where you went, but your son very much does.”
“Kara,” he starts, but I shake my head, still not facing him.
“I lived through his first heartbeats, fear, doubt, and worry every single day wondering if I was going to be enough for that child. We lived and we loved, but it’s different with you.”
“I know that,” he chokes out.
“Do you?” I whirl around. He’s drenched and his expression is haggard. Somehow I can’t find it in me to care, not when I’ve spent the last few hours worrying about both of the men in my life. “You’re his father, Jennings. I told you when this started he has to come first. Whatever’s going through your mind—”
“Is my own insecurity about being left again,” he says quietly, shocking me to the core. “Kara, I never told you how I started Northern Star Flights.”
“Why does this matter now?” I ask, frustrated. “How can this matter more than what happened today?”
Ignoring me, he continues. “Because I sold my aunt and uncle’s farm to do it. I relished doing it. I wanted no memories of that place. After all”—my jaw falls open as he gives me this piece of himself he’s held back—“I was abandoned there by parents who didn’t want me and raised by two people who essentially treated me like I was free labor.”
Even as angry as I am, my heart can’t hold itself apart from this knowledge. “Jennings, I knew you weren’t happy at home. But this?” I put my glass down and step forward with my hand outstretched. He grabs onto it like it’s everything. “Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask.
“Because each time I’d see what you gave Kevin as a single mother with nothing, I wanted to kick my own ass over the fact you should have had everything.” A lone tear trickles down his cheek before he rasps out, “And I kept trying to figure out a way to give it all to you. Time and again, you kept showing me all you wanted was me. And now, you’re leaving.”
I can’t keep myself back away from him any longer. I crash into him at the same time as he gathers me into his arms. Harsh sobs have his shoulders shaking under my hands. “I’ve got you,” I whisper.
“Don’t let me go,” he pleads. “No matter what. I can’t bear if you let me go.”
“I didn’t plan on it,” I whisper. “That’s not how love works, Jennings. We’re going to argue, but we will never let go.”
He nods, unable to speak, while I hold him, flabbergasted. When he stormed out of Brad and Rainey’s, I expected to rip