Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,114

your father.” The fact that she couldn’t say Klara’s name told me it very much was.

Pushing up from my chair, I moved over to sit next to her on the sofa and then covered her hands with mine. “Mom, I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you. I get that you might be gun-shy, but I’m not you. Frankie’s not Dad. Right now? I’m happy and exactly where I want to be.”

“Jake you have no idea, you’re still a baby. She’s a baby. What sounds so erotic and enticing when you’re younger doesn’t always stay that way. The naughty factor can be exciting, I get that…”

I grimaced. “Okay, I really don’t want to think about any of those words in relation to you or Dad or Klara, if you don’t mind. I’ve made it this far without needing therapy, I don’t think I need to start.”

She slapped my arm, but she laughed, even if her expression remained troubled. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

“Maybe, but would you want me to give you any details about what I find erotic and exciting?” It about fucking killed me to say those words to my mother, and her moue of distaste told me she was as fond of the idea as I was.

“I’m worried about you.”

I put an arm around her. “I know, but I’m happy, Mom.”

“You say that now, but what happens when you pick a college with her? That’s what you’re all doing right? You’re all trying to go to the same school?”

“To be fair, we wanted to be at the same college town, if not the same college, from the beginning. We weren’t dating when that became the subject.”

“But you wanted to date her,” she argued with me.

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say? I’ve been crazy about her for years. That hasn’t changed.”

“And what if you make all these decisions and it does change? What if she picks one of those other boys? Likes him more? What if you get an opportunity to do something, and she won’t go with you or support it because it would mean leaving them? What if you’re…”

“Mom,” I gave her a squeeze, then let her go so I could turn sideways and face her. “Stop.”

“Baby, I worry about you. You feel good now and things are great, but they can go so wrong so fast. You can find that everything you thought you knew… People grow. They change. Sometimes, they grow apart.”

“Yeah, then you fight to get back to each other,” I said. “I don’t know what happens tomorrow, I know what I’d like to have happen. I know what I want next week. The month after that. And next year. But none of it happens without a lot of work and time. From me. From her. There’s no such thing as a guarantee. It’s all work.”

With a sigh, she covered her face with her hands and shook her head. “And you’re all right with her seeing the others?”

I sighed. “I’ll talk to you about this once, exactly once, because you’re upset. But we’re not having this conversation again, and I’d very much appreciate it if you didn’t bring it up to Frankie…ever.”

She took something of a shaky breath and lowered her hands before she glanced at me. “That seems…reasonable…if a little harsh.”

“Take it or leave it, because I love her, Mom. I love you, too. I don’t want either of you to hurt.”

Her eyes glistened. “You really love her?”

“Yeah. She’s the one. Maybe I’m only eighteen and settling down is still a few years away, but it’s always been Frankie. I don’t want anyone else. She’s not Dad, Mom. I’m sorry about what went down with the three of you, I know you were hurt. But we’re not you.”

She sniffed. “I’m just scared for you. Because it can seem like everything, and it could go so wrong.”

“Name me a single relationship that can’t go wrong, even if it’s just two people?” I hadn’t been able to make a single relationship work because I hadn’t wanted them to work. They’d all just been placeholders and barely that. “I know it won’t always be easy. It’s not easy now.”

Her frown deepened.

“But it works. What we have works. I don’t want to change it or her. And I get it, if you’re not comfortable with it, I won’t force us on you.”

“That’s not what I meant by this,” she said, then leaned sideways against the sofa and propped her head against her