Colson (The Henchmen MC #20) - Jessica Gadziala Page 0,6

Over the course of Jelena's entire life.

For me, dating hadn't been an option.

Everything was about Jelly when she was little.

Then, later, it was just a habit.

I hadn't dated since right out of high school. I couldn't imagine getting back into that after so long.

So, once in a while, the need to be with a woman got too strong to ignore, but my interest had never been in more than that.

"You don't have to be alone."

"I'm not alone. I have you."

"You know what I mean, Dad. I'm not a little girl anymore. If you want to date, date."

"I don't want to is my point. What? What are you rolling your eyes about?" I asked as I put toast on her plate. She'd tried to hide it as she went to get the orange juice out of the fridge, but I had eagle eyes when it came to eye rolls. I hated them. And she knew it.

"I'm going to go to college one day."

"Damn straight," I agreed, nodding. It was one of the reasons we had a townhouse and not a standalone one; I wanted to keep our costs down so I could sock as much away as possible for her schooling. She needed seven years to put a doctor in front of her name? That was what I was going to do for her.

"My point is, I won't be here anymore. And then what will you have?"

"Family. Friends."

"Dad," she said, sighing, shaking her head at me.

"Alright, kid. I get your point. If I suddenly wake up one day and decide I want to date, I have your blessing."

"Totally," she agreed, giving me a smile as she took her food out to the living room, flipping through Netflix on the TV as she ate.

I wasn't bullshitting her.

I didn't want to date.

Or, at least, I hadn't.

There was a slam out front, and my nosy ass moved to the front window, glancing out to find Eva trailing behind her slow-moving son down the front porch.

"Roll your eyes at me one more time, Jacob," she snapped, making my lips curve up. Oh, the struggles of trying to raise a halfway decent human being while keeping your sanity intact.

We all had losing days in that battle.

This seemed to be one of those days for our new neighbor.

I didn't realize I was standing there watching her get into her car and drive off until I heard Jelena clearing her throat behind me, making me jump and turn in a way that had to be called guiltily.

"What?" I asked at the smug look on her face.

"Not interested at all, huh, Dad?" she asked, turning around and flouncing away in a blur of brown curls and self-righteousness.

I couldn't even call her on it either.

Because that strange, unsteady sensation in my chest?

It sure felt a hell of a lot like interest.

TWO

Eva

Starting over was never easy.

I had to remind myself of that at least a thousand times a day.

Everything was new.

The neighborhood, the house, the school, my commute to work.

It was just going to take some time to adjust.

At least, that was what I wanted to believe. I wanted to blame the very sudden move for Jacob's behavior issues. But if I were being honest with myself, they had been a problem on and off for the past year.

I thought getting him into a better environment would help. Shake up the school, the friend group, everything. But if anything, things seemed to be getting worse.

When I was home, I kept him under control. He wasn't a bad kid. And he generally didn't even backtalk me all that much. But I had to leave. I had to work. And that was when the trouble always seemed to start.

"I don't know what to do, Ma," I said, dropping down the bedrail, so I could sit at her side on the bed. She wouldn't respond to me. When she did speak these days, it was either complete nonsense or memories from her twenties. Everything else seemed to be gone or going. All the memories from Jacob's life. Hell, all of them from mine. Some days—maybe even most days lately—she didn't recognize me as her daughter, thinking instead that I was one of her sisters.

The oldest memories are the last to go the doctor had told me once at the beginning when I didn't understand why she kept regaling me with the story of her wedding as though it happened just a few months before.

"I know what you did when my brother started acting out