Game Changer by Kelly Jamieson Page 0,89

about this. I mean, Rico and Heart are my two best buddies still left on the team, now that Gander is gone. But I don’t share all my deepest secret crap with them. That’s not me. I haven’t said a word to them about Molly, out of fear it would get back to Chucky.

Too late for that, though. Rico apparently saw the Instagram post that led to this shit show.

I remember my mom lamenting that I don’t talk to her. And Molly commenting about all the time I’d lost with my dad because of not talking about what happened.

Shit.

Welp, if Mom wants me to talk to her, she’s about to get an earful.

I put my SUV in gear and leave the parking lot.

I wait for my mom to say, “I knew it!” or “I told you so!”

Luckily, she doesn’t. Because I don’t really want to have my stupidity rubbed in my face. My mom’s pretty great.

“Remember what I said at the lake?” she asks, in a calm voice.

“That I don’t talk to you enough?”

“Well, that too. But I told you men aren’t programmed to cheat. There are many reasons that they do. But it’s always a choice.”

“Right.” I rub my face. “I get that. But…I’m afraid I’ll screw up. I want to believe in love. I want to believe in happily ever after. After this summer…I guess my eyes were opened. I thought Chelsea married Grandpa for his money. Turns out they really love each other. I thought Dad cheated on you. Turns out he didn’t. I want to believe I can be faithful to one woman for the rest of my life.”

“That’s not good enough for Molly.”

“What?” My jaw slackens, and my gut goes hollow. I stare across the room.

“You can’t go to her hoping you can be faithful. You have to know it. You have to know that every day, you’ll make that choice not to cheat. Every day, Jax. You have to believe in yourself.”

I close my eyes.

“Is she worth it?” Mom asks quietly.

I nod slowly, even though Mom can’t see me. My eyes burn.

I think about Molly. About how much I’ve missed her. How much I need her. How empty my life has felt since she left. I think about how good she makes me feel and how I want to be there for her. Always. “Yeah,” I rasp out. “She’s worth it. I can do it.”

“Good.” Mom pauses. “Jax. Your dad and I didn’t want to talk to you about what happened in our marriage, because we didn’t want to point fingers at each other. But part of the problem was not talking to each other about how we were feeling.”

I remember sitting on the deck in Catalina with Dad. I wasn’t great at talking about my feelings, he’d said.

No shit. I guess that’s where I get it from.

“He said it wasn’t your fault.”

Mom laughs softly. “That’s admirable of him to say that. Maybe he’s learned something. But the truth is, I wasn’t good either at expressing what I needed from him. I thought he should know. I let the resentment build. Don’t be like that.”

I frown. “Resentment?”

“Not that specifically, just whatever you’re feeling. Tell Molly. Tell someone, but especially Molly. I wish you’d told your dad and me how you were feeling.”

Another memory of that conversation with dad. Because I’d blamed him for cheating on Mom, never asked him about it, never told either of them how much it wrecked me that they split up. What a lot of wasted years.

Wasted years between Dad and me. Wasted years between him and his own father. Wasted years between Dad and Mom, too, I guess.

I don’t want that for me and Molly. I don’t want to regret not being brave enough to tell her how I feel. About everything. Ever.

Yeah, she’s worth it. She’s all that I want in the world.

Molly

I can’t dash out the door the minute Travis and Erin get home, much as I want to. I dutifully wait to admire the gifts they brought the boys, listen to all the things they did in New York, then make my escape.

As soon as I’m home, I text Jax to let him know.

My apartment is a disaster, since I was staying at Travis and Erin’s place the last few days. I left dishes in the sink, clothes piled on the chair in my bedroom, and a basket of laundry in the hall. I have more laundry to add to it now, and I need to