Page 79 of Taming I Do
I didn’t want to answer. Not because I didn’t know, but because that had been a sticking point between me and Stella. My mother wanted to donate the bare minimum. She reasoned that the cosmetics line would be our only source of income. If we were the ones putting in all the work, why should we give up any of the profits?
But I refused to have my name or brand associated with a company that would only give the bare minimum. After days of arguing, we’d finally settled on 12.5 percent. The number was far below the 20 percent mark that I had wanted, but also quite a bit higher than Stella’s initial offer of five.
Jasper shot another look my way. “I don’t want to upset you. It’s just that I feel like I saw two different people today. When you spoke to those kids at Abby’s school, it was like you lit up inside. And I’m telling you, they hung on every word.”
I grinned as I thought about how it felt to stand up there and share my story. So many girls came up to me after and thanked me for not being afraid to open up.
“Then this afternoon, it was like you closed off. That light I saw in you earlier went out.” He reached for my hand. “It just makes me wonder. Is donating a percentage of the profits going to be enough to make you light up inside?”
Jasper
When I pulledup in front of Delilah’s trailer, she didn’t wait for me to come around and open her door. I barely caught up to her as she slid her key in the lock.
“Want me to take a look around before you go in?” Ever since the night of the crickets, I’d worried that Adeline or one of her minions would find something equally vile to unleash. So far, the only thing I’d found in one of my searches was a giant moth.
“It’s okay. We’ve both had a long day. I’m sure you’ll hear the scream if I come across anything that’s not supposed to be there.” She let her hand linger on the door handle. “Besides, don’t you need to get home to let Buster out?”
“I asked Abby to go over when I figured we’d be late.” With me on the ground and Delilah standing on the second step, we almost stood eye to eye.
“What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”
“It’s the butterfly wedding. Do you still want to go?”
“Of course.” Her lips turned up in a weak smile. She had to be exhausted after the last twenty-four hours. But I didn’t want to let her go without making sure I hadn’t said or done something to add to whatever made her shoulders slump forward and had taken a little bit of the shine from her eyes.
“About earlier . . .”
Her head tilted, like she was studying me under the dim light coming from the moon. “What about it?”
How could I sum up everything I wanted to say in a few short words? “I just want you to be happy.”
She nodded, her head moving up and down so slightly that I squinted to make sure I hadn’t imagined it in the semidarkness.
“I appreciate that. And I am happy. Or at least I will be when I can finally start doing something that makes a difference.” She set a hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for being there today.”
“My pleasure.” I picked up her hand and brought it to my lips. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Tomorrow.”
She ducked inside the camper, and I stood there for several minutes, trying to decide if I should go after her. It was so obvious to me that she needed to start putting herself first and figure out what would make her happy instead of sacrificing everything for her mother. She’d probably been doing it her whole life. The irony of that wasn’t lost on me. I’d been doing the same thing to some degree.
It made me wonder... would she ever be able to truly give herself to someone, or would she always be holding something back?
CHAPTER 19
DELILAH
“Areyou coming to the wedding or not?” I only had about an hour before I’d agreed to swing back to Taylor Grove and help Abby do her hair. After the all-day fiasco with Franco yesterday, Stella had sunk back into a funk. I tried to prod my mother into getting ready for the wedding, but if she wasn’t going to budge, I wouldn’t let it keep me from the commitment I’d made.
“Just go without me.” Stella waved a hand in the air and held it to her forehead, her palm facing out. “I’ll be fine here by myself.”
“That’s it. You’re being ridiculous.” I hadn’t dared to use that sharp a tone with my mother before.
Stella must have realized it, too. She sat up on the bed and let her hand fall away. “I’m not being ridiculous. I’ve had my heart broken.”
“You and Walter dated for what... four months?” I rummaged through the dozen or more dresses my mother had hung in the small closet of the motel room. “Is your heart really broken or are you just lonely?”
“He told me he loved me. I thought he was going to propose over the holidays.” Stella shifted to the edge of the bed and flung her feet over the side.
