Page 80 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads

Lisa crossed the distance and wrapped her arms around Jackson so fiercely his eyes widened in shock.“Honey,” she whispered, voice trembling, “I’m so sorry you carried this alone.”She pulled back enough to cup his face.“Thank you for saving my son.But next time, young man, you come to me.This is the kind of thing we handle as a family.You never needed to do this alone.”She hugged him again and even though she whispered, I heard her clearly say, “I’d have shot him myself for doing that.Actually, Mason would’ve marched over there and done it, then burned down that evil house.”

Jackson looked devastated by that.

But Timothy?—

Timothy exploded.

“Thank you?”he roared.The words cracked out of him hard enough to echo across the parking lot.His chest heaved once.His hand curled into his hair like he could physically hold himself together.“Everybody lied to me for years and you’re thanking him?”His gaze snapped to Jackson with enough force to make Jackson straighten.“Tell me something,” he snarled.“Did you dump her in some homeless shelter and walk away?”The last words came rough, splintering at the edges, like every ugly possibility had been eating him alive for years.

Jackson jerked back like Timothy had slapped him.His brows slammed together.“It was a battered women’s shelter,” he shot back.“What was I supposed to do?I was eighteen with no money and a truck that barely made it across the mountains.She couldn’t come back here.”His voice roughened on the last words.“I had to come back.”

Timothy flinched like the reminder hit him square in the chest.

Jackson kept going anyway.“I helped her however I could.”His voice roughened.“I enlisted right out of high school and sent her my signing bonus so she could get out of there.So she could get her GED.Go to college.Have a damn shot at life.And look at her.She’s incredible.Then again, I’m pretty sure she started out that way.”

The entire yard went silent.

Timothy wasn’t looking at the cousin who helped me run away.He was looking at the man who’d quietly held together the shattered pieces of my life the only way he could.

Timothy asked low, “Did Mark know?”

“I never told him.So don’t be blaming him.Now, did he know something was up?That something happened that night to make me disappear for a few days?”Jackson shrugged.“He’s my twin.Sometimes we don’t ask questions.”

“He saved my life, but it cost him too much.It cost all of us too much.”My voice went soft and heavy with guilt.“I didn’t like what the Navy did to Jackie.”

Jackson looked away, but not defensively.More like a man searching for the right doorway into a story too tangled to tell straight.He once admitted to me there were years of his life he didn’t even know how to put into words anymore.

Timothy’s stare sharpened.His jaw locked hard enough to tick.One hand flexed open and closed at his side before he shoved it into his pocket.“Are you saying you two got involved?”

The question came out low and rough, like he already hated whatever answer might follow.

Jackson barked out a humorless laugh at the same time I shook my head.

“No,” I said quickly.“Not like that.”I glanced at Jackson, my chest aching all over again.“He became the only family I had.”

Something flickered across Timothy’s face at the wordfamily.He knew exactly what that meant.I’d had nobody but Jackson.

“Did you try to stop her from marrying Justin?”Timothy demanded suddenly, anger lashing out in a new direction now.“Or did you just stand there and let it happen too?”

Jackson’s face tightened.“I was deployed overseas when she married him.”Regret darkened his face.“If I’d been there?”He gave a sharp shake of his head.“I would’ve told her he was a worthless piece of shit before she ever said ‘I do.’”

Timothy dragged a hand through his hair and turned away a second like he couldn’t stand being inside his own skin anymore.

“Don’t be mad at her for leaving…for calling me,” Jackson said quietly in that low voice that demanded attention.

Timothy stilled.

Jackson waited until Timothy finally looked at him before continuing.“She kept this from you to keep you alive.”His voice roughened.“You hear me?”

Timothy’s throat worked.

Jackson stepped closer.“Timothy…”

The entire yard seemed to go still.Even the wind.

“You’re the center of this family, whether you ever wanted to be or not.You handle the farm and the businesses, the land.You make sure my brother can stay in his corner, undisturbed.Those groceries and things don’t go unappreciated.Half this community owes you a debt for something.They’d repay it in a heartbeat but never speak about it out loud.”He blew out a long breath.“I stayed in the hospital with her because I couldn’t stomach leaving her alone after what happened.”His eyes flicked toward me briefly before returning to Timothy.“But she wantedyou.”

Timothy’s face cracked.Not all at once.But I saw it.