Page 57 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
After he stopped laughing, he caught me in a deep, hot kiss that led to us having sex again. We took our time exploring each other’s bodies the second go, building each other up in a slow burn. He made me come with his fingers and then again with his cock.
Three amazing orgasms later and my body was as relaxed as it had been in years. I was totally content and pliable. But my mind was still active, unable to shut down and find sleep, thinking about all that had happened today.
Jess wasn’t asleep either. His arm underneath me was wrapped around my back and his hand was lightly rubbing my hip.
“What’s going on with your mom?” I was tucked tightly to Jess’s side, my arm across his torso, fingers drumming lightly on his chest.
“She’s just not always there. Like she gets lost in her own head. Spaces out completely. Doesn’t even realize she’s doing it.”
“Is that why she’s been in the hospital so much?”
“Yeah. She forgets the oven is hot and reaches in without a pad. Goes outside, doesn’t pay attention to where she’s walking and trips. Shit like that. Once when I was in high school, she walked outside to get the mail when it was snowing. Must have gone out sometime in the middle of the morning. Spaced out and stood by the mailbox all damn day. Found her there mostly frozen when I got home. Wasn’t wearing a coat or shoes. Took her to the hospital and she had frostbite on her fingers, ears and toes. Lucky she didn’t lose any.”
I didn’t know what to say. My mom could have won consecutive mother of the year awards. I couldn’t imagine growing up knowing you couldn’t depend on your mother. But it was starting to make sense to me why Jess was the way he was. Always in charge. Always taking care of everyone. He had started doing it early and probably didn’t know any other way.
“Has it always been like this?”
“My whole life. Felicity and I learned early on not to rely on her,” he said. “It wasn’t that she was neglecting us on purpose. She just can’t help it. She loves us. Has a good heart. Just . . . has a broken mind.”
“Felicity?” I asked.
“My sister. Moved to Seattle the day after she graduated high school. Haven’t seen her since. She’s two years younger than me so that was, what, fourteen years ago?”
“Do you talk to her at all?”
“Couple times a year. Try and call each other on our birthdays and Christmas.”
“What about your dad?”
“Stuck around until I was eight, then left. Moved to Billings to work for the refinery. Came back to visit off and on for a couple years. But then he met a woman over there and stopped coming back altogether.”
“That’s terrible,” I said.
“Just the way it was. Think he just got tired of taking care of Ma.”
“So he left an eight- and a six-year-old to do it instead? That’s not right, Jess.”
“Nope,” he agreed and gave my hip a firm squeeze with his hand. He could tell I was getting worked up. “But it doesn’t matter anymore, Freckles. I got what I needed from him as a kid, that being the checks he sent us twice a month. Once I got hired at the station, I wrote him a letter telling him he didn’t need to send them to Ma anymore. We were done with him. He doesn’t have a place in my life and hasn’t in ages.”
“I’m sorry, honey,” I whispered.
“It’s okay.”
We lay there in silence, me slowly starting to drift to sleep. It was getting late and though there were thoughts still racing in my head, my body was exhausted and needed to shut down.
Just before I nodded off, Jess squeezed my hip. “Georgia?”
“Yeah?” I yawned.
“Ma latched onto Roe tonight. Talked about her the whole ride home.”
“I know. Is that a bad thing?”
“She’ll want to babysit. Under no circumstances are you to let that happen.”
“Okay.” I nodded.
Jess’s mother couldn’t be trusted with her own children. He didn’t need to tell me twice not to leave her with mine.
