“Seems so.”
“What do we do with this place, though? If we can’t rent it or sell it…” She darted her gaze around the room.
“We try to rent it, I guess. If that doesn’t pan out, we try to sell it. And if that doesn’t pan out, we keep it empty.”
“What about squatters?”
“In a small town like Snow Creek?” I shook my head. “I doubt we have to worry about that. Plus, eventually someone new will move here looking for a place to live, and they won’t know or care that a monster once lived here.”
“From your mouth to God’s ears.” My devout mother crossed herself. “You do what you think is right, Bryce. Thank you for including me in your plans.”
“Of course, Mom. We need each other right now. I’d never let you flounder alone.”
“I don’t want to be a thorn in your side. You’re still young. You can still have—”
I quieted her with a gesture. “You and Henry are my family. Nothing else is in the cards for me. I’ve accepted that. Besides, I’m thirty-eight years old. I’m too old to start a family now.”
“That’s silly, Bryce. I know you’ve taken care of me and Henry for the past couple of months, but I’m your mother, not your child. I appreciate all you’ve done since your father’s death, but you don’t have to take care of me.”
She was kind to say so, but finding out her husband of forty years was a psychopath living a double life had taken its toll. My mother was a strong woman, but I couldn’t ask her to live alone.
“You’ll come with Henry and me wherever we go,” I said.
“Not if it means you’re sacrificing having a real family. I won’t do that to you.” She sniffed back a sob. “I can’t. Not after everything. You deserve happiness.”
“Who says I’m not happy?” I forced a smile.
“I see it all over your face. You’re not moving forward, Bryce. You need to do that.”
“I think that’s what taking the job with the Steels is all about.”
“That’s something to earn money, to occupy your mind. You can’t run forever.”
“I’m glad your therapy is helping you, Mom.”
“That’s not coming from my therapist. That’s coming straight from me.”
“I have no desire for a relationship or more of a family than you and Henry. Trust me. Don’t you think if I wanted those things I’d have found someone long before now?”
“Not necessarily. You just haven’t met the right woman.”
I couldn’t help a small chuckle. No use arguing with my mother. She was, after all, my mother. “Look. This is what I need right now. I need to provide a home for my son. And for my mother.”
“I’m not your responsibility, Bryce. Henry is, it’s true. But I am not.”
Before I could dispute her words, my cell phone buzzed.
Chapter Nineteen
Marjorie
“Shit,” I said under my breath. Then I smiled. “What are you doing here?”
“Jade wanted a smoothie before we went home, so I—” He glared at Colin. “What are you doing here?”
Colin seemed to shrink in his chair. And he seriously wanted me to arrange for him to speak to Jade, when he couldn’t even look her husband in the eye?
Still, I needed to cut him some slack. Colin had been through hell since his last altercation with Talon.