His whole demeanor was making me nervous. "So, did you find her?"
"Yeah. We did."
I felt like I was treading on dangerous ground, but I loved him. For both of our sakes, I wanted to know. Still, I asked, "Would you rather not talk about it?"
He gave a tight shrug. "There's not much to say."
That couldn’t be true. I tried to keep my tone light. "I'm not sure I believethat. Two teenagers? Cross-country? And a parent waiting? I bet there's a lot to tell."
Jax gave a bitter laugh. "She wasn't waiting."
"Oh." Now, I wanted to kick myself for my own stupid assumption. After all, I knew firsthand that being a mom andactinglike a mom weren't always the same thing. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't be. It's not a big deal."
It was an obvious lie, and I dreaded calling him on it. But to let him stew alone in his pain – or whatever this was – seemed impossibly cruel.
I reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. In a very soft voice, I said, "It seems like a big deal to me."
His hand closed around mine, and he turned to meet my gaze. "Back then, yeah, it felt like a big deal. But now? I don't think about it."
Cautiously, I said, "Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"Not much to tell," he said. "Life at home sucked. My mom left when I was thirteen. We always figured she'd come back, you know. She used to do that sometimes, take off for a few weeks, a few months. But she always came back."
I bit my lip. "But this time, she didn't?"
"No. She didn't." His mouth tightened. "I should've known. She'd been gone a long-ass time, almost a year. And us kids, we're all wondering if she's dead or something – even though my dad keeps telling us to shut up, she's not dead, she's just fucking around."
I gave a stunned shake of my head. "He didn't really say that?'
"Why not? It was the truth." Jax gave a low scoff. "But me and Jaden, we don't believe it. We start thinking, you know what, we'll bring her back."
At the image, I didn't know whether to smile or cry. "But how'd you know where she was?"
"My grandma – her mom – she lived a few blocks away."
"Soshetold you?"
"Not exactly," he said. "But it wasn't hard to figure out."
"How?" I asked.
"For starters, she never had any money, but then all of a sudden, she's driving a new car, putting new shutters on the house, things like that. It didn't make sense." His voice hardened. "And I just knew it had something to do with mom."
"So what'd you do?"
"Well, me and Jaden, we start lifting her mail."
"You mean your grandma's?"
Jax nodded. "Every day. Check it out, put it back. Sure enough, my mom's been sending checks from this address down in Florida. And so Jaden and I, we figure she must've gotten a job down there or something."
"So you decided to see for yourselves?"
"Right. Jake has this car, a total beater, but I'd driven the thing before, and Jaden and I get to thinking, 'What the fuck?' We'll go get her, tell her she's gotta come home."
At the image, I felt my eyes grow misty. "So, did you find her?"
