Page 36 of One Wild Texas Night
She crossed her arms over her chest and continued to stare at him. “Okay, Jake, what is it?”
“Here’s another one about your family and mine. That third brother of yours. His mother is your mother...but his dad is my father.”
“Laird?” Her eyes widened, and she looked stunned.
“Yes, Laird. And he might not know this—he didn’t when I was told. His mother is your mother, as everybody thinks, but his dad is my dad, not yours. My dad thought I should know that we’re related and both of us are his sons. He didn’t tell me until I was older. That’s why there was such bitterness and active fighting between our dads and our grandfathers, because all four of them knew the truth.”
“Laird is only my half brother?”
“Yes, Laird is half brother to both of us.”
She barely heard his answer. Her mind reeled with all the shocks—Regina, Laird—and the pain of Jake’s betrayal. That hurt overwhelmed her, and she realized she had fallen in love with Jake or she wouldn’t be feeling so hurt by him. She was hurt by what he did, and she was hurt because she would never go out with him again. That was incredible pain, and it meant she was deeply in love with him. She tried to push away the thought and listen, because he was still talking to her.
“...and Laird and I are friends. Now are you happier that you know that secret?”
“That’s different from knowing about Regina. That secret about Laird does explain why there was such animosity with our dads. And maybe why Laird is different from my other brothers. Otherwise, that information has little to do with me.”
He stared at her and knew there wasn’t any fixing their broken relationship, and that hurt. He had never hurt over losing a woman before, but now he felt physical pain. He hadn’t intended to hurt her, and he regretted keeping the picture. He wished he could go back and live some moments over to undo the pain he had caused her.
* * *
As Claire walked away, she dropped the picture, letting it fall to the floor. She passed him without looking at him and hurried down the hall to get her things. The driver would be at the gate before she could possibly get there.
She had only a few things to pack. When she was ready to go, Jake stood in the doorway.
“I told you to leave me alone.”
“Let me drive you to the gate. That’s a damn long walk.”
“Very well,” she said, nodding and knowing he was right. She should have told the driver to pick her up at his cabin. “I don’t have much to carry.”
She walked to the door, and he followed her into the hall. They walked in silence to his pickup, and he held the door for her. Hurting, fighting tears and still steeped in anger, she climbed in and didn’t look at him. As she thought how badly she hurt, she realized this might be the last time she saw Jake.
Maybe her anger with him would help her get over him.
Jake got in, and as he drove, they were both silent. She’d said all she wanted to say to him, and truthfully, she couldn’t wait to get away from him. She hurt all over. She felt angry, betrayed and in pain. Her heart ached. She didn’t want to admit that she had fallen in love with him, but she knew she had. How could she have avoided it after their first kiss? It was going to hurt terribly at first to leave him and not see him anymore, but she couldn’t stay. Besides, she told herself, she’d always known this day would come sometime anyway.
Trying to get her thoughts off Jake, she thought about what he had told her about Laird. She rarely saw Laird now that they were grown, and they weren’t close at all when they were together. Even so, it was still a shock, but it was a possible explanation for why Laird wasn’t like her other two brothers. Her mother had had an affair with Jake’s dad in spite of the strong feud. She was surprised there hadn’t been bigger battles between the dads and between the families, but her mother had her own money, was very independent and had kept a reasonable amount of peace in the family when she was alive.
Then she thought about her sister. Regina had four kids. The oldest one looked almost eighteen. A girl named for her. Claire. She was Aunt Claire. She felt another stabbing pain of longing to meet these children who were related to her. She longed to talk to Regina, just briefly. If Jake had told her about Sam and Regina, would she have been able to promise not to contact Regina?
She didn’t want to answer her own question because it didn’t matter now. She still didn’t know where Regina was, and Jake wasn’t going to tell her.
She could understand why Regina had severed ties. Clyde, Les and her dad had been capable of doing real damage to someone if they were angry enough. But as worried she was that they might have even done something to Jake, too, that wouldn’t be true now. They were all older. Her dad had probably stopped his fighting long ago because of being older and not well. He wouldn’t fight over Laird now at all. The last time she saw her dad, he’d had a cane and an eye patch, and he looked frail.
As rotten as they could be, her brothers had jobs and businesses they started, and she couldn’t imagine them fighting now, because now they had too much to lose. They were successful businessmen, Clyde in real estate and Les in construction but she suspected they didn’t worry much about ethics.
She stared out the window. Every mile took her away from Jake. She wouldn’t see him again, wouldn’t talk to him or be with him again. They wouldn’t kiss again. That hurt, but she couldn’t stay with him after learning that he knew about Regina. He would have shared the truth if he had really trusted her. She wondered how long she would live with the hurt.
They reached Jake’s gate, which stood open. “I’ll get out here, Jake. You don’t need to wait with me,” she said, determined not to give in to tears. She hurt, but her anger overrode her pain. “Thank you for taking me in and for everything you did for me.”
“I don’t want you to go like this, Claire, but you know what you want.”
She was still angry with him, shocked over his knowledge of her sister’s whereabouts. At the same time, she was in love with him, and telling him goodbye was already the most painful thing she’d ever had to endure.
It had been inevitable from the outset because she’d always known they had no future together. Jake wasn’t a marrying man, and she couldn’t marry a Reed. She gave a sarcastic laugh to herself. That would bring her brothers and her dad back to town, for sure. But she wanted peace and harmony with her family and keeping Jake close would not be good. And now, she felt she couldn’t trust him.
She wondered if the next time Jake talked to his brother if he would even tell Sam that she had found their picture and knew he was in contact with them. If he did tell Sam, would it make a difference?
