“He knows I don’t have a choice.”
“He’s a man, Jacob.”
“How the hell does that work?”
His mother shrugged. “
He’s a man and he’s a pain in the ass, but I love him.”
Running fingers through his hair, he tried to bring some focus on what the hell was going on in his life. Jacob was used to fucking women, and forgetting them. He wasn’t used to these feelings.
“Were you in love with Dad the first moment you saw him?”
“No.”
“You ended up pregnant with me young.”
Charlotte smiled, and he was surprised to see the blush staining her cheeks. “I was pregnant very young with you, Jacob, but that doesn’t mean I fell in love with your father.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
She glared at him. “Do not take the tone with me. I’m still your mother.”
“I always assumed you and Dad were totally in love with each other.”
“Me running away with you and Abel, that didn’t ring any bells? Or maybe the lack of smiling photographs that we have. It took a long time for me to accept who your father was and is, and the fact that I fell in love with him over time.”
“What happened?”
“When your father and I first met, I had just turned eighteen. I was young, and naive. I didn’t have a clue who he was when he approached me in a bar over thirty-five years ago. My friends knew who he was, and they couldn’t believe that I snagged this hot guy. I was the chubby girl of the group, but Maddox, he didn’t look at any other woman.” Charlotte smiled. “I’d never been with a guy, and most of the time they passed me by because of my weight. They didn’t want a fat girl.”
Even now, Jacob wanted to go back and hurt those bastards for hurting his mother. He was very protective of his mother, sister, and all of his brothers. Jacob had certainly gotten into a lot of fights to finish the beat down that his brothers were getting.
“Anyway, that night, Maddox treated me like a princess. He bought me drinks, dinner, and we danced. We danced long into the night, and yeah, it was magical, but I also knew it wasn’t going to last. When we went back to his place, we did the business that meant we could have you.” Charlotte sighed. “I didn’t know I was going to get pregnant, so I snuck out the next morning. I didn’t see Maddox for three months until he discovered me coming out of an adoption agency.”
This was all news to him.
“Adoption? You were going to give me up?”
“At first, yes. It was a different world back then, and I discovered I was pregnant, and I didn’t have a clue how to get in touch with Maddox. My friends wouldn’t tell me who he was, and so, I felt I had no choice. I was coming out of the adoption agency because I decided I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give up my baby. Even before I gave birth to you, Jacob, I loved you.”
“What happened?” The revelations tonight were scaring the shit out of him. He always assumed that when he found the woman destined to be his, she’d feel the same way, and now his parents were telling him differently.
“I discovered who Maddox was, what the Denton name meant, and that I was now about to become his wife. I didn’t really have a say in what was going on, and I was afraid. I was pregnant with a man I had one amazing night with, and after that, it felt like I was living a nightmare. Maddox, he was always sweet and charming, but it was hard. That man I found sweet and charming dealt with women, drugs, guns, crime, all of it. I was just a small town girl who wanted to become a nurse, to help people. Maddox, he was the very opposite of the person I was. The biggest problem was when he was away, it was easy to remember who he was. When he was near, I forgot. Not once did he change, or raise a hand to me, or even get angry with me.” Charlotte’s eyes were wet with tears. “I just couldn’t handle it.”
“What made you fall in love with him?”
“Time. It took time, and a lot of chocolate, kids, and time.”
“Time?”
“Yeah, time.”
“How much time?” he asked.
“There’s not a limit on love, honey.” His mother tapped his cheek. “You’ve just got to give it time.”
That was not an answer he wanted.