Broken Love (Broken 4)

Jackson saw the reaction of what he had just said on Ava’s face. She had been trying to keep it in, but a single tear slipped and rolled down her face. “Sorry, Ava, your name just clicked.”

She wiped a tear away. “S-okay.”

“Anyway, I thought we had it somewhat planned. We knew it would be hard, but I was pretty sure we could do it. I was going to take a full load one year; Kate would take a couple classes since we’d have the baby. Then we’d switch the next year. I’d take a light class load and she would take more.” He looked away and I saw the tears building in his eyes.

“Then everything changed. Two days before she … before she died, she called and asked me to meet her at your family house in Helena. She said she wanted to spend the night with me and we had something important to talk about.”

His voice cracked and he took a few moments to get his emotions in check.

Ava reached for his hand and held it. “It’s okay, Jackson. Take your time; I know this has to be hard.”

He nodded. All I could think about was what Kate was about to tell Jackson. You could almost still feel the pain pouring off of him.

“Kate told her parents she was spending the night with a friend or something. We had the house to ourselves.” He smiled as a tear rolled down his face. “She made us dinner and then we went for a walk and I dared to let myself believe that someday we’d be a family and walking our own—”

He closed his eyes. When he opened them he smiled.

Ava and I exchanged looks as Jackson cleared his throat.

“Anyway, after we had … well … spent some time together,” Jackson looked at me and then looked away. “She told me she had gotten a job offer. I remember laughing and thinking it was probably working for your family’s ranch. When she showed me the contract, I was so happy for her. I felt like I was going to burst at the seams I was so damn happy. Then she told me she would have to move to France. At first I thought she was kidding, but I could see the look in her eyes. I remember getting angry. I told her I couldn’t believe she was going to just up and leave me. Take our child and move to another country. I said some pretty hurtful things to her … things that haunt me every fucking night in my dreams.”

I couldn’t imagine what Jackson must have been going through. If Ava told me she was pregnant and leaving for France, I’d blow a fucking gasket too.

Ava held onto Jackson’s hand as she said, “Jackson, you can’t beat yourself up over all of that. Never mind the fact that y’all were so young in the first place.”

He let out a gruff laugh. “Yeah. It sucked. She had to wait until she was eighteen before she could actually go to France and work as a designer, but they wanted four of her dresses. They told her they would easily bring in over twenty thousand and the demand for more of her work would be something they could see. After I calmed down, I told her I’d go with her. That when the time came, I’d move to France with her.”

“What?” I whispered. I was stunned. Beyond stunned. Here I wanted to knock the hell out of this kid this whole time and now he is sitting here saying he would have given up his own dreams so she could follow hers.

“Oh, Jackson. What did Kate say?” Ava asked.

“At first she said no. She took the contract and taped it behind a picture in the master bedroom.”

“That’s where we found it today,” Ava said.

Jackson looked stunned. “You found it? Today? How did you know to look there?”

Ava waved her hand and replied, “It’s kind of hard to explain, but we did find the contract. She hadn’t signed them though.”

Jackson wiped at his eyes again. “No. She didn’t because she said we needed to think things through. She wasn’t ready to let me walk away from my dreams and there was no way she would ever take the baby away from me. So, we decided we would decide in two days.”

The lump in my throat was growing. I needed a break. Standing, I quickly said, “I need a second. Excuse me.”

Turning, I quickly headed outside and dragged in one deep breath after another until if felt like I was able to breathe.

Dropping my head, I whispered, “Oh, Kate. My sweet sweet, Kate.”

JACKSON HAD EXCUSED himself right after Ryder did, except he went to the men’s restroom. I checked my phone and smiled when I saw I had a voice message from Renee. After listening to it, I hit her number.

“Bonjour.”

“Bonjour, Renee, It’s Ava Moore.”

“Ava! What in the hell! You have this whole damn office in an uproar right now, can I tell you that?”

I quickly peeked between the men’s room and the front door.

“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to talk.”