Page 100 of Mine

Her smile was huge.

After Scott left and Landry went into the bathroom to shower and change, Hugh went to get him and Jocelyn some coffee.

“So what’s with that?” I asked her, tipping my head after her husband.

“You know, I’m not sure,” she told me. “I called him last night when I got home just to warn him that he might have reporters skulking around his brother’s place where he’s been staying, and he just showed up back at our condo and we talked all night.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.” She smiled at me. “I thought that we were done, you know? I mean, we’ve never been…. I’ve always loved him, but I’ve never been in love with him like you are with Landry and he obviously is with you. We’ve always been buddies, but not—”

“Not honest.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding.

“But now?”

“I don’t know. We talked two years’ worth in one night and then—” She paused and shrugged, blushing. “You know.”

“Oh.” I arched an eyebrow for her. “You guys worked it out, huh?”

“Oh God,” she moaned, face in her hands. “I mean, my mother’s life is falling apart and everything that happened and Landry and the kidnapping and this whole thing where I know we’re gonna be dragged through the mud, but… I mean….” She looked up at me. “He wants to trudge through it with me. How the hell do I deserve that?”

“Maybe you were looking for something Hugh wasn’t providing, with Marc?”

“But there’s no excuse for cheating.”

“No, but there’s reasons for cheating. You’re just supposed to tell the person you’re with before you act on them.”

She sighed deeply.

“Unless, you know, you’re a sex addict or something and need to seek professional help.”

She swatted my arm. “I am not a sex addict!”

“Well then, yeah, you fucked up, but maybe with some counseling, some forgiveness, some great make-up sex, you guys can get through this. If that’s what you want.”

“Ohmygod, I want,” she said, suddenly breathless. “I was so dispassionate at brunch that day, but the reality, once Hugh left, of him being gone—Jesus, Trevan, I didn’t know it was going to feel like that. I’m such an idiot.”

“Only if you don’t recognize the truth and only if you do nothing about it.”

She nodded furiously, and Hugh reappeared with coffee for the three of us.

“Awww, shit man, you’re a fuckin’ saint.”

He waggled his eyebrows at me before he put an arm around Jocelyn’s shoulders and drew her close to his side. “So, Thanksgiving, Jo says?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, watching her eyes fill. “Thanksgiving.”

WHEN it was just me and Landry again, later that afternoon, waiting for the doctor to release him, he put his hands on my face and looked into my eyes.

“What?”

“You know, I don’t need my family to love me; I have you and your family for that.”

“Yeah, but your mother—”

“You are the only one who loves me unconditionally; you’re it, and you can never stop.”