Page 114 of Ruled Out

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

MIA

“Ineed to go with him.”

“Just come inside, babe. He’ll call you when he lands.” Kate wraps an arm around my shoulders as we stand at the end of her driveway and watch the boys tear away in Jensen’s white Tesla.

I wrap my arms around my waist. “It’s not that simple.”

“What do you mean?”

I think hard about my next words. “He had a really tough childhood.”

Kate nods and plucks a piece of stray hair from my T-shirt. “I guessed as much. He once mentioned that he had a brother. I know Jensen named Will after him, but honestly, that’s as much as I know. I think Jensen knows a little more, but not a lot. If he’s let you into his life, then based on what I know about Jessie, I’d say that’s a huge step for him.”

I inhale a steadying breath.

Kate’s hand squeezes my shoulder. “Until I got pregnant, I was the most skeptical person when it came to love. I didn’tthink it was possible to findthe one.But let me tell you this: the way Jessie looks at you, that isn’t just love; that’s a connection on a level so deep that no one will ever be able to find the words to describe it. I know I can’t. But to witness it? Now, that’s something really special. If I’d known you both the first time you were together? I’d have flown you to Seattle myself. He might’ve had a really tough start, but to find that kind of love? Trust me when I say he knows how rich he is right now. He’ll do anything to protect you.”

I turn and look at Jessie’s BMW parked in the driveway. “Which is why I have to go to him. Everything you just said, I feel it too. Would you go to Jensen?”

She looks off to the side and down the road where they disappeared a few minutes earlier. “Wait here.”

A couple of minutes later, she reappears with my jacket, purse, and a small overnight bag. “I literally just dumped some spare clothes of mine and a cosmetic bag in here; there’s also a spare toothbrush in the front. That way, you don’t have to go home.”

I reach up and wrap my arms around her neck. “Thank you.”

“I just have one condition.”

“Fire away,” I say, pulling the keys out of my purse and unlocking the car.

Kate’s face turns lawyer serious. “Call me as soon as you find out how his mom is. I want to know you all are okay.”

I nod. “Promise.”

Any hopesI had of making the same flight as Jessie crashed and burned the second I hit a gridlock on the freeway and got tothe airport, only to be told I’d just missed check-in for the last afternoon flight to Dallas.

Luckily, there was another flight with an alternate airline departing only an hour later, so I jumped on that.

And that’s where I am now, about to touch down in Texas with a packet of half-eaten Lays chips in my lap and a Minute Maid between my knees, typing out my hundredth text to Jessie and immediately deleting it.

If I write him and say I’m on my way, he’ll tell me to get right back on a return flight, and that isn’t happening.

There’s not a chance in hell I’m leaving him to care for his mom alone. Even if he’s done it his entire life.

I only have one issue.

I have zero idea where his parents live since he never took me back to his home, and there are kind of a lot of houses on South Boulevard.

When the plane wheels touch down and I step out into the Dallas spring air, there’s only one person I can think of who might know where he lived.

Even if I’m still not fully over what he did.

The second he picks up, I hear the road noise and know he’s driving.

“Mia, hi. Are you okay?”

“Hey, Dad,” I say, raising an arm to flag down a taxi.