Jackson would have made a great father.
Knowing that hurt. Because he had been a father, and he’d rejected her and their baby in such a cruel way. Granted, they’d been little more than kids.
“Are you awake?”
Startled, she jerked her gaze to where he sat. She didn’t have a clear view of his face since he was sitting in the shadows.
Did she want to answer him? She could pretend to be asleep. But that would be a lie, and Mia wasn’t a liar.
“I can’t sleep,” she finally told him. Giving up, she grabbed her water bottle and joined him near the mouth of the cave. At first she left a couple of feet between them.
“Mia, I hear your teeth chattering. Come closer.”
Reluctantly, she did. Immediately, the warmth coming from his side enveloped her. When he dropped the thin blanket he’d been using around them both, she thankfully snuggled into it.
“How did you fit this into your pack?”
“It folds pretty thin.”
For a few minutes, she soaked in the heat.
“I was surprised to find out you were Dylan’s teacher,” Jackson said after the silence had stretched on for five minutes. “I knew you’d moved away. Figured you’d gotten married.”
She winced. Her past wasn’t something she talked about. But seriously, this information wasn’t anything too dark and deep. “I never planned to come back, but then Gus got sick. She had no one else. My best friend, Shannon, works at the high school. She’s the school nurse. She saw an opening for an LS teacher and encouraged me to apply. I didn’t expect to get it.”
Blaine had to have known she’d applied, so it still astonished her she’d gotten the job.
“But your cousins?—”
“Only come when it’s convenient and they can make bank on it.” That sounded way too cynical, but it was the truth. She was done sugarcoating things to hide her family’s deficiencies.
“Did you leave any boyfriends behind?”
Why was he so interested in that?
“Not really. I don’t think I’m meant to get married. I dated a little, but it never worked out. I have trust issues, especially with men. Although, I did meet someone when I moved here. We dated for a while. I thought I’d met a guy who loved me, or at least one I could trust to make me a priority. Because that’s what marriage is, right? We got engaged. And for a short time, I was so happy. The fact he was a teacher too seemed perfect. But then I found out he had a side chick. I literally saw him kissing this other woman. When I confronted him, he told me he had no intention of giving her up. She was the one he wanted. But I had the status and wealth, through Blaine, that he craved. He had big political aspirations and saw me as a stepping stone. So I kicked him to the curb.”
“That’s rough. I’m sorry.”
He really seemed to mean it.
“I got through it. I’m just one of those people better alone, I guess. It always seems like those I should be able to trust have an agenda. I’m not doing that anymore.”
She thought about telling him the full truth about the miscarriage she’d suffered but decided against it. That had been the most traumatic event of her life. Then he’d accused her of deliberately getting rid of the baby.
Not to mention the rumors that had spread like wildfire through the school. She’d gone from captain of the cheerleading team to instant pariah. Eventually, some of the students stopped shunning her, but she’d already been forced from the team and had lost her standing.
Not even her parents had been on her side.
She blocked that memory from her mind. No, she couldn’t broach that subject. Not yet.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m sure you heard of the girl who’d overdosed earlier this week?”
He shifted next to her. “Yeah. I heard about that. There have been others too.”
She let her head fall back against the cold cave wall. “I know. I don’t remember this being such an issue before.”
He hesitated.