Read Online His Love by M. O. Kenyan - Free Book Online Page A

him up for you.”
    She expected her comment to be met by a laugh or even a giggle, she wasn’t asking for much, but the look that Jacqueline shot Antonio and his slight nod told her that they took it seriously. “I’m joking, guys.”
    Rayne looked at the little girl, who seemed to be paying more attention to her cake than whatever was unfolding before her, but she was smart; she would pick it all up now and ask her later. “Sweetheart, do you think that maybe you could get your Aunty Jacqueline some flowers to make her smile.” The little girl nodded. “Give her a hug first.”
    “Fill her full of sunshine?” Alessandria asked before standing up and wrapping her arms around Jacqueline’s neck. “Rayne is going to make it better, you’ll see.”
    Once Alessandria left the room, Morrison gave Rayne a nod that was enough to let her know that she would be looked after.
    “I wanted to show you something that would be too much for a little girl to understand.” Rayne pushed her sleeves up as far as she could and heard Jacqueline gasp. It was the normal response to all the track marks she had in her arms. She wasn’t sure what Antonio would think, but she expected his parents to have her out on her ass the second she was done with the presentation. “This is how much I loved my boyfriend. I gave up my scholarship to Harvard Business School and followed him and his band on the road. I thought I was his girlfriend, I thought he loved me, because I loved him. But once we had burned through all the money my father had left me when he died and some of my brother’s too, he brought me back home and left me.”
    “What did your brother do?” Jacqueline looked up at Antonio then turned her gaze back to Rayne.
    “There isn’t much anyone can do from six feet under.” Rayne could feel her heart tighten in knots. “Reno died in a car crash. He was with my dad. Soon there was just my mom and me. Danny came along and I thought that he was the best thing that happened to me. I got my high school diploma and followed the love of my life on the road. I knew I was hurting my mother leaving her alone so soon after the accident, but I wanted to find out who I was. Which is total bullshit.” Antonio and Jacqueline giggled, Rayne swore that she even heard a chuckle from Kane. “Sorry, Mrs. Burke.”
    “I have a hysterical daughter and a smart mouthed son; there is nothing I haven’t heard,” Sofia said.
    “Anyway, two years later I was back home a junkie and eight months pregnant.” Rayne tried to blink the tears back, but they betrayed her. “My mother pulled me down to the kitchen floor just like this, she put chocolate cake and ice cream on one side, which was a relief at the time because I was starving. But on the other she put one of my father’s bottle of whiskey and some oxy she found in my bag. Then she told me to pick.”
    “You picked the cake?” Jacqueline asked a hint of hope in her tone.
    “Nope, I reached out for the booze and drugs. And when I did, I saw the look of disappointment on her face, but I felt like I was about to jump out of my skin. I opened the bottle and got a couple of pills, but I didn’t take them right away. I watched her watch me, then she said ‘I would rather watch my little girl die now than keep wondering where she is for the rest of my life.’”
    “That’s just—” Jacqueline gasped unable to finish her thought, but Rayne understood. And heavy was the appropriate word to use.
    “I dumped the booze and drugs and turned to the chocolate cake. That was when I learned my lesson, you can have everything, be anything, but once that is stripped down, all you have is your family.”
    “I thought you were going to say listen to your mother.” Jacqueline smiled.
    “Yep, that’s important too, but at this point if you don’t know who you are or what you want, you have bigger problems than you thought you did.” Rayne took a bite of her chocolate cake. “Right now just stuff