Damsel's Tattooed Temptation (18+)(Complete)

CHAPTER 10: Janet & Ms. Jackson

"You coming to dinner?"

"Is that a serious mother fuckin' question?" James checked his blind spot and switched lanes.

Will laughed on the other end of the phone. "Don't think your hungry ass ever missed a sunday dinner, but now with Ms. Kane in the picture, I had to ask."

James grimaced at the mention of Damsel. He thought things were going well with them. He text her the morning after their two day first date and caught her on the way to work. He'd been in contact daily until the day before when she didn't respond to his morning text. He didn't want to bombard her with messages thinking she was studying or working extra or something, but it'd been eating him up all damn day. He feared something happened that didn't bode well for him, for them.

"Hey man you okay? You know you never told me how everything went." There was a pause. "You didn't fuck shit up did you?"

"The date was fine." James snapped irritated with Will.

"Got damn man, what happened?"

James sighed pulling into a parking spot. "Look, I got to go inside. I'll see you later tonight, okay?" James disconnected the bluetooth to his car without letting Will respond. He didn't want to talk about Damsel until he talked to her. It frustrated him to no end not seeing her for almost a week even though they spent two days together.

James got out of the car and headed to the front doors. James flinched at the sterile smell of the rehab clinic. "Janet Stevenson."

"Are you a relative?"

"Her son."

The receptionist nodded and slid a clipboard toward him without looking up from her phone. "Please sign-in. She's in her room."

"Which room number might that be?"

The woman finally look up and paused her eyes tracing his face then down the visible portion of his torso that was above the counter. She smiled sliding her phone to the side. "Room 126. You're her son?"

James raised an eyebrow finding the woman's deep blue eyes. "Yes." That is what he said got damn.

She smiled tilting her head to the side. "Yeah. You have her eyes."

Had the circumstances been different, he might have gotten the woman's number. However, there was only one number he wanted to see pop up on his phone. "126, right?"

She nodded watching James walk away.

He could no longer count on his hand how many times he'd been to rehab clinics to visit his mother. It was a revolving door for her and he'd given up hope a long time ago that one visit would be her last. He loved her and wanted her to be free, but he wouldn't invest his hope in it anymore.

James knocked on the door his mom sitting in a chair by the large window that overlooked a really nice garden. She looked frail. Her jaws were sunk in, dark circles hugged under her eyes. Her straw blonde hair was thin and brittle pulled back in a ponytail.

Her face lit up when she saw him.

"James!"

James strolled in and pulled her frail body to his then kissed the top of her head.

"Awe, i-it's been a while I think." She stuttered avoiding his gaze.

"Yeah, too long. I can never catch up to you when you're not in one of these places." Unless she needed money, which he never gave her. Pay her rent? Buy her groceries? Sure, no problem, but he learned young. Never give a junky money because there's only one thing they'll do with it.