Beyond Temptation. Brenda Jackson

did usually stopped real quick, as if in a hurry once they discovered her role in her mother’s life.

      “Mom, like I told you, my job keeps me busy.”

      “No job should keep a woman too busy for a man. You’re thirty-one. I was married to your father before my twenty-first birthday and we were so happy together. That man was my life. You came along twenty years later and then the both of you became my life. A woman couldn’t have been happier. A husband and a child have a way of fulfilling a woman’s life.”

      “I’m sure that’s true, Mom, but—”

      “And take a look at Kylie. I love Tiffany dearly with her being your godchild and all, but a new baby is nice and it didn’t take Kylie long after her marriage to do her duty.”

      Lena shook her head. Her duty. She didn’t want to think about what her mother figured her duty was.

      “But I don’t want to talk about Kylie. You’re my daughter and I want to talk about you.”

      Lena sighed. Her mother hadn’t been this talkative in a long time. A part of her was happy about it, but she would be even happier if they discussed another subject. “Mom, we’ve talked before. They don’t make men like they used to,” she said, coming to a stop at a traffic light.

      She glanced over at her mom and met her gaze when Odessa asked, “Is that what’s bothering you? Are you figuring there isn’t a man out there like your daddy was? Probably not, but it’s the woman who usually makes the marriage and not the man. You just have to let him think that he does. Why, I can recall when your father…”

      Lena pulled off when the traffic light changed to green as her mother relived pleasant memories. She was grateful for the change in subjects, because if they had stayed on their same conversation path, there was no way she wouldn’t eventually have lost it. Having lunch with Kylie and seeing how pregnant she looked made her unconsciously rub her stomach wishing more than anything a baby could be there.

      She cleared her throat in an attempt to keep her tear ducts from working. For some reason she’d been in a melancholy mood lately, but she knew it would eventually pass and she would snap out of it.

      Considering everything, she really didn’t have much of a choice.