Chapter 9

The drive home went by in silence for most part. Rossi felt bad for lying to his mother. JJ was right, there was nothing he deserved more than a few earnest spanks with her rolling pin.

He was in deep thought, his eyes strictly focused on the street in front of him, but he couldn't bring himself to tell his mother the truth, because, frankly, the last thing he wanted in addition to the current situation, was a disappointed mother. There was nothing worse for him than to let the only woman down, who had always supported and loved him unconditionally, and who, besides Jennifer, was more important to him than anyone else.

His first marriage, and respectively, his first divorce came to his mind. It was over twenty-five years ago, but his mother would still get mad at him sometimes for how he had screwed up. Never before and never after had he cheated on a woman, he had been in a relationship with.

Joanna, his first wife, was the only one of the three wives his mother had taken into her heart, and while he – in one way or another – had loved all three of his wives, his mother had never warmed up to the other two. His marriage with Joanna was already falling apart, and it was only a matter of time before they would have separated, when he had made that one, very drunken mistake that pulled the trigger for Joanna to end their marriage sooner rather than later. At times, he would still feel genuinely ashamed of what he had done. When his mother had learned about it, she was angrier at him than he'd ever seen her before, and not only because she had loved Joanna like an own daughter, but especially because this was not how she had raised her son. Ever since then, Dave had felt more sorry for failing his mother than he felt for losing his wife.

And he could only imagine how his mother would react if she were to realize what was going on between him and Jennifer, that he was her baby's father and had abandoned her. Her fury at his cheating years ago would be reduced to a minor nuisance in comparison to how she would react if she knew the truth now. And he was certain that this was something she would never forgive him, if he didn't find a way to make it right.

"What are you thinking about, son?" Gracia Rossi suddenly interrupted the silence.

"Oh, nothing." Dave quickly answered, too quickly to be convincing.

"Don't lie to me, Davey. It's obvious that something's bothering you."

"Really, Mama, I'm fine. I was just thinking," he tried to reassure her.

"About that beautiful young woman we've met earlier?"

Tightening his grip around the steering wheel, he felt like he wanted to curse her for her intuitive perception. Sometimes he really wondered if his mother wasn't the better profiler after all. It was a mere wonder that she didn't already sense there was something wrong between him and JJ.

"Mama, I don't want to talk about it now." He tried to brush her off.

"You like her," his mother stated matter-of-factly.

"What?"

Gracia Rossi looked at her son and eyed him closely as she continued to speak. "She is a wonderful young woman." He detected a warmth in her voice that he hadn't heard since Joanna when it came to one of the women in his life. And, as usual, she was right, of course. His expression softened as he saw the beautiful face of Jennifer Jareau in the mind's eye, letting his mother know that she was indeed on the right track.

"You're in love with her, son. You have that look again. Why don't you ask her out?"

"It's not that simple."

"Where's the problem, Davey? You've never had any problem with approaching a woman before, more often than not much to my chagrin, I might add."

"Mama, please, just leave it alone, will you?" Dave sighed.

"But she said herself that she's alone. Or are you having problems because she's expecting a child from another man?" His mother wouldn't give up that fast.

Cringing at her words, Rossi only shook his head. "God help me if she knew!" He thought.

"My priorities are with other things at the moment. There's a lot going on at work right now that takes up my full attention." He hoped that this would get her off of him.

"It does not change the fact that you love her, son," Gracia Rossi insisted.

Rossi let out a breath of relief when he saw his mother's place appear in front of them and their talk was cut short. He helped her out of the car and walked her to the door, before making his goodbyes.

"We're not finished talking about this, Davey," she said, as he softly kissed her cheek.

"For today we are. I gotta go home and get some work for my new book done."

"Work. That's all you have in mind lately. It would do you good to focus on other things again."

"Bye, Mama." He kissed her other cheek and went back to his car.