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He almost laughed at himself again, then. He sounded so old, even in his head. But he’d aged a hell of a lot in the last two years, and not by choice.
“Something funny?” she asked.
“Just me, feeling like I’m a hundred and ten.”
For some reason that made her smile. But then she turned to Jeremy and proceeded to formally introduce him to the horse she’d been riding, her own personal mount.
“This is Sassafras, which is what they originally called what’s now root beer. I just call him Sass, because he’s full of it.”
Jeremy grinned. And once more Jackson felt his eyes begin to sting and he had to look away. For this, just for this simple thing, a grin from his little boy, he didn’t care if she hated him down to the bone.
When he lifted his gaze, she was watching him again, and this time there was a touch of that warmth he’d seen yesterday in her eyes.
“Come on,” she said, turning back to Jeremy. “Let’s head to the barn, and I’ll introduce you to Pie. He’s just about your size.”
As they walked toward the big wooden building, Jackson noticed a narrow, paved pathway that led from the barn to what he guessed was the ranch house, a rather sprawling, metal-roofed single story that looked as if it had a couple of wings that had been added on. It was tidy, clean, and well kept. There was a big porch that ran the width of the building, with expansive steps leading down to a raised garden bed he imagined was quite something in the spring. And at the far end of the porch was a ramp of some kind.
“It’s for my mother.”
His gaze snapped back to the woman walking almost beside him; Jeremy was dancing—there was no other word for the excited quick step he was doing—ahead of them.
“The ramp, and the path,” she said. “It’s for my mother. She’s in a wheelchair, but she likes to keep an eye on things, so my dad did it for her so she could get around.”
He didn’t know what to say about her mother, so he stuck with the other option. “Your dad must be really handy.”
“He’s the best,” she said simply. “But by way of warning, my mother will probably show at some point if you bring Jeremy back.” Her mouth quirked. How had he not noticed how luscious it was before? “She’s not here today, but she is aStonewallfan, as I’ve just learned yesterday.”
“You just learned?”
She shrugged and looked away from him, as if embarrassed. “She never told me because she knows how I feel.”
So he’d been right. He hadn’t imagined the negative vibe he’d picked up that first day in front of Asa Fuhrmann’s statue. She didn’t like him. Maybe even disliked him. Or the character he played. These days he didn’t know which, not that it mattered much. To a lot of people, the two were inseparable. Even more so since this was the first major role he’d ever had, so there was nothing to balance it out, nothing for people to say, “I hate him in this, but he was good in that,” about.
The realization made his own reaction to her even more unsettling. Then again, maybe it was better this way. He had no business thinking about things like how much he liked those eyes, or the way she moved, any of that. Not when Jeremy was so deeply mired in his grief Jackson was afraid the bright, loving child he’d been might never surface again.
And she was helping with that. No matter how she felt about him, she’d immediately picked up on Jeremy’s distress andmoved to help. That told him all he needed to know about her. And that’s what he needed to focus on, not his totally unexpected attraction to her.
He had no time for—or right to—that.
Chapter Nine
“I’ve never seenhim take to someone like this.” Nic watched the boy and the black-and-white pinto pony, a little amazed. “He usually has to be bribed with an apple or carrot.”
“Aw, you’re just sayin’ that,” Jeremy said, but he looked pleased, anyway, as he stroked the little pony’s neck.
“If I were you,” said his father, who was leaning against the corral fence, “I’d believe her. I don’t think she says things just to say them.”
And that pleased her in turn. Enough that she had to look away. She did not want to like the guy, but he was making it difficult not to. Especially when the way he looked at the boy made it so darned obvious he adored his son.
Her mother’s words from last night floated up out of her memory.
He left, Nicky. He just walked away. All of Hollywood is abuzz over this. Nobody can believe somebody would walk away from something as huge asStonewallis right now. The show people are in an uproar, not knowing what to do because they don’t know if he’ll be back.
Her mother had looked both shocked and disappointed when she’d cornered Nic as she cleaned up after dinner last night, Mom’s luscious chicken marsala. She’d obviously been doing some internet searching.
“But he did it for a good reason,” she’d said.
How on earth had she ended up defending the guy she didn’t even like? Because it was true, she answered herself silently. It had been for a good reason. And she had to admit, walking awayfrom the kind of money he was likely getting paid was a sign of true dedication.
