AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I would too,” she said softly.
“Good,” Jeremy said, sounding pleased. He looked at his empty breakfast plate. “’Cuz I like her French toast.”
Nic couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing. “Then you shall have that treat every Sunday morning.”
The boy gave a cheer and grabbed his mug of chocolate, draining it.
She’d swear she could feel Jackson looking at her. And when she looked up, she wasn’t surprised; the heat in his gaze fairly sizzled. “And what treat do I get every Sunday morning?”
An answering heat rose in her again. “Oh, I think deciding that will take a lot of... experimenting.”
“I’m good with that,” he said, that rough edge that set her on fire coming into his voice.
As if he hadn’t noticed a thing—or as if everything seemed perfectly normal to him—Jeremy asked blithely, “Are we going to get Maverick today? Mr. Chance said we could.”
“Then we will,” Jackson answered.
“He said his wife was married before, and he was killed in the Army. But now they’re married and really, really happy.”
Before either of them could react to that, the boy was off and clambering up the ladder to his loft, no doubt to get dressed for the much-anticipated visit to the Rafferty ranch to pick up the golden—in more ways than one—dog.
“Are you sure about this? Staying here with us, I mean?”
She hesitated, then decided to admit it. “You want to know the real reason we hadn’t rented this place before? Me. I didn’t want to. Because I wanted to live in it. I just couldn’t figure out how to tell my folks.”
She got that crooked half grin again. Yes, she definitely loved it. Loved him.
“So now you’re going to tell them you’re moving in... with me?”
“Dad’ll be surprised. Mom, not a bit.” She took a deep breath, then, because she felt she owed it to him, she added, “I finallyrealized why I fought you so hard, in the beginning. And why I was so quick to think the worst when your boss showed up.”
“Why?”
“Because deep down, I knew. That this was it. You were the one. And I was afraid to believe it.”
“I’m glad you got over that,” he said with that grin again.
She studied him across the table for a moment, taking in every bit of that face she’d come to adore. If he was worried about his current situation, it didn’t show. But she felt she needed to know what he—whatthey—would be dealing with, so she asked.
“Are you going to be in big legal trouble?”
He shrugged. “It’ll probably cost me a bit.”
“And you’re really going to walk away from the biggest show around?”
“More now than ever,” he said, suddenly very serious. “Because now I know how wrong we were, about so much.” He hesitated, then went on. “I told Swiff that too. That if he wanted to move it to the real Texas, instead of some stupid West Coast idea of it, then I’d consider coming back.”
“I’m sure the Texas Film Commission would jump at the chance of that,” she said.
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t bet money on them doing it. Swiff doesn’t take well to ultimatums. He’s used to giving them. Besides, they’ve got everything in place back there.”
She liked the way he didn’t say back home. But that didn’t stop her from saying, “Including snow-capped mountains that don’t exist. And people driving a half hour outside of Dallas and being in ranch country. Half an hour outside of Dallas is still Dallas.”
Her tone was dry, but he still laughed and shook his head. “I know, I know.”
“Regrets?”
He winced slightly. “A couple. The crew guys. Tucker, mostly. I think he’ll be okay, but...”
