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She wasn’t surprised by his words, or that his first concern was that particular group. The one he’d once been part of. She remembered the interview clip she’d come across that night when she’d weakened and done a bit of searching on their new tenant. Tucker Culhane, explaining that Jackson could do most of his own stunts, but didn’t so that he, Tucker, would have work.
As she’d predicted, her mother wasn’t at all surprised when she’d announced her relocation, after the alert system Jackson had proposed had been built and installed, by local tech wizard, Cody Rafferty. A simple push of a button would set off an alarm in the barn, ranch vehicles, and in the house on the hill.
Somewhat appropriately, she told them on Valentine’s Day. She was surprised, and a bit curious, when Jackson had taken her parents aside to speak to them alone for a few minutes. Maybe working out the details of a long-term—permanent, she hoped—rental agreement. But then she guessed she knew what he’d really asked when her mother announced Jeremy would be staying with them tonight, to give them time to get settled together.
She packed up what she thought would be immediately necessary. Jackson blinked at her two boxes of clothes, and a third of boots. “That’s it?”
She raised a brow at him. “Expecting a dozen suitcases?”
He laughed. “Guess I haven’t completely shed L.A. yet.” But then he scanned the boxes and, after a moment, gave her a sideways look that sent a flare of heat through her. “You did pack that little blue number, didn’t you?”
“Now why would you ask that?” She kept her tone light, even though her pulse had kicked up a notch.
“Because,” he said, his voice taking on that rough note that sent heat rocketing through her yet again, “I want to peel it off you. Like I didn’t get to that night after the saloon.”
Their first night together. The memories flooded her, and the heat became a firestorm. “I’ll put it on the minute we get there,” she promised huskily, delighting in the answering heat that lit up those famous eyes of his.
And their first night in their new home together was more than she ever could have wished for. A Valentine’s Day she needed no card—although he, and sweetly, Jeremy, had both given her one, along with a box of her favorite chocolate mini-cupcakes from Kolaches—to make special.
Because nothing could be more special than this night alone with the man she’d never expected to find. The man she loved.
And who, beyond doubt or probability, loved her.
Chapter Thirty-Four
He looked outover the rolling hills, a vista he never seemed to tire of. It was obvious why this was one of Nic’s favorite spots. It brought a kind of peace he’d never known before coming here. Jeremy seemed to like it, too, because he’d eagerly joined them when they had suggested Pie needed a ride outside of the corral.
His son was coming along so quickly with his riding that Jackson didn’t feel the need to watch him every second. Besides, he trusted Nic’s uncanny equine instincts to know when trouble might be brewing. As for himself, he just kept an eye out for critters in the brush, or maybe a rattlesnake out sunbathing on a rock, taking in some warmth on this last day of February.
He heard her sigh, and a glance at her very slightly furrowed brow made him ask, “What are you thinking?”
She immediately smiled at him. “Just sour grapes. Very old sour grapes. We used to own from the road all the way out to that outcropping of rock there.” She pointed at the rough shape that jutted out of a hill in the distance. He looked from there back toward the road, which was out of sight, but he mentally tried to calculate the distance.
“That’d practically be a ranch in itself.”
“Really only a hundred acres or so. Our neighbor, Riley Garrett, bought it when we had to sell something to keep going, because it adjoined her property and, with the connection to our road, gave her access to two exits.”
“Seems like a good idea.”
“She’s a smart woman. And I shouldn’t complain. At least she’s a friend. She even told us we could buy it back if we were ever in a position to.”
The little pinto pony beside them moved, drawing Jackson’s gaze. Pie was stretching his nose out to see if any of the scrub within reach was edible. Jeremy immediately patted his mount’s neck, looking so content and happy Jackson could barely breathe for a moment. He wondered if he would always be haunted by the silent shadow his little boy had become. He didn’t know, but he did know that he would forever be filled with joy at the change that pony, this place, and the woman beside him had wrought. It was as close to a miracle as he’d ever seen in his life and closer than most people ever got. It made him wish everybody who’d gone through the hell he and Jeremy had could find this kind of happiness again.
It wasn’t until, after finishing the picnic lunch they’d brought, and they’d mounted up and headed back, that something occurred to him.
“You said that section of land you sold had access to the road, the same road your gate is on?”
“Yes. The boundary’s only about a hundred yards from the gate. Why?”
“Just . . . thinking.”
And that night he did some more of that thinking, while they had on one of Jeremy’s favorite fantasy movies, with the sarcastic, talking raccoon. Just hearing his son laugh at the on-screen antics had him pondering many things. Including his own absence from that screen.
And how he might better spend his time.
*
“I need toask if you’d be willing to do something.”
