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This time Tris’s brow furrowed. “Wait. Kane... Highwater?”
Joey nodded, and this time she let out a chuckle. “You’ve heard of him, I gather?”
“Is there anyone in the county—heck, in the state—who hasn’t? So he not only has one of the greatest singing voices I’ve ever heard and writes beautiful music, he’s an artist too?”
“That he is.” She glanced at Jeremy again, then back to Jackson. “Do you think he might be interested in hearing the man who did the pictures for that book he’s so engrossed in? Because if you’ll still be here, he’s playing here this summer, out at the Hickory Creek Inn, where he used to work.”
“At this point, I’ll try anything to keep this going,” Jackson said, not caring if he sounded desperate. Because he was desperate. He’d had a glimpse today of the little boy he’d lost, the son he so loved.
And he’d do anything he had to, to bring that happy, curious, bright, laughing boy back.
Chapter Five
“Come on, Nic,you’ve got to admit he’s gorgeous.”
“Kind of a requirement for his... work,” Nic said.
It was an effort to maintain her usual dismissive tone, because Jessica was right. Jackson Thorpe was definitely a beautiful man. Not because of his looks, although they were exactly what appealed to her—great build, smooth moving, very male jaw line, and those eyes the color of a Texas sky just before the sun rose—but because of the expression in those eyes when he looked at his son.
While her overall opinion of actors stayed the same, she couldn’t deny that this one had at least a bit of real life in him.
“Well, at least you agree he is,” Jessica said, laughing as they paused in front of the office where she worked. They’d been friends since high school and got together whenever they could.
“I liked the way he was with his little boy,” she admitted.
“That was sweet,” her friend agreed. Then, with a rather pointed look, added, “But the way he looked at you was even sweeter. Holy cow, girl!”
“He was probably just wondering why I wasn’t all goggle eyed over him, like you were.”
She kept her tone teasing, but underneath, she was a bit... unsettled. As they’d walked back here, she’d nearly convinced herself she’d imagined that lingering gaze. And the way he’d practically yanked it away, as if he didn’t want to get caught staring at her. Or didn’t like that he had been.
But if Jessica had noticed it, too . . .
“I don’t think he’s like that,” Jessica said. “Not every actor is, you know.”
“I’m sure some aren’t, but—”
“I read about how devastated he was after his wife was killed. It was heart wrenching. Would have been, even if I hadn’t known who he was. He really loved her.”
She bit back the first words that came to her, that he was an actor who could likely play that part to the hilt. She even reconsidered those words, because they didn’t seem to fit the guy she’d just seen looking at his little boy with such love and heartache and yearning in those penetrating eyes. And if she had to admit he truly loved his son, why not his late wife too?
“I think,” her friend said, in that tone that warned Nic she was about to get a Jessica assessment, statements that nearly always stung, but only because they were usually true, “you’re just still soured on men in general, after Adam.”
She went with her best defense. Best, because it was the truth. “What I’m soured on are all the people who pretend, whether it’s whoever decided to set that show in Texas, but film it in Caliphony-a, or the people who pretend to be cowboys, when the closest they’ve probably been to an actual cow is in the meat section of the market.”
Jessica was grinning at her now. “Go ahead, say it. You haven’t yet, but I know you’re thinking it.”
Nic grinned back as her best friend teased her back into good humor. “It’s true.”
“Yes. So say it.”
And so she quoted her father’s oft-stated wisdom. “The hat don’t make you a cowboy.”
They both laughed, hugged each other, and Jessica turned to open the door and go back to work. But then she paused and looked back.
“Next time you’re online, go look at how Jackson Thorpe was, as they say, discovered. I think it might surprise you.”
Nic thought about that all the way back home. Unlike many, she preferred to spend her time outside, with the horses she loved and trained, rather than cruising the internet, but she did indulge occasionally, and belonged to an online group of horse folks with a rather voluminous message board.
