Chapter 3
Jackson wasn’t sure what Katie’s hours of work were at the daycare so he just put her bag in his truck and drove to town. First order of business in his mind was to find her keys. Today he wore coveralls and rubber boots. He was prepared to sift through the entire dumpster if necessary.
He thought about the timing of Katie’s pregnancy, if she was pregnant. Trent had been home during the last part of summer. He wondered if his brother and Katie had been romantically involved. Trent had never said anything nor was there any indication that the two were anything but good friends. Jackson knew his mom would be thrilled if Katie and Trent were a couple. It was something she’d always not so secretly hoped for.
When he got to the dumpster, Jackson took out his work gloves, a bucket and a stack of garbage bags. Before he went in, he double checked his emails, putting off the moment.
There was one from his editor.
Jackson had been working hard to try to make the farm pay since the passing of his father. The truth was, the farm wasn’t paying. It was barely breaking even and that was because they were mortgage free. If they had a mortgage on the place, there was no way that he would have been able to pay for Trent and their sister Stacey’s schooling, their operating loans, plus the cost of running the place.
Actually, it was a separate form of income from the farm that had made everything possible. An income that Jackson kept secret from his family, friends and community.
Seven years ago, Jackson had responded to a dare from a friend. He’d written a novel and entered it in an open submission call. He’d used a pen name and surprisingly an editor had responded, tearing the book to pieces and ordering him to rewrite it. He’d told his friend that he’d never finished writing the manuscript and ignored the rejected submission for four months. Then he’d gotten an urge and rewrote it, making some of the suggestions the editor demanded while changing other things as he liked. When he sent it in again, the editor, one Andrea Sholtz, had made a few more changes but otherwise she loved it. She took him on, publishing the book. He’d talked to the accounting part of the firm and managed to get the royalties paid in his name.
It was the beginning of a seven year career of writing under the pen name JD Emerson.
Now it was a desperately needed income that had probably saved them from having to mortgage the farm and eventually sliding into bankruptcy like so many others in the area.
There was one snag though. Everyone assumed JD Emmerson was a woman and Jackson had no intention of telling them otherwise because he wrote romance novels. The cheesy kind that so many women read.
Jackson was proud of his work in a private, please don’t let anyone else know way. He could imagine the ribbing and teasing he would get from members of the male community if it got out. Jackson Davis, member of the 4H club, on the board of the Cattlemen’s Association, part of the Good Farmer’s group, a man who played baseball in the summer, worked hard and was a man of the community writing fluffy romance novels.
It didn’t bear thinking about. He’d be the laughingstock of the town.
When he read the latest email from Andrea he dropped his bucket. She wanted him to take a book tour, to travel the country, do readings, talk to readers, sign books. She had a prime-time spot booked on a famous women’s talk show. Andrea said it could propel him nationwide from making thousands every few weeks to tens of thousands with the publicity. She sounded excited.
A pit formed in Jackson’s stomach. This could not happen.
Jackson shoved the phone into his pocket and grabbed the bucket. He had a job to do. He’d think about Andrea’s proposition later. There had to be a way to get out of it.
It took him two hours of sorting out bags and going through the loose goop of rotten vegetables and fruit. Finally, he found a pair of keys and he dearly hoped they were Katie’s. He wiped them off as best he could with paper towels. Just to be sure, he went to the rusty hatchback and tried to unlock it with success. Perfect. Jackson locked the car again. It looked like a death trap. He wondered if the frame was rotting out. How the car still functioned was beyond him.
Stripping off his coveralls, he put the offending smelling garment in the back of the truck with his supplies. He knew he didn’t smell too fresh but at least he looked presentable.
He stopped at her apartment first but no one answered. Figuring she was at work, he stopped there next. Ginny Halstrom greeted him at the waiting area.
“Good day Mrs. Halstrom,” Jackson took care to be particularly polite. Ginny was known to gossip. “I have a couple of items for Miss Sutton.”
“Isn’t that nice of you,” Ginny smiled. “I’ll just take them to her.”
“Ma’am, I’d appreciate it if I could just talk to Katie a moment,” Jackson smiled in return and didn’t make any move to hand over the keys or bag. He’d double bagged Katie’s items to keep them private for her and didn’t want Ginny snooping through them to see the pregnancy test.
Ginny paused for a moment but widened her smile. “Of course.”
Jackson watched her head back into the daycare. He looked at the colorful and somewhat confusing artwork of the toddlers taped to the wall and wondered what it would be like to have kids. He supposed it would make life a lot less quiet.
“Jackson?” Katie came into the waiting room. “Hi.”
“Mornin’,” Jackson said. He felt awkward with the bag in his hand. “We got a bag of yours by mistake.”
Katie flushed and looked at the floor. “I have one of yours. I would bring it to your mom’s book club but I’m not sure if I’ll make it yet. I plan on looking for my keys after work.”
“I got your keys this morning,” Jackson held out the keys and the bag. “I figured you might be working.”
“Thank you!” Katie accepted the bag and keys with relief. “Jackson, you have no idea how much I appreciate this.”
Jackson shrugged. “I would have brought the car here but I didn’t think I’d fit in it since it’s so small. My knees would hit the ceiling if I managed to fold myself in.”
“It’s okay. I’ll get one of the girls to give me a ride to the grocery store after work,” Katie smiled and Jackson felt a little breathless as she looked up at him. “Thank you so much!”
“Welcome,” he said gruffly. “I’d better get back to work.”
They said their goodbyes and Jackson thought hard as he drove back to the farm. Just who was Katie involved with? In a town this size, people tended to know each other’s business, sometimes before they knew it themselves. Yet he didn’t remember anyone mention that Katie was seeing anyone. When his mom had speculated about it last night with him, she didn’t have any answers either.
Whoever he was, he’d better step up and be good to her. Especially if there was a little one on the way.
Jackson supposed he’d leave it to his mother to pry when Katie came to her book club. Donna would get down to the bottom of this.
