“I thought it was ‘the roses’—and we have not made up yet,” I answered before I hung her order through the service window. “He wanted to tell me what to do. I’m a grown woman who has been basically taking care of myself since I was eight years old.”
“I like Jackson. He’s a good man,” Ada Lou said. “But hold your ground. If you start letting him run you like a toy train, then you’ll be giving up pieces of yourself.”
“And pretty soon, you won’t even know whoyouare,” Tressa added.
Women empowering womencame to my mind like it did so often when I thought of all the ladies who were now my friends. Going back to my old lifestyle and leaving them behind would break my heart. I couldn’t do that to them.
My phone pinged.Have you thought about it long enough?
I wiped my eyes and typedI have, and the answer is yes. Pick me up at six?
I’ll be there. I’ve missed you, Carla.
I sent one back that saidDitto!
I spent all day Saturday dealing with a merry-go-round of emotions. By the time Jackson arrived promptly at six, a tangle of nerves the size of a beach ball had settled into my stomach. I slung my purse over my shoulder, stepped outside, and just stood there staring at Jackson.
“What?” he asked. “Did I grow an extra eye in the middle of my forehead?”
I stood on tiptoe and brushed a kiss across his lips. “If you did, you would still be sexy.”
He took my hand in his, and together we went to his truck. “What happened to my Carla? What have you done with her?”
When I was in the passenger seat, I flipped the console up and moved over to sit close to him. “She is ready to talk about the other night now, and she knows what she wants.”
“Have we survived our argument?” he asked as he drove toward the trailer.
“I hope so,” I answered. “I will always be independent. It’s who I am. I don’t need you to take care of me. But I do need you to love me unconditionally and support me. I will do the same for you.”
“I can do that,” he said. “But I have to tell you, that sounds a lot like something my mother would say.”
“Then she is a smart woman. Do you still want to move forward even after I pitched a hissy fit? If not, tell me now, and we won’t waste any more time.”
“Up front. Honest. And blunt as hell.” He parked the truck in between the trailers like always. “And, darlin’, I love you and I verymuch want to go full speed ahead with us. I’m here for the long haul, no matter how short or how long that is.” He tipped up my chin and kissed me.
I swear I heard bells ringing off in the distance, and my words came out between short breaths. “What you see is what you get. I won’t change, and I don’t ever want you to.”
“Deal,” he said.
When we got inside, I noticed a calendar on the wall beside the door. Today was January 31. Instead of just a month since I’d arrived at the Tumbleweed, it seemed like at least a year. “What a fitting way to end my first month,” I muttered.
“What was that?” Jackson asked.
“Just how hot is that makeup sex you’ve been teasing me about?”
He scooped me up in his arms and carried me to the bed. “You can decide,” he whispered as he removed his shirt and tossed it to the side. He slid the pocket door shut, putting us in a little bubble all our own.
“No one is in here,” I whispered.
“But there might be someday, so we might as well get into the habit now.”
I didn’t care if he was talking about children or visitors or even a couple of cats. I just wanted to feel his body next to mine.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Seeing the bride before the wedding was bad luck. If the Mendoza family believed that Grady and Scarlett should not spend the night together the night before the ceremony, I was not one to argue the point. Lady Luck proved that I was more than a little bit superstitious.
We wanted to close the café on the day of the wedding and give Scarlett the time off, but she protested. If she had to stay home all day, she declared that she would bite her nails to the quick and walk the shine off the floor in the new house. Besides, what would those poor folks on the buses do if they couldn’t use the restrooms and get a bite to eat?
