Chapter 11
Jackson followed Aja, his father, and his brother back into the house after they’d returned from assessing the access points he was concerned about. Aja led them into the great room of the homestead.
“Your land is beautiful, Ms. Everett. I imagine you’re quite proud of it,” Jacob said.
Jackson watched a proud smile spread across Aja’s face. As if she were both agreeing with and thanking his father at the same time. She did that a lot when she talked about her land or the people who worked on it.
And why do I know that?
The easy answer was that he was an investigator. Someone trained to take notice of the small things people did to track behavior. But the honest truth was that Jackson watched Aja all the time.
He furrowed his brow as he thought about how creepy that admission sounded in his head. He wasn’t stalking her, but he was noticing certain things about her he didn’t think she’d realized she’d revealed.
Breakfast was a perfect example of her letting her guard down. She sat watching the people she’d cooked for enjoy her meal. While she played with the spoon in her bowl of grits, she smiled, uncaring if anyone saw, open, enjoying the buzz of life happening around her.
“Please, call me Aja, Mr. Dean.” She swept her hand in the air, pointing to one of the sofas for her guests to sit down. “Can I offer you gentlemen anything to eat or drink?”
His brother and father shook their heads. “No, dear,” his father replied. “I’m still full after that morning spread you were kind enough to offer us when we arrived. If possible, we’d like to look around the house to go over some spaces that could be problematic if ignored.” He turned to Jackson’s brother, Kip. “Son, you mind going upstairs to look around? I can start down here.”
“Sure, Daddy,” Kip answered and looked to Aja for permission to go upstairs.
She steadied her shoulders. This was obviously still difficult for her. But somehow she didn’t let that stop her.
She wore her determination to keep her ranch safe etched into the furrowed lines of her brow and the stiff set of her back and shoulders. The sight of her preparing for battle, her fierceness shrouding her like a warrior goddess’s battle cry, unfurled a tangible need in Jackson’s chest.
When Aja and Kip disappeared from the great room and he could hear their footsteps taking them up the stairs, his father turned around and said, “She sure is nice. Ain’t she?”
Jackson called up the memory of Aja exiting through the doorway into the hall a few seconds earlier. If “nice” were a euphemism for sexy, spirited, dedicated, and confident, then yeah, Aja Everett was as nice as they came.
The familiar heavy chuckle that fell from his father’s mouth, making the man’s shoulders and torso jiggle like a bowl of gelatin right out of the fridge, pulled Jackson’s eyes from Aja’s disappearing form.
“What’s so funny, old man?”
“I got your ‘old man’ all right. No matter my age, I’m still young enough to tan your hide.”
Jackson laughed. He didn’t doubt Jacob’s words at all. Jackson and Kip matched their father in height and brawn. The retired sheriff back in Jackson’s hometown, Jacob Dean still kept himself in good shape. According to him, he needed to be ready to knock some sense into his foolhardy boys if they ever became too wily.
But since Jackson could remember few times when Jacob had needed to use more than his rich bass to corral his rowdy boys or more than a stern look to make them think twice about crossing a line, Jackson knew his father’s threat was nothing more than Jacob’s personal brand of Texas bravado.
“However long in the tooth I am, I’m not too old to recognize my son making eyes at the pretty lady who’s upstairs with your brother right now.”
Jackson turned around to face his father, tension spreading through his body as quickly as confusion seeded his mind. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t believe I stuttered. You haven’t taken your eyes off Ms. Everett since we arrived.”
“She’s a beautiful woman,” Jackson explained calmly, hoping his father wouldn’t see through his need to deflect. “Any man would take more than a second glance at her.”
“But you’re not just any man, Jackson. That you’re giving her more than one look tells me there’s something further to this than an investigation.”
Jackson shook his head, not sure who he was trying to convince. Yeah, there was something there, something about the way Aja carried herself that made him want things he shouldn’t. But history had spent too many years beating it into his head that beyond the superficial, entanglements with women only led to devastation in his life.
“Your Ms. Everett is a good woman.”
“I’ve known her for a handful of days. She’s notmyMs. Anything. And you’ve spent even less time in her presence to know if she’s a good woman or not.”
His father walked to the other side of the room, sat, and leaned back against the sofa, crossing a boot-covered ankle over his knee as he glared at Jackson. “She may be from Brooklyn, but she’s tied to this here land. She takes pride in it. You can see it whenever she talks about. While we were out canvassing her acres, it was obvious this place is in her blood. And if she loves the land, the way she feels about the people she’s helping is more of credit to her character than anything else. That is a good woman, Jackson. It wouldn’t do to let her pass you by. Certainly not because of your past.”
Jackson placed his hands on his belted waist, his tense shoulders hiking up near his ears. He didn’t doubt there were good women in the world. He simply doubted one would ever fit into his life.
