“You sure they’d want me there? It’s not like we’re the best of friends. Brooklyn did little more than growl at me while I was here.”
“Brooklyn’s charm is an acquired taste. I’m sure Seneca would love it, though. My aunt and uncle will be there, and even the Sullivans are coming.”
That was a surprise. He hadn’t heard her mention Taylor Sullivan or his family since he’d dropped her off after Taylor’s confession and release. “I’m surprised you’d invite him.”
“I didn’t. The guests of honor did. They were given a second chance. They wanted to extend one to Taylor too. He’s actually working out an unofficial community service on the ranch. He comes over before and after school to take care of the horses and helps out running errands. He wants to give back after causing so much trouble.”
Jackson shook his head, amazed again by her ability to forgive and give people the opportunity to change, to take a new path. “Glad he’s trying to turn himself around and make amends, but I can’t say I’m not worried you’ll trust the wrong person one day and end up hurt.”
She looked out the windshield and took a deep breath as if she needed to fortify herself. “There’s always a risk in trusting someone. But there’s always something to gain too. Like if I hadn’t trusted my uncle and finally stopped fighting him to bring in you and your men, we might never have caught Eli in his dirt. Someone might’ve been seriously hurt, and I never would’ve had the chance to meet you. Considering how everything turned out, I’d say the gain far outweighed the risk.”
She lifted their hands and mimicked his early movements by placing a gentle kiss on his knuckles. The touch was featherlight, but it was powerful, connecting him to her on an elemental level. His heart, his mind, and his soul all relaxing, letting go of everything except her in that moment. “Come celebrate with us, Ranger. I’d bet even a surly lawman like yourself could learn the benefits of trusting someone every now and again.”
He didn’t need to attend a party for that. No, he was learning that lesson slowly, with each passing moment he spent in her presence. She’d started as just a case. She’d ended up being much more important than that. If he weren’t careful, she might wind up being the person to break beyond all his barriers. And as he promised to be there, he realized there was no question about it. Aja Everett was well on her way to teaching him to trust.
Chapter 36
Aja rummaged through her closet, trying to find something to wear. She was a woman who’d walked the red carpet at Hollywood events on more than one occasion, but she couldn’t figure out for the life of her what to put on for a simple dinner party happening in her dining room.
In all fairness, she hadn’t dressed herself for those celebrity events. She’d had designers she’d paid hefty sums to create custom looks for her. But standing here trying to decide between a sweater dress and an everyday midi dressed up with a pair of platform stiletto pumps, she longed for the days when her stylist waved a magic wand and made her fabulous with little effort on Aja’s part.
The midi dress won out. She prayed she hadn’t spent so much time in work boots that she didn’t know how to walk in what used to be her signature footwear.
She glimpsed herself in front of the mirror and wondered why she was so concerned with her wardrobe. She wasn’t standing before the court; the press and their unforgiving cameras weren’t surrounding her. She wasn’t about to step out on the red carpet. Why was she having such a hard time tonight?
“Jackson.” The smile his name brought to her lips didn’t surprise her. He was an attractive man, and he’d spent the last week showering her with his time and attention via calls and text messages, so of course his name made her smile.
She slid the dress over her head and turned back and forth as she stood in front of the mirror. The dress was cute, but she’d need shapewear to get the look she wanted, and no one had time for that today.
She pulled off the dress and foraged in her closet once more. Her fingers touched a leather corset with light boning she hadn’t worn in the time she’d been here. She grabbed a short, black skirt with a slight flare and a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt, and in a blur of limbs, she managed to get everything on.
She held the red corset in her hand, wondering if it was too much for the event. After she zipped its front and looked at herself in the mirror, she didn’t care if it was too much or not. Her girls were sitting high and pretty, and her waist was snatched, and she felt almost like a super heroine in the entire getup.
“One thing missing, though.” She found another pair of knee-high boots. When you were a petite woman with thick calves and thighs, boots that comfortably fit above the knee were a rare find. So when she came across them at Torrid, she bought them in as many styles and colors as she could find.
These were black like the pair she’d worn last week on her date with Jackson. But instead of stiletto heels, these were wedges. They gave her the same height, with added comfort—a bonus for all the walking she was sure she’d be doing as the host of this shindig.
She sat at her vanity, making a few touch-ups to her earlier applied makeup and piling her long, tiny braids on the top of her head in a messy but cute bun. She clipped some gold-cuff hair accessories onto several of the braids to add a little more pizazz to the style and then reached for a set of large, thin hoops for her ears.
Satisfied with her reflection, she couldn’t help but sing the opening lyrics to LL Cool J’s “Around the Way Girl.” Spending so much time in the corporate world, followed by her work on the ranch, didn’t allow for her to tap into her Brooklyn swagger often. Seeing that woman smiling back at her in the mirror gave Aja a jolt of excitement.
Yeah, she was eager to see what Jackson’s reaction to her outfit would be. But above all, she was happy to see the resurgence of this long-lost side of herself. The woman who stared back at her was carefree and looked forward to life.
Aja stood and released a long sigh. Her shoulders loose with relief, she headed for the door and paused for a second when another realization dropped into her consciousness—whatever awaited her on the other side of this moment, she was ready to move beyond her past. Seneca and Brooklyn had reinvented themselves, and it was time for her to do the same.
* * *
Jackson stood on the front porch, ready to knock on the door, when he heard a vehicle coming up the road. He recognized Colton’s large pickup truck and waited for him to make his way out of it and up onto the porch.
Jackson extended his hand, and Colton moved two small gift bags from his right hand to his left to accept it.
“I didn’t know you got an invite. Is Storm coming too?”
Colton shook his head. “I don’t think so. When I spoke to him about it, he said he was spending some time in Mexico with his mother.”
That wasn’t strange. Of the three of them, even with the same workload as Jackson and Colton, Storm always seemed to make time for a personal life, for his family. Jackson often envied him that ability. Turning the job off in his head might’ve been nice every now and again.
“I wasn’t aware you and Aja kept contact after her case.”
