The jets had long since quit running. The small room was silent save for Jackson’s voice. “My daddy was my hero. Taught me everything I know about being a man. If he couldn’t keep his marriage together, if my daddy couldn’t do it—nobody could. Worked his tail off doing everything he could to make her happy, and it still wasn’t enough.”
She twisted her head and pressed a kiss over his tattoo. His wet fingers tangled in her half-damp hair. “Taught me to treat her the same,” he said quietly, “but after she married Russ, she wasn’t the same. Not to me. Not when I realized what she’d done.”
“How old were you?” she asked.
“Summer before my senior year,” he said. “I was gonna go to Auburn. Follow in the old man’s shoes, play ball, wear his number, make him proud. Couldn’t much afford it, wasn’t good enough for a scholarship, but I knew I had the brains to get a good job and work it off after.”
A shiver racked his body. Goosebumps pebbled his skin. If she could’ve squeezed him tighter, she would’ve.
“When Momma married Russ, he moved us into that mansion like it was a step up from how we’d been living. Offered to pay my tuition. Give me a job at the family business. Take care of things. Like I was following his footsteps instead of my daddy’s, letting him make me into a man instead of me making myself into a man. I told him to go to hell and applied to Bama.”
“Pretty extreme,” Anna murmured.
“Best thing I could’ve done. Got my head screwed back on straight, found something bigger than me worth working for. Might not be able to fly the jets, but I can’t imagine working for anyone else. The Force, it’s family.”
A familiar ache pricked at her chest. She knew better than to fall for a uniform.
She did.
But another part of her ached too.
The part that couldn’t help but sympathize with Deb. Had she been right to marry her husband’s best friend two months after his death? That wasn’t Anna’s business.
But choosing happiness, taking a chance at love again, that was something she envied.
She envied that Kaci had found it, she envied that Jules was looking for it with Brad, and she envied that Deb had been brave enough to risk her relationship with her son to go after what she wanted.
“Does she still love him?” she whispered.
Jackson’s hand stilled on her head. His chest rose beneath her once, twice, then once more, his heart beating out a strong, steady rhythm. “Never paid it much attention.”
“It’s not always people’s fault if they get it wrong the first time.” Her voice was so soft in her own ears she wasn’t sure she’d said it out loud.
But when his grip tightened around her, she knew he’d heard. “My daddy was ten times the man your ex is.”
She squeezed him back. “I know. I can tell.”
His fingers went back to toying with her hair, his breath cool against her damp skin. “Not sure I’ve done my duty in showing Louisa.”
Her eyes burned. A full-body shiver racked her to the core. She could feel that L-word creeping through her subconscious, looking for a crack to sneak through, to burst out to the forefront of her mind, out her mouth, out every pore in her skin.
But it couldn’t. She wouldn’t let it. She had to get through tonight, get through tomorrow, and then she had finals and work. Whatever this was tonight, it would fade. They’d go back to being friends who liked to be naked together, nothing more.
“Guess it’s time for me to clean up that mess, huh, Anna Grace?” He reached for a towel, but she stopped him.
“Give her time.” Her teeth chattered. Jackson reached for the towels again.
Anna stopped him once again. “Not money. Not footballtickets. Just your time. She’ll see. She’ll see you, and she’ll see him through you.”
Jackson hauled her out of the tub and wrapped a rough white towel around her body. “Got some experience there, Anna Grace?” He rubbed her arms with a second towel.
“When Beth got married and had babies…I just wanted some time.”
He smiled at her with those beautiful eyes, those perfect lips, and she realized it was still what she wanted.
Just a little more time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
