Momma and Russ heaved a sigh as one.
And that’s when Anna started talking.
The shading dropped right out of Momma’s cheeks. Russ flinched like her Northern accent hurt his ears, and theyboth started past Jackson.
“Don’t trust Anna Grace to take care of the boyfriend?” Jackson drawled.
“Not sure anyone can take care of the boyfriend,” Russ said on a wince.
Jackson reckoned that was good enough reason to check things out himself.
Before the three of them hit the living room, Anna’s voice had gone past cheerful to what he would’ve classified as joyous in any other woman.
He knew Anna Grace well enough by now, though, to know that whatever she was saying, she was doing it with a special kind of devilish delight. “Iloveyour tattoo. Did you design that?”
The fleabag molesting Louisa came into view. He tossed his stringy bangs back and looked down his nose at Anna. “It’s henna.” His voice came out nasal and a little high-pitched, as if puberty had slightly missed its mark.
“He paints them on himself,” Louisa said. After one look in the doorway where Momma, Russ, and Jackson were gathered, she seemed to make an effort to not look at them. And she snuggled up right closer under the boy’s arm.
Anna grabbed the loser’s other wrist and tugged at his sleeve. “Oh, wow, are there more?”
Amidst all Louisa’s not-looking in Jackson’s direction, she jiggled a foot, gnawed on her lower lip.
Her yahoo boyfriend yanked his arm out of Anna’s reach, and Jackson discovered his stepfather was good for something more than making his momma happy.
He was good for being a brick wall keeping Jackson from showing the little peon the importance of good manners.
Anna Grace seemed completely unfazed. “So you guys met at school? What are you studying?”
“He’s still deciding,” Louisa said, the note of pride in her voice making Jackson want to wince. “He can’t be boxed in, you know?”
Anna Grace made her doe eyes fake-wide and heaved asigh Kaci would’ve admired. “That’s so awesome,” she said. “I mean, to be young and carefree, the world still your oyster, having fun, experimenting. If I’d done that in college, I never would’ve ended up divorced halfway across the country, still figuring out how to support myself, you know? You guys are so lucky.”
Louisa’s smug my-boyfriend-makes-my-parents-twitch gleam look seemed to be coming down with food poisoning.
“But I’m glad I didn’t do what my sister did,” Anna continued. She gave a fake laugh that sounded so funny in Jackson’s ears, he had to step back into the dining room for fear Louisa’d catch on to the joke. “She had three kids by the time she was your age. Can you imagine? I mean, that’s something people shouldn’t do until they’re like thirty-five, right? And you don’t want to know what daycare cost when she finally went to college.” Her voice dropped, like she was pretending she didn’t know Momma and Russ were still standing in the doorway with gaping jaws. “Hope you use protection. Double-or-nothing, I always say. Have you evertouchedbaby poop? Oh. My. God. But enough about that. Stone, you must know some awesome art festivals. Jackson and I wouldloveto go. We should double-date sometime.”
Russ retreated from the doorway, mustache twitching. “Suppose she’s one of the good ones.”
Jackson cleared his throat, pretended he was in uniform about to face a flight of LTs fresh off their commissioning, and stepped back into the doorway. He gave Momma a gentle elbow nudge. She clapped her mouth shut.
Anna Grace turned on the couch, grinning as if she were the one fighting that battle up there on the wall, and winning. “Oh, Jackson! There you are. Have you meet Louisa’s boyfriend? He’s anartist. Isn’t that cool?”
Louisa was pale, like maybe it was already the fourth quarter and her beloved Tigers were staring at the backside of a scoreboard they couldn’t flip right.
“World needs art,” Jackson said.
Anna’s brow twitched at him. Anna Grace code foryou’re welcome, now don’t be an ass.
Her words, not his.
“We should all go check out a museum sometime,” he said. He followed Anna’s lead and kept a straight face, but it hurt to keep his cheeks from showing his amusement.
Louisa drew herself up, falling way short of Anna’s fourteen-feet-tall even sitting down, and wrinkled her nose at Jackson. “Stone has an extra ticket. I’m going with him. I hope under the circumstances, you’ll make sure Anna’s comfortable at the game.”
“My pleasure. Anna tell you about the biofuels project she’s working on?”
Yep, that was definitely Louisa’s best I-hate-you face. Jackson ignored it and held out a hand to thear-teest. “Stone. Nice to meet finally you. Hope you make sure Louisa’s comfortable at the game, given the circumstances.”
