Hunting heaven.
But the first time a deer wandered past his blind, Jackson picked up his rifle quiet-like, got his shot lined up, put his finger to the trigger…
And couldn’t do it.
Because he practically saw Anna Grace looking at him with her own doe eyes, and he heard Louisa chattering away about how after her best friend from kindergarten showed her Bambi, she used to lie awake at night and cry for Bambi and his mother.
Son of a biscuit.
He was lonely. Didn’t even have Radish here to keep himcompany, since she tended to scare off the creatures.
He lowered the rifle and grunted. The doe bounded off.
Going home wouldn’t much help the loneliness since Anna Grace was organizing. That was his fault. He needed to keep his trap shut about having a girlfriend who’d put a guy’s kitchen away for fun.
But maybe Mamie was around. He waffled a minute or two, but soon, he was packing it in and heading up to Auburn.
He’d been worried about bothering Mamie this early, but she was sitting on her porch with a guest.
A guest who probably needed her time more than Jackson did. But they waved at him, so he pulled over and joined them for a cup of sweet tea. “Morning, ladies.”
“Well, now, sugarplum, isn’t this a nice surprise.” Mamie moved to stand, but Jackson gave her a head shake. She reclined in her flowery wicker chair. “Louisa here was telling me how she broke up with some silly boy who thought she was going to fund his art.”
“Right sorry to hear that,” Jackson said. The Louisa look of death told him she saw the party he was having inside overthatbit of news. He snagged a glass from Mamie’s tray and propped himself up on the top step. Hadn’t heard much from either of them since the game last Saturday.
Louisa pulled her legs up beneath her. Her death look faded behind mild speculation. “Mamie says Just Anna kicked your butt in bowling.”
“Sure did. Wouldn’t cross her in redneck golf neither.”
“Are you going to marry her?”
Jackson almost dropped his glass. “Ain’t you a little young to be talking about marriage?”
“Not yours, old man.”
Maybe he should’ve stayed hunting.
It was cool out there in the woods. Unlike the heat that was growing under his camo here. “Not everybody’s meant to get married.”
She snorted into her tea. Mamie hid a grin behind herglass.
“Military life’s hard on a family,” he said, even though he didn’t have to justify anything to these two busybodies.
But maybe he needed to justify it to himself. Because much as he didn’t want to stop seeing Anna, the thought of being responsible a hundred percent of the time for someone other than himself—worrying about what would happen to her if he got deployed, if he got shot, if he got killed—it near about choked him.
The thought of packing her up and taking her with him next time he got orders, that wasn’t so bad. But knowing what she’d leave behind, the life she built for herself on her own, her independence, her schooling, her job… She’d blossomed, his Anna Grace had.
She knew well as he did that every assignment had a different feel, a different flow. Never knew if he’d have a ten-minute or hour-long commute. If he’d be on the road all the time or home for dinner every night. If he’d be able to plan vacations in advance or have to ask his family to roll with whatever the job threw at him.
She’d signed up for that life once, and she’d made it clear she wouldn’t do it again.
Shouldn’t have to do it again. She was making her life for herself this time, and good on her for it.
Wasn’t right of him to ask her to choose between her career and his.
So he’d enjoy her as long as he could, and deal with the pain later.
Louisa rocked back in her chair. “Sounds like you’re making excuses for not taking responsibility for yourself. Ain’t nobody gonna give you what you want in life. You gotta get out there and do it for yourself.”
