Jackson blinked at her.
Then had to blink again.
“She hear herself?” he asked Mamie.
“Just the words, sugarplum. She’ll figure out what theymean later.”
Louisa wrinkled her nose. “Why are you here? Me and Mamie were having us a girls’ day.”
Jackson sighed and got to his feet. “Just passing through.”
Just passing through, wishing he were back in Georgia with Anna, even if all he did was bring her food and something to drink while she was putting some other guy’s kitchen to rights. Awful sad state of affairs to his way of thinking.
So was settling on spending the rest of the day working on making more rights with Momma and Russ, but it did them all some good, or so he reckoned.
Two weeks after Thanksgiving,Anna took her biochemistry final. It was her last class commitment until next year. When her feet hit the sidewalk in the darkening evening outside the James Robert chemistry building, she drew in a breath of temporary freedom.
Her brain had melted into some new form of organic matter, but she was done.
Done.
Until her molecular spectroscopy class started in January.
The thought made her molecules radiate as excitedly as an ice cube’s. Two semesters down, nine more to go. She was so tired.
Plus she had two more certifications to slog through at work.
Tonight, though, she’d earned a late dinner at Jackson’s house. When she arrived, he had chicken baking, potatoes boiling, and salads already made. He was washing dishes while Radish snored beneath the table. She greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, there, pretty lady.”
“I’m impressed,” she told him with a smile.
“Suppose you earned it.” He dried his hands, then brushed a thumb over her cheek. “Talked to Louisa. She offered towash your car if you’ll talk to her about biofuels.”
Work and school. Yuck. But if it helped Louisa figure out what she wanted to be, Anna was in. “Sure.”
“How’d that test go?”
“It’s over.”
She poked at the potatoes. He shooed her away. “Sit. Look like you’re fit to pass out.”
She would’ve argued, but if he was brave enough to tell her she looked bad, she’d sit. She scratched Radish’s ears, said hi to Enrique in the corner, then plopped down at the table to watch the show part of dinner. “My adviser says I might be able to test out of organic chemistry,” she said over a yawn.
“If studying for the test doesn’t kill you first.”
If it hadn’t been for the affection in his voice, she might’ve been offended. “Gotta do what I’ve gotta do.”
He carried the potatoes to the sink. “Still think chemistry’s your thing?”
Yuck again. “You betcha.”
Through the steam coming off the potatoes, he pinned her with a look. “I know you’re a busy lady, Anna Grace, but you can stop now and again to ask if you’re doing what makes you happy.”
His washing machine buzzed in his mud room. “Don’t you touch anything,” he warned. “Be right back.”
Anna snitched a slice of red pepper off her salad. She was tired, but was she tired of school and her program, or just tired?
