Something that sounded suspiciously like a lock clicked somewhere beyond the bedroom.
Jackson was out of bed, reaching for one of the random pairs of pants scattered about the room, when the yelling started.
“Jackson Davis, you’ve got some explaining to do!”
Whoever she was, she was spitting mad.
And Anna couldn’t help but silently echo the mystery woman’s sentiment. Mad and all.
Jackson and Radish disappeared outside the bedroom door. “Pipe down,” she heard him say. “The neighbors might still be sleeping.”
“You wanna tell me why in tarnationCraigwas out there this morning instead of you?” The woman made an outraged squeak. “You stood me up for agirl, didn’t you?”
Anna’s pulse ricocheted through her veins like an unstable electron. Jacksonwasa decent guy, wasn’t he? There had to be a reasonable explanation for a woman having a key to his house. A woman who thought she’d been stood up. For what?Church?
Lordy, what had she gotten herself into?
She scrambled out of the bed. She pulled the sheet off and wrapped it around herself. Twice.
Whoever the woman was, Anna wasn’t taking a chance of meeting her naked.
Though a meetingwouldtake place and explanationswouldbe given.
Jackson talked softer now, too quiet or too far away to hear more than the measured cadence of his voice. Her overnight bag was still upstairs in his guest bedroom and her dress wassomewhere close to there, so she stomped over to his dresser. She located a T-shirt in the first drawer, then grabbed a pair of pants off the floor.
Clean or dirty, she didn’t care.
She cared only that she was in something more than her birthday suit.
She was trying to hop into the jeans without dropping the sheet when the door clicked shut behind her. Jackson set her overnight bag on the bed. He eyed her, and a grin split his cheeks. “Don’t reckon you need any help getting untangled from that sheet.”
Her face twisted disbelief.There was another woman in his house. “Maybe five minutes ago.”
He ambled up to her, still eyeing the sheet. “You got yourself wrapped up good in there.”
She arched an eyebrow. A very angry eyebrow.
“You thinking about homework, or you waiting for me to explain the crazy girl making us breakfast in my kitchen?”
He reached for the sheet. She swatted at his hand. “You’ll have better luck with her than you will with me right now.”
Thatwiped his grin off. “Darlin’, not even in Arkansas. Tell you what. You take your time in the shower. Louisa’s gonna be a while out there.”
Her eyes narrowed. He was playing with her again.
Too bad for him she wasn’t feeling like being played with. “I’m locking the door.”
“Go on and do what you need to.” He plucked the Bama shirt out of her hands, murmured, “Thank you, ma’am,” slid it over his head, and sauntered back out of the bedroom.
Leaving her mighty glad she was in this only for the sex.
Louisa probably didn’t knowit, but when she glared at Jackson like that, eyes flashing, nose flaring, she looked like Daddy used to whenever Auburn was losing a football game. “So itwasa girl,” she said.
“It was a wedding.”
She morphed into pure Momma mode quick, eyes narrowing to little pinpricks while she tried to find something to do with her hands. She settled on flinging a spatula at him. “You got married?”
Radish growled. Jackson flipped the spatula in his hand and headed to the refrigerator. He was glad Anna Grace looked angrier than a herd of rabid termites, because she was gonna need that mad to handle Louisa. Little sister had some territorial issues. “Mamie said it was a right pretty service.”
