The thought had Jackson gritting his teeth.
“You should have asked to borrow my shower cap. It would have looked most fetching,” Hazel called from the doorway.
A wistful expression stole over Leah’s face as she walked in. “This room is just made for the biggest Christmas tree you can get through the front door, isn’t it? Imagine how amazing it would look in the bay window.”
He followed her eyes and fought the immediate urge to haul a big-ass Christmas tree home for her come December and smother it in lights. Both the small boy and the man inside him saw exactly what Leah did—a majestic vision of seasonal magic which could be seen from outside on the drive and relished from inside. But the vision faded almost as soon as it bloomed. Amity Court needed to be sold long before Christmas; the loanhadto be repaid. The tree would be the new owner’s dream.
To distract Leah from something he couldn’t provide, Jackson remembered something he could. When he set a wall tile on the dining table in front of her, she blinked and reached out a finger to stroke it. Stunningly rich and glossy, it shone like an emerald green jewel against the dark mahogany.
“So pretty,” Hazel sighed with a happy hum.
Jackson’s eyes were on Leah. “I bought a sample to try out in the downstairs bathroom. You said green tiles would look nice.” He reveled in the smile that lit up her face and dried his throat.
“This is gorgeous, Jax. I love it.”
Hazel squeezed his elbow, her eyes as soft as he’d ever seen them. Though he basked in the novelty of having pleased them both with such a simple gesture, it made him feel all sorts of things he wasn’t ready to deal with, so Jackson deflected with the first thing that came to his mind.
“The bees are honeybees, apparently. They’re not dangerous. The guy I called said to leave them overnight and see if they move on of their own accord.” If not, he now had the number for a local beekeeper who was willing to come and collect them.
“It happened once before,” Hazel told them. “They settled in one of the shrubs then, quite close to the ground. But they’d gone by the next morning, so we didn’t need to get anyone in to move them.”
“As luck would hive it.” Leah delivered the awful pun with a straight face.
“That’s shocking,” Jackson grumbled, hiding his smile.
“We could always throw them a house-swarming party,” Leah suggested to his back. “Play some Bee-yoncé.”
He turned in the living room doorway and glanced over his shoulder. Her eyes were alight with humor, her face bright with happiness he’d helped to put there, and it made him so fucking proud.
Jackson gave a quick shake of his head, pushing his hands deep into his pockets. “Stop pollen my leg, Raven.”
Leah’s rich laugh plucked at the muscles in his belly. It was a gift, a reward, a promise. Or at least, he hoped it was.
Either way, the sound followed Jackson out onto the front porch where he’d stacked two boxed security cameras. As he began to open up the packaging, he ran his tongue over lips that still burned from her touch, and every worry and responsibility he had outside of this house faded temporarily into the background.
Chapter 25
Leah
Jackson pinched the bridge of his nose. “Leah, you cannot give away Pacific Avenue for twenty-five bucks and a box of Cheez-Its.”
“But Sam needs it—he’s got the other green ones.”
“Which is why you need to make him pay over the odds for yours.”
“You’ll let me off if I land on it, won’t you, Sam?” Leah batted her eyelashes winningly, with a surreptitious wink that Jackson missed.
“One hundred percent, I will. You can trust this face, babe,” Sam assured her, earnest innocence oozing from every pore. “And I’ll throw in an iced coffee at the diner.” Even Kash rolled his eyes at that.
“Yeah, why not? There are other colors I like better and I could do with the money.”
“It’s not about the colors!” Jackson glared daggers at Sam. “Jesus Christ, Leah, you wouldn’t be so short of money if you hadn’t spent it all in the first ten minutes. And you wouldn’t need to sell so many properties now if you’d drive a harder bargain.”
She dropped her eyes to her hands, shoulders drooping, and struggled to suppress a smile. “I haven’t had much experience with real estate, being homeless and everything—”
Jackson pushed his collection of yellow cards toward her, face stricken, his voice gruff. “Have these. I don’t really need them. I had the bank error in my favor, so I’m alright for cash.”
That was too much. The cushions sank behind her as Leah collapsed in smothered giggles. Laughter sawing from his chest, Sam high-fived her from the rug.
