Page 29 of Jaxson

Jaxson grabbed his box of tools and followed Cruz into the kitchen. That was where he saw Kate’s mom standing, with an apron, looking white as a sheet.

“Fix it,” Cruz said.

He stepped inside the kitchen, and the smell of electrical wiring and burning were easy to detect. He hated the smell, and he looked past Kate’s mom and toward the wall, to see the problem.

“I need to turn off your electricity to the kitchen,” he said.

“Do what you must, just get it fucking done,” Cruz said, and stormed out of the house.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just been a little out of sorts lately,” Kate’s mom said.

“Yeah, because he’s usually a bucket of fun.”

Jaxson had told him about the old electric wiring, that it needed to be updated years ago, but Cruz told him to fuck off, and he wasn’t going to spend money that didn’t need to be spent. From the looks of it, that time had finally come.

He had no intention of overcharging Cruz. In fact, he didn’t overcharge anyone, not even Carl, for tampering with his work. He charged everyone a fair price, mainly so people wouldn’t start to look elsewhere.

Even though at times some of the jobs pissed him off, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to do them. He just didn’t want the town to know he actually enjoyed being an electrician and a plumber. There was nothing like leaving a town you thought you hated, to live someplace you hated more, and realized how much you actually loved your small town. Especially when that small town had one special reason to stay.

****

Tillie tried her sauce, and it had the right amount of garlic and onion. It wasn’t too tangy from the tomatoes, nor too rich from the cream. She sprinkled in the chopped basil and gave the sauce one final stir.

She didn’t read the recipe right, so instead of having a couple of chicken breasts dredged in flour, she diced up the chicken and followed the recipe with those few tweaks.

The pasta water was ready, and she hadn’t salted it yet. She was going to wait until Jaxson came home, and then she would make the final preparations. Overcooked pasta was okay, but she knew it wasn’t perfect, and she wanted this meal to be great.

The moment Jaxson walked through the door, she added salt to her simmering water, along with the pasta, which was enough for two servings.

“Honey, I’m home,” he said, and then burst out laughing. “Sorry, I have always wanted to say that.”

He came rushing toward her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face against her neck. “I’m missed you,” he said.

She sunk against him and loved the attention he was giving her.

“A bad day at the office?” she asked.

“Ugh, more like bad day at the ranch. I got a call from Cruz Moore, miserable bastard, and he didn’t listen to me and now he’s going to pay the price, because his house needs a rewiring job. I’ve got to get the equipment from town tomorrow. He wants me to start immediately and has promised he will be standing over me, timing me.”

“Cruz Moore?”

“Yeah, why?”

“No reason.” She thought about Kate and the fact she’d not long had a conversation where her friend had admitted to having the biggest crush on him.

“I don’t know, that means something. You and Cruz got a little history?”

“Me and Cruz? Absolutely not. I don’t think he and I have ever crossed paths, in all honesty.”

“So why the interest?” Jaxson asked.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s nothing.”

“Come on, tell me,” Jaxson said, grabbing her hand, and pulling her away from her pot. “If you can’t trust me with all your secrets, who can you trust?”

“Do you trust me with all of yours?” she asked.

“Yeah, I do.” And he didn’t even hesitate.