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“Oh, yeah! I did meet him. His wife’s the librarian and they’re getting ready to have a baby. They were both incredibly sweet.”
“Yeah, I think Sam said they’ll have three kids under the age of five. It’s kind of funny.”
“Funny like how you feel about Mason funny?”
He grinned. “A little. Sam was a real hell-raiser and he didn’t grow up in Magnolia but always spent his summers here. He was always getting into trouble—particularly with the town pastor.”
“O-kay…”
“And guess who Shelby’s dad is?”
“No way!” She laughed hard at that. “Your family certainly seems to fall in love with people they almost shouldn’t.”
“I think you and I sort of fit into that category, right?”
“Hmm…you have a point.”
“That just means it’s meant to be because my family is known for their strong marriages. You know…not including my mom and Aunt Susannah. But my generation is kicking ass in that area. Trust me.”
“You say that a lot.”
“Then that just proves how much you need to trust me,” he teased as they pulled up to Susannah’s house.
“It really is a magnificent house,” she murmured. “I can’t imagine being a kid and being allowed to come here and play.”
“Pops loved having all of us around. He taught us all how to fish and how to sail, and then would take us to job sites and teach us how to build things. He was larger than life and family was everything to him.” Sighing, Jackson stared up at the house. “Every time I walk up the big front steps, I keep expecting to see him there greeting us. He was an amazing man and the best kind of role model.”
“You were very lucky,” she whispered. They sat in companionable silence for a moment before she felt like they needed a nudge to go inside. “Come on. Let’s see if they need a hand with any of the last-minute stuff.” She climbed from the car and Jackson surprised her by coming around to greet her and then kissing her. It was a little chaste and a little sweet. When he pulled back, she smiled.
“He would have loved you,” he said gruffly.
“Jackson, you can’t know…”
He silenced her with another kiss before repeating, “He would have loved you.”
She felt herself blush, but rather than say anything, she let him lead her up the steps and into the house. Susannah greeted them with surprise. “What are you doing here so soon? I told you we had it all under control.”
“Well, sometimes things get a little hectic and we just thought we’d come and hang out. If you don’t need us, then I’ll show Savannah around the yard a bit. We didn’t get to do that the day of the wedding.”
“That’s perfect,” Susannah said, her relief palpable. “Go.”
They walked through the house and out onto the deck before descending the stairs to the yard. Jackson talked about the different games they used to play out here—tag, football, badminton—and how much they used to love to come and swim in the sound.
“We used to run down the pier and jump in like the hounds of hell were chasing us!” he said. “I was the youngest so I was always last, but it just made me want to run faster. Before my injury, I was one of the fastest guys in my platoon. Now? I’m not so sure how I’d compete.”
“I’m sure you’ll get back to that pace once you’re cleared to go running again. You strike me as the kind of guy who would get up early and go for a run.”
“Sweetheart, if you’re in the bed, I’m not going anywhere,” he said, leaning in to nuzzle her neck. “I’d settle for coming in last in a race if I got to wake up the way we did this morning every morning.”
Now her cheeks were on fire. “Jackson…” Glancing around, she was glad no one was there to hear them.
“Oh, stop. Come sit in the gazebo with me. We’ll watch as everyone arrives.”
It was warm out, so she welcomed the chance to sit in a shadier area. Not that the yard wasn’t almost completely covered in large trees, but the gazebo was closer to the water and there was a nice breeze coming in.
They sat close and he told her a few more stories about his childhood here at the house and before they knew it, people started to arrive.
“I kind of thought most of the people coming today would have also been at Garrett and Emma’s wedding, but I don’t recognize some of them.”
