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ChapterOne
JACKSON
“Mom, I told you I don’t want to come home for Christmas. And don’t act surprised. It’s not like you don’t know why,” I mutter under my breath.
“You can’t keep letting that girl keep you away. Besides, she’s not even around here right now. She’s off visiting that new boyfriend of hers. Him and his fancy family.”
I can feel my heart jerk in my chest for a minute. Dammit! I rub my chest absently. Why the hell can’t I stop thinking about Jessie? God knows she’s had no problems moving on from me.
But if she’s not around, I suppose it won’t hurt to take a little trip home. “Alright, Mom. I’ll come home for a very quick visit. I’m not staying the whole time.”
But the rest of what I say goes right over her head as soon as she gets what she wants. “Yay! I can’t wait to see my baby boy.”
I roll my eyes and groan. “Yeah, I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you in a day or so.” I hang up quickly before she can start rattling off a list of all the things I should do and people who have been dying to see me.
I know some people would like to see me but there’s gonna be a whole bunch of them just wanting to see if I’m crying into my beer thanks to my very public dear john letter from Jessie. She might as well have published it in the local newspaper, the Tribute. Everybody seemed to know every damn word of that fucking letter.
I can only assume, she actually read it to her girlfriends who broadcast it everywhere in town.
Yeah, she’s a peach. I’m sure I’m luckier without her but I can’t quite convince my damn body. My stupid heart thinks she’s the only one for me. Which is dumb because I was really getting tired of her asshole comments about me not having money to buy her all the jewelry she wanted or to get us a nice big house. Or so many other things that she just needed a little bit of extra money for.
Thank heavens I didn’t give her access to my bank account or she would probably have wiped me out and then given me that sweet little smile and the sparkling blue eyes that usually made me forgive everything she did to me.
I push my hand through my hair, ruffling it. It’s a bit too long for regs right now but I’ve been off for about two weeks already and my hair grows like a damn weed.
My phone rings and I sigh, irritated, picking it up. Only to smile when I realize it’s Jared.
“Hey, man. What’s going on?”
“Well, I’ve found her!” His grumpy voice is unusually chipper.
“Who’d you find?” For just a second, I’m still caught up in my own morass of feelings and I think he’s talking about Jessie.
“The one, man. The woman I’m going to marry.”
“What? What the hell do you mean? You’ve only been out for a few days. How the hell did you already find the one?” My jaw is about hanging to the floor and I scrub my hand over my face, trying to wake up.
“She’s Tom’s little sister, Hannah.”
“Our friend, Tom? The one who said over and over that we weren’t good enough for his sister? That one?”
He sighs and I hear him huff. “Yeah, that one. But she’s it for me. And when I got out here, I found out she’s alone on his ranch and she’s pregnant.”
“Jesus! Are you sure about this? This sounds like a major mess. What about the guy? The daddy to be?”
“He’s not in the picture. Ran out on her as soon as he found out she was pregnant.”
“That’s rough. But are you sure about this? You aren’t just trying to take care of her because of what happened with her brother?”
I know I shouldn’t poke that memory. It sits like a sore tooth with both of us. Tom’s death took us both by surprise and really messed us up. No one more so than Jared.
“I’m telling you. It’s got nothing to do with that. This is love. I can’t imagine my life without her.”
I smile. “That’s fantastic. As long as you’re sure.”
“I am. Do you think you can swing by and stop and meet her? We’re getting married as soon as possible.”
“Yeah. I’ll see what I can do. My mom just managed to guilt me into going to see her though.”
