“Well, then you’re probably sitting on my rocks,” she said. When he had brought Waylon home, it had been too dark to really see what he looked like, but oh, my goodness, he set her heart to fluttering like she was a schoolgirl at a Blake Shelton concert.
“How about we be good neighbors and share?” He flashed her another grin and dived down into the water. When he surfaced, he looked like a Greek god as water sluiced over his broad bare chest and wide shoulders.
Nessa was struck speechless. D. J. had been a short fellow with thinning gray hair and a pudgy, round face. Jackson looked like he should be on the cover of a romance novel, or even in the movies. Nessa would have stood in line for six hours to buy a poster of him if it looked just like him right at that moment.
“Well?” Jackson asked as he waded over toward her.
“Yes, I guess we should share since we’re neighbors.” Her voice sounded hollow in her own ears. “I understand you’re holding our hope chest and the key to unlock it hostage until we get the quilt finished.”
He came out of the water and plopped down on the grass a few feet away from her. “That’s what Miz Lucy wanted, so I’ll obey her wishes. Are you going to stay long enough to get to take it home with you? You can open it to put the quilt in when you finish it, but no one takes it out of my house until one of you gets married. Miz Lucy figures I’ll have it until I die.”
“I’m not planning on going anywhere until the end of summer, if even then, and I expect that either April or Flynn will inherit it,” Nessa answered.
“Well, hello!” April said from behind them. “I thought I recognized your voice from this morning, when you brought Waylon home.”
“Is he doing all right?” Jackson glanced up at April.
“He went straight to Nanny Lucy’s room and hopped up on her bed. He slept there all day, then about half an hour ago, he decided that it was suppertime,” April said as she dropped her shirt, revealing a faded one-piece bathing suit underneath. “I’m getting in the water. See y’all later.”
She took a deep breath and dived right into the cold water, splashing both Nessa and Jackson.
“She’s braver than I thought she’d be. When I first get into the water, I usually ease in slowly,” Jackson said.
“What makes you say that about April? Did Nanny Lucy talk about us?” Nessa asked.
“A little,” Jackson answered, and there was a long pause before he said anything more. “You are sassy and bossy. April is a lost soul. Flynn needs closure. She went into detail, but that pretty much sums it up.”
Nessa thought about what he’d said for a few seconds before she said a word. Nanny Lucy had been right about all of them, but the way they had been raised had sure made a difference in the three. She couldn’t help but wonder what else Nanny Lucy had told Jackson about them—especially her. She wished that Nanny Lucy had told her more about Jackson, like maybe how old he was or how handsome. “So, what would she say about you in five words or less?”
“A hermit who . . .” He held up a hand and shook his head. “No, that would be more than five words. A neighbor and a hermit. Five words.”
“That tells me what you are, not who you are,” Nessa said.
“Miz Lucy was right about you. I guess we’ll have to get to know each other this summer to know who we are, won’t we?” He grinned as he gathered up his shirt and towel. “I live about a quarter of a mile down that path. My door is always open for visitors, especially neighbors.”
“Ours is, too.” She watched him disappear down the path.
April surfaced and then walked out of the water. She draped a towel around her shoulders and sat down on the grass. “You can have him.”
Nessa could feel a slow burn on her cheeks. “What and who are you talking about?”
“The sexier-than-hell Jackson,” April answered. “You can have him. I won’t fight you for him. I’ve sworn off men. Somewhere down deep, they’re all worthless.”
“What if I’ve sworn off them, too?” Nessa asked, remembering the last relationship she’d been in. The guy had wanted to run her life for her, tell her what to wear, where to go, how long to stay. If she’d wanted that, she could have married the guy her dad had picked out for her. She’d told him to hit the road, and she hadn’t trusted herself to date since.
“Sworn off what?” Flynn sat down on the other side of her. “I saw Jackson on the way down here. He explained our property lines to me. I had no idea that the falls was on both our properties.”
“Me either. Not until he told me, but we’ve agreed to share the falls. Should I have asked you two about that first, or should we put up a barbed wire fence and divide the creek?” Nessa tried to change the subject before the blush on her face set fire to every freckle.
April raised an eyebrow. “Like I told Nessa, I’ve sworn off men, including the sexy Jackson, so you can have him if you’ve given up women, Flynn.”
“Not me.” Flynn turned toward Nessa. “That leaves you, Nessa.”
“Hey, I’m sitting right here between you two smart-asses.” Nessa stood up. “Or at least I was. Number one, I don’t need permission from either of you to like a man, and number two, what makes you think I even want to date anyone? Did you ever think that you two aren’t the only ones in the world who are having trouble with the opposite sex?” She made her way to the top of the waterfall and dived into the cold water. April was right—jump right in and the chill wasn’t so bad.
Chapter Six
Flynn sighed with resentment as he took his place between his cousins at the quilting project the next morning. Big, black clouds covered the sun, and the smell of rain was in the air. The old thermometer on the front porch said that it was only seventy degrees, and a slight breeze ruffled the leaves on the big pecan tree that shaded the house and shed.
The weather reminded him of another morning, more than a decade ago. It was his seventeenth birthday and the first time that his girlfriend had stayed for the whole night. She had tried to sneak out, but his dad had caught them kissing at the front door. Matthew had just smiled and said, “Good taste, Son. Is her mama married or divorced?”
“What was that sigh all about?” Nessa asked.
“It’s fairly cool. There’s a little wind blowing. I could be up in the house finishing up the wiring job so that we could set the air conditioners tonight, but oh, no! I’ve got to be out here quilting,” he answered without mentioning that particular memory.
“Poor baby,” April teased. “How about Nessa and I go get the air conditioners this afternoon while you finish up the wiring?”
“Ouch!” Flynn flinched and almost turned over his chair when he stuck himself with his needle. He’d forgotten how much the prick of a needle could smart.
“Don’t be a wuss,” Nessa laughed. “A drop of blood isn’t going to get you out of doing your job. Nanny Lucy keeps Band-Aids in the cabinet above the file cabinet. Put one on your boo-boo and keep working.”
Flynn dropped his needle on the quilt and carefully pushed back his chair. Nanny Lucy would claw her way through six feet of dirt and haunt his dreams if he ruined this special quilt, even if they all agreed that it was as ugly as a wild hog. He used a tissue to wipe the blood away, applied a bandage, and went back to his chair.