“That’s an interesting thought,” Jackson said. “Does that mean you want to borrow my dog to interrupt the pattern?”
“No.” Nessa smiled again. “But you are right about it being easy to talk to a stranger.”
“I’m here anytime you want to talk, but I’d rather be a listening friend than a stranger,” Jackson said.
“Is there a girlfriend to get jealous, or a fiancée to break up with you for talking to another woman?” She turned her head and locked eyes with him.
He stared into her green eyes for a full fifteen seconds before she blinked and turned away.
“No girlfriend. No fiancée,” he answered. “I won’t even send you a bill for the therapy if you’ll be my sounding board as well.”
“It’s a deal.” Nessa stuck out her hand to shake with him.
He’d just taken her hand in his when Tex ran between them and shook water everywhere. When the dog stopped, their hands were still clasped over his wet back. “Does shaking hands over a wet dog mean something deep and meaningful?” He chuckled as he dropped her hand.
“Of course it does.” Nessa’s eyes glittered. “It means that we will both find the answers to our questions right here by this waterfall, but if you’ve already pretty much come to grips with finding yourself, what would you have to worry about?”
“Well”—Jackson rubbed his chin—“I do like to talk about my job, my day, and other things. But we’re discussing you tonight, so what do you want to talk about?”
“Why Daddy is such a strict preacher and Uncle Matthew a womanizer. They both showed up at the house, and it was horrible. Daddy tried to bully me into leaving. He and Uncle Isaac were like two old bulls in a pasture. Neither of them would back down, and the tension seemed to be thicker than a dense fog.”
“What did you tell him?” Jackson asked.
“I told him I wasn’t leaving, and that I was even thinking about quitting my job. He left in a fit of anger,” Nessa answered. “Seems like I can’t move forward until I get my head wrapped around everything.”
“I understand.” Jackson had been in that same state a few years ago and knew exactly how Nessa felt. It might take a while for her to get a grip on her life—but Jackson was a patient man.
Hearing those two words helped Nessa more than reading one of the dozens of self-help books that filled the bookcase in her bedroom back in Turkey. She pulled her feet up out of the water and let them air-dry. “Too bad those ancestor tests that are so popular these days can’t tell us the why as well as the who we are related to.”
“That could get sticky with folks who’ve been unfaithful to their spouses, couldn’t it?” Jackson asked. “As it is, cousins can pop up and folks have no idea how they’re related. If there was a record that said, ‘You are kin to this person because your great-grandfather had an affair with her great-grandmother,’ just think of the repercussions.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Nessa shook her head slowly. Either of her grandparents ever doing anything immoral was something that, in her mind, simply wouldn’t happen. “I don’t think we’ve got a thing to worry about. Nanny Lucy was too religious to ever have an affair, and she would have killed Grandpa if he did.”
Jackson swatted a mosquito on his arm, leaving a smear of blood where the little varmint had been. “That’s my cue to go home. They seem to come out worse in the evening. You staying a while longer?” He extended a hand.
She put her hand in his and let him pull her up to a standing position. “Not if those bugs are coming around to suck my blood.”
“I’ll walk with you to the fork in the path.” He dropped her hand. “You said you quilted this morning. Did you enjoy it?”
Nessa wished that he had kept her hand in his, but maybe he wasn’t feeling the sparks that she was. They were so real to her that she could see them almost as clearly as she could the fireflies flitting out ahead of them.
“I don’t see many of those out in the Texas Panhandle,” she muttered.
“What?” Jackson asked.
“Lightning bugs,” she answered. “When we were kids, I thought the only place that had them or a waterfall was Blossom, Texas. It wasn’t until I was older that I figured out this place wasn’t as magical as I thought when we were little.”
“Today’s kids are so glued to their phones and tablets that nothing much would be magical to them,” Jackson said.
“When and if I ever have kids, I want to let them be kids as long as they can. Once we’re grown up, we can’t ever go back and recover all those simple feelings that lightning bugs and waterfalls and a new dress for the first day of school bring us,” she said.
“If you bring up your kids right here on this dead-end road, you just might be able to pull that off.” Jackson stopped at the fork in the road.
To her left she could see the faint yellow glow of light coming through the living room window. That was home, even if it did harbor its own fair share of secrets. Ahead was where Jackson lived, but it was far enough away that the scrub oak trees shielded it from sight.
“Thanks for the visit,” she said and turned her back, and suddenly she was falling forward. She grabbed for anything to break her fall but got nothing but a fistful of air. She could see the ground coming up to meet her, and then two strong arms were around her, saving her from crashing face-first into the dirt and weeds.
Her heart thumped in her chest so hard that she could feel the loud beats in her ears. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on to him like he was her rock in the midst of a tornado.
“Are you all right?” Jackson asked. “Did you twist your ankle? I’m going to have to fuss at Tex for not taking care of these damned gophers.”
“I think I’m fine,” she gasped, but she wasn’t totally sure.
“I’m going to take a step back. Don’t put your weight on your foot until I check it.” He squatted down and, starting at her knee, ran his hand down her leg. “Tell me if something hurts.”
“So far just my pride,” she mumbled.
“That’s easily fixed. A broken ankle is another thing,” he said. “Nothing feels out of whack. Does this hurt?” He pressed on her ankle bone.
She couldn’t tell him that his hands on her bare skin were sending little shocks all through her body. “No, it feels fine. I’m going to put my weight on it now.”
He stood up and held her shoulders while she gingerly pressed her foot down. “See, all better,” she said, and she stepped in another hole and pitched forward a second time.
Jackson caught her just like before and laughed out loud. “Darlin’, we’ve got to stop meeting like this. If you want a hug, just ask for it. I’ll be glad to oblige you.”
“Then I want a hug.” She hung on to him, amazed at herself for being that bold.
“Ask and you shall receive,” Jackson teased as he brought her even closer. “Have you ever hugged a guy on a first date?”
“Sure, and a few times I even kissed a guy on a first date,” she admitted, “but you and I haven’t been on a date.”