Jackson: The McBrides of Texas

by Emily March

  “We absolutely have room. Consider yourself added to the picnic list, Gillian.” Angelica made a note, then smiled to the guests. “So, any other requests?”

  “Cookies for the picnic dessert?” called out Luke Callahan.

  “You’ve got it,” Angelica replied.

  Celeste offered, “She makes excellent cookies.”

  During the exchange, Jackson had drifted back to stand beside Caroline. She glanced up toward him now and offered, “They appear to have worked out their differences.”

  “For now. I’m too experienced at this point to believe it will last. I don’t what it is about those two. Boone says that the Eternity Springs Celeste is a real angel. Here with Angelica … well … we see another side of her.”

  Caroline’s lips twitched. “Maybe it’s the cathouse influence.”

  “Maybe. Maybe our angel hears the voices of the fallen ones while she’s here, and they rub off on her.”

  “Or maybe it’s a cousin version of sibling rivalry.”

  “I don’t know. Tucker and Boone and I have our share of disagreements, but we don’t snipe at each other like that.”

  “What do you do?”

  “We throw punches.” He paused, considered, and then added, “If Celeste and Angelica start throwing punches, I’m moving to Manhattan. Or Miami. Or Marfa.”

  Amused, Caroline couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve always wanted to visit Marfa. Have you been to see the lights?”

  Marfa was Marfa, Texas, a small, southwest Texas town so isolated that it made Redemption look urban. The lights to which she referred were a strange, unexplained phenomena that could be observed in the surrounding desert on clear nights. Recorded in historical accounts now one hundred and forty years old, the colored balls of lights could still be seen today dancing on the horizon in no predictable pattern. Tourists and townspeople alike gather in the public viewing areas after sunset to watch the lights and speculate about their origins.

  “Never been to Marfa. Takes some commitment to go there. Thought about paying a visit once when Boone and Tucker and I went camping in Big Bend, but we went to Terlingua instead. It was Chili Cook-off time.”

  “I’ve heard the Terlingua Chili Cook-off is a serious party.”

  “Serious doesn’t begin to describe it. That was a weekend I’ll never remember.”

  “You don’t mean never forget?”

  At his rueful look, she laughed. Then Angelica spoke up and recaptured their attention. “All right then. I believe we are all set for tomorrow. Jackson, you are leading the hike to the waterfall. When and where would you like your group to meet?”

  “Let’s try the parking lot at seven.”

  “All right then. I hope you all enjoy yourselves tomorrow, and I’m going to ask you to please take care. Celeste has warned me that in the general course of business I can expect accidents. We’ll have scrapes and falls and bites and breaks. It’s something we simply can’t avoid when people are out enjoying the great outdoors, which is something we want them to do. I want to assure you that we’re prepared with trained first responders on staff, and we’ll be ready for any boo-boos large or small.

  “That said, I know that you are all adults who are experienced being outdoors. Why, you’re probably the outdoorsiest group of visitors we’ll ever have because almost all of you are either ranchers or mountaineers. And Gillian, you own a bridal salon. I can’t think of many more dangerous occupations than that!”

  “Hear! Hear!” Sarah Murphy called.

  “So my point is that you are all intelligent, capable people so I probably don’t to lecture you but I’m going to do it anyway because it is our opening weekend and I need to practice and sometimes smart people do stupid things. Right, Boone?”

  “Use your commas, Angelica,” Celeste urged in a stage whisper.

  “Me?” Boone asked, slapping his hand against his chest. “She picks me out of this group to ask that question?”

  “Tomorrow as you are out and about stomping around our wilderness, I beg you to take care. Enchanted Canyon is a beautiful place, a wild place. It is not an amusement park. Any animals you might happen to see will not be young adults in costume ready to entertain. Neither are you in Yellowstone National Park with its hot spots, where a wrong step might land you in an acidic, skin-eating pool. We don’t have grizzly bears or bison here, but we do have wild hogs and mountain lions. Not to mention rattlesnakes and copperheads and cottonmouths, and frankly we are close to the southern border so I’m sorry to say, that upon occasion I’m told, we have had some coyotes invade our land—the evil, two-legged variety.”

  “Two-legged coyotes?” Sage Rafferty asked.

  “Smugglers,” Boone explained. “Human traffickers. The damn cartels.”

  She rounded her mouth in a silent O.

  “Ordinarily they avoid Enchanted Canyon. Their routes usually take them west of here, but when the border patrol is active, we have had some visitors. I don’t mean to scare you. It’s no more dangerous here than on your ordinary city street, but if you want to go for a sunrise run on one of the trails, take a running buddy with you.”

  “Like I’m getting up at sunrise,” Maddie Callahan said with a snort.

  “Only place I’m running while I’m here is to the bread machine when it signals it’s ready,” her sister-in-law Torie added.

  “I knew the bread would be a hit.” Angelica clasped her hands and beamed with delight. “Now, I have one more caution before I run next door and visit with Chef Paul to make sure that all is well in the kitchen in advance of dinner. As part of my take-care request, I must urge you to remain selfie-aware.”

  Gillian gave an embarrassed smile and asked, “I’m sorry. What?”

  “Selfie-aware,” she repeated. “Do you know how dangerous selfies can be? The statistics will amaze you. Why, more people die from taking selfies than from shark attacks each year. It’s tragic!”

  “It’s stupid,” Gabe Callahan observed.

  “And rude!” Angelica declared. “I wanted to make the entire canyon an unplugged zone, but some people”—she cast an accusing glare toward Boone and Jackson—“didn’t agree with my vision. My goodness, it seems like everywhere you go these days people are too busy taking pictures of themselves to stop and actually look at what they’re touring. It’s criminal. Life is meant to be experienced, not witnessed through a screen. And don’t even get me started about view hogs.”

  Caroline cleared her throat. “View hogs?”

  Angelica gave a disdainful sniff. “It’s self-descriptive. Try visiting Yellowstone and viewing Lower Yellowstone Falls on a summer afternoon. Or go to Rome to St. Peter’s to see the Pieta. I take no pleasure in photobombing, but at some point, a girl simply must use her elbows. Otherwise, you’ll never make it past the view hoggers taking their selfies!”

  In the silence following her pronouncement, the Fallen Angel guests shared looks with one another. Matt Callahan shrugged and summed up the general response. “She does have a point.”

  With an echo of his native Australia in his voice and a twinkle in his eye, Devin Murphy drawled, “I’ll admit to wanting to help a charter customer overboard a time or two as his selfies got in the way of my doin’ my job.”

  Celeste gave her cousin a reassuring pat. “I don’t think we need to worry about this group being photographic hogs, cousin, but a caution on self-awareness will not be inappropriate for regular guest of the Fallen Angel Inn. Perhaps we can add a little printed something in our guest rooms.”

  “That’s a good idea, Celeste.”

  “Now, shall we make our way to the Saloon? I imagine Chef Paul is ready to go over that final checklist.”

  As the two women swanned from the parlor, Boone nudged up against Maisy, who stood next to Caroline, who stood beside Jackson. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

  Maisy shook her head. “What?”

  Boone reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Everybody smile for a self
ie!”

  Chapter Fourteen

  See that girl. She’s moving on. She’s holding strong and she’s taking on the world.

  The blare of the alarm pierced Jackson’s dream, and the song began escaping his grasp like air through a pinprick of a balloon. Damn. Damn. Damn. It was there. So close. She’s close. Just down the road.

  Jackson’s eyes flew open. Red numerals on the bedside clock read 6:15. Ordinarily, he would have groaned. Jackson had never been a morning person. Considering the way he’d made his living, being a night owl was a good thing. Haley’s birth had complicated his sleep schedule—but that was the normal way of things for all new parents, wasn’t it? He’d started getting up in the mornings to spend time with her, and that’s when he’d rediscovered the joy of afternoon naps.

  He’d adapted to a more ordinary schedule during the renovations of the canyon properties, but ordinary to him still didn’t mean waking up before eight o’clock. See that girl. Sleepy smile. Roll her over and start the day right.

  “I wish,” he muttered.

  Twenty minutes later with hair still damp from his shower, he climbed into his truck for the short drive to the inn with a smile on his face, softly singing Houston-native Johnny Nash’s 1970s hit, “I Can See Clearly Now.”

  He had a feeling it just might be a sunshiny day.

  After parking, he ambled to the saloon in search of coffee and something to eat. He greeted the kitchen staff, poured himself a cup of coffee, snagged a breakfast burrito, and sauntered into the main body of the restaurant.

  Boone sat perched on one of the stools at the bar, and upon seeing Jackson, made a show of checking his watch. “Whoa! Seven minutes before the hour? We might have to rechristen this place Miracle Canyon.”

  “Hardy-har.” Jackson took a seat beside his cousin. “I suppose you’ve already been for a five-mile run, milked the cows and slopped the hogs, and discovered a cure for lumbago?”

  “Lumbago? Does a cure for lumbago not already exist?”

  “I’m not sure what lumbago actually is.” He savored a sip of coffee, and then began unwrapping his burrito. “So, was there any more activity around the inn after I cashed in my chips at the poker game last night?”

  “Nah. Nothing of interest to you and me, anyway. Based on the lights shining in the cottage windows, the hen party in the cottage was still going strong when I turned in.”

  The “hen party” was the continuation of a discussion about Gillian’s wedding plans that had begun over dessert in the parlor after dinner. Gillian, Maisy, Caroline, Lori Timberlake, and Liliana Callahan had all traipsed out to the cottage that Gillian and Maisy were sharing in order to look at Gillian’s computer, surf her Pinterest wedding boards, and continue the all-things-wedding talk. Boone chose to play dominoes while Jackson had played cards until the Callahan brothers cleaned him out, then he’d gone home to his trailer.

  “I hope they got all that wedding talk out of their systems last night,” Boone continued. “Of course, that would almost be better than listening to Brick go on and on about his twins. I swear, you’d think he’s the first man to ever have a kid. They are cute—don’t get me wrong—but he’ll wear you out talking about them. Honestly, I’m surprised Liliana actually got him to leave the little squirts in Brazos Bend with the grandparents.”

  “I heard this is the first time they’ve left them.”

  “Heard that, did you? I think he only mentioned it one hundred and twelve times last night.”

  “Maybe one hundred and thirteen.” Jackson finished off his burrito and licked his fingers. “He’s no different than any of the Callahans. They’re family people.”

  “True. Matt was saying last night that Branch isn’t doing well. They decided on the trip down here that they’re not going to make their usual trip to Eternity Springs for the Fourth of July this year. They’re going to ask the family—extended family included—to go to the ranch. They’re afraid he’s not going to make it much longer.”

  “I hate to hear that, but I’m not surprised. He’s getting up there.”

  “Way up there. I know you have the dance hall grand opening concert on the holiday weekend, but if the Callahans have a party—”

  “I’ll do my best to be there.” Jackson wadded up his burrito wrap and shot for two into the trash can behind the bar. “Ready for a walk, cuz?”

  Boone slid off the barstool. “I am. Gotta get in my shine time before the ’rents arrive. It’ll be hard to make time with Miss Maisy with my Mama lookin’ on.”

  Jackson snorted. “Somehow I don’t doubt that you’ll make it work.”

  Outside they found Caroline, Gillian, and Maisy waiting along with Angelica. The older woman walked toward them with her hands clasped at her waist. “I’m afraid I have some disappointing news. Brick and Lili won’t be joining you. They got a call in the middle of the night, and they’ve had to cut the weekend short.”

  “Oh no,” Caroline said.

  “Did something happen to one of the twins?” Jackson asked.

  “No, thank heavens. It’s a problem of a different sort. Liliana’s mother suffered a fall. She hurt her hip. Brick and Lili have gone to Oklahoma City to be with her during her surgery.”

  “That’s a shame,” Boone said. “I hate to hear that.”

  “The good thing is the doctors have assured the family that she should make a full recovery. Anyway the group hike is two people smaller and”—she gestured to the ladies—“you’re all here.”

  “All right then.” Jackson’s smile encompassed all three women, though it lingered a bit on Caroline. “Good morning. I guess we can all fit in my truck, so why don’t—”

  “No sense cramming,” Boone interrupted. “I planned on taking my truck, too. Somebody can ride with me. Maisy?”

  “Sure. I’ll ride with you.”

  “Meet you at the trailhead, cuz,” Boone said, tipping his hat. He and Maisy had climbed into the cab of his truck and pulled out of the inn’s parking lot almost before Jackson managed to complete another sentence. He glanced at Gillian and Caroline and shrugged. Both women were smiling. Caroline said, “That was rather obvious, wasn’t it.”

  Jackson debated with himself for about half a moment. “You might want to give Maisy a heads-up that Boone isn’t … well … he doesn’t want … um…”

  “That’s perfect,” Gillian said, giving his arm a reassuring pat. “Neither does she.”

  Jackson nodded. “Good. That’s good.” He paused a moment and added, “Does she know that his parents are arriving this afternoon?”

  “Well, I don’t know.” Then Gillian softly laughed. “I guess the course of true love doesn’t run smoothly, does it?”

  “Amen!” Jackson and Caroline said simultaneously and with fervor. Then Jackson shook his head and motioned to the pair of backpacks on the walk. “That’s your gear?”

  At their nods, he stowed them in the back, then loaded up and headed after Boone and Maisy. Jackson knew his cousin wouldn’t get too far ahead of them because he didn’t know exactly where they were going. They weren’t going to the waterfall that Maisy had shown them on that very first trip to Enchanted Canyon. These were actually three spring-fed waterfalls, smaller, more remote, and something Jackson had happened on quite by accident when he’d climbed the northeastern slope of the canyon in an attempt to recreate an old photograph of the dance hall that he’d discovered in some of the historical records in town. When he’d shared news of his discovery with Boone who’d mentioned it to Celeste, she’d suggested that it’d make a nice day-hike destination.

  Soon after, their construction crews had been put to work cutting a moderately challenging three-mile trail that began at a parking area constructed at the opposite end of the canyon from Ruin. From there, hikers took a scenic path to the waterfall that stair-stepped three levels from just below the canyon rim.

  It was a beautiful morning for a hike: sunny, with temperatures in the mid-seventies and just enough breeze to keep thi
ngs cool. On the first half of the trail, they were content to let the squirrels and mockingbirds do the chattering. By the second half of the walk though, Boone had turned his flirt on. Jackson had forgotten just how annoying his cousin could be.

  The man was good at it, for sure. Smooth and witty, oh so subtle—except when he was being blatant about it. They ate it up, because of course he was an equal-opportunity flirt, giving all three women his attention. And he loved to take potshots at Jackson.

  How could he have forgotten how irritating Boone could be?

  “This is beautiful, Jackson,” Caroline said. “I thought I wouldn’t like anything as much as the falls and swimming hole by your place, but this is pretty awesome.”

  “I know. There’s an even better spot, too.” He pointed off to the right at about three o’clock. “You can see all three falls and Enchanted Rock. It sorta peeks up over the canyon rim and watches over things.”

  “The trail doesn’t go up that far?”

  “No. We didn’t take it up there because, well, honestly”—he lowered his voice—“I didn’t tell the others about it. It’s tough climbing in a few spots, and I decided we didn’t need the liability issues.”

  “Oh, I want to see. You’ll show me, won’t you?”

  Jackson glanced over to where the lower falls pooled and Boone, Gillian, and Maisy were embroiled in a rock-skipping contest. “Sure. Just promise you won’t sue me if you fall.”

  “You have my word.”

  He motioned for her to follow him. They headed off without giving notice to the others, though just before they disappeared into the woods, Jackson glanced over his shoulders and met his cousin’s gaze. Boone grinned, nodded, then stooped to pick up another stone and asked, “Who’ll bet me five bucks that I get it to skip five times?”

  “I’ll take that wager,” Maisy said.

  The sound of their voices faded as Jackson and Caroline moved away from the trio and farther into the trees. “It seems like you’re taking me away from the falls,” she observed.