by Jan Hudson
“The leg was broken. It wasn’t a good deal. We’ll find a better one, trust me. At least you got a bargain on that toaster. Two bucks ain’t bad.”
She laughed as she pulled to a stop at the address she sought. “You’re the one who got the bargain. I can’t believe that you were arguing over fifty cents. Me, I can believe, but you? I thought you told me that you’d never been to a garage sale.”
“Haven’t. But Grandpa Pete has trading days on the grounds of his store in East Texas. People have been coming to set up tables and booths there for as long as I can remember. They rent space from him and sell everything from used pots to goats. I learned dickering there, learned from a master. No finer horse trader than Grandpa Pete.”
“Seems strange. I thought your grandfather was a millionaire.”
He laughed. “Billionaire’s more like it, but he’s just plain folks. We all are. Nothing makes him madder than for one of us to start acting uppity.”
“Uppity?” She smiled at the old-fashioned term.
“Those are Grandpa Pete’s words,” he said as they climbed from the car and headed for the goods displayed along a driveway.
Olivia spotted it immediately—a small Queen Anne writing table that had been painted a ghastly shade of green. With a little work—no, make that a lot of work—it would be beautiful. And perfect for her apartment.
“Like it?” Jackson asked.
“I love it,” she whispered. “Under that awful paint is a very nice piece of furniture. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for—better actually.”
“Great. Let’s get it.”
When she looked at the price tag, she sighed. “I think the owner knows what’s underneath the paint. It’s sixty-five dollars. Even though it’s a steal at that price, I can’t afford it. I was hoping to find something for about twenty-five.”
“Maybe we can dicker a little.”
Jackson knew the outcome before Olivia said a word. Damned if she didn’t have tears in her eyes. It about tore his heart out. He’d buy her a hundred ugly green desks if she wanted them, but she was such an independent female, he knew better than to try. He’d found out early in the morning that she didn’t intend to take a penny from him, and if he didn’t hush about it, she’d turn around and go home right then. He’d kept his mouth shut after that.
But, damn, he hated to see that wistful look on her face as she ran her fingers over the top of the table.
“No go, huh?”
Olivia shook her head. “I could only get her to come down fifteen dollars. You’re not considering buying that ratty thing, are you?”
He held up the stuffed armadillo that he’d been looking at to kill time. “I might. I kind of like old Jake here. He has character, don’t you think? Grandpa Pete would love him, and he’s got a birthday coming up soon. Let me see if I can do a little dickering for him. And these beach towels.” He grabbed a couple of towels from the display table. “I saw a lamp over there that you might check out, too.”
While Olivia was examining the lamp, Jackson made a quick offer to the plump little woman running the sale. She looked at him kind of funny, but she shrugged and agreed to the deal. He whipped out his wallet, paid her, and made his way back to Olivia with Jake and the towels under his arm.
“Wait till you hear about the package deal I made. Fifty-six dollars for the desk, old Jake, and the towels.”
“Fifty-six doll—” She raised an eyebrow and eyed him suspiciously. “Exactly how much was that dreadful animal?”
“Too much. But I made a deal with her—twenty-five for the desk, twenty-five for the armadillo, and six for the towels.” He shot her his brightest, most sincere grin. “Grandpa Pete’s gonna love this guy.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Trust me. I know my grandfather’s taste. He’ll be perfect for his museum display at the trading post. It’s full of what you might call unusual stuff. My mother says it’s beyond tacky.”
“Irish told me about your grandfather’s place, including the stucco teepee she stayed in. No, I mean that I’m not sure that I believe you got my table for twenty-five dollars.”
“Ask the lady,” he said with a sweeping gesture toward the seller.
And darned if Olivia didn’t do just that.
He could have kissed the garage-sale lady when she said, with a perfectly straight face, “That was our deal. Twenty-five for the desk, twenty-five for the armadillo, six for the towels. You have a way to haul the desk?”
“We’ll be back after lunch with my pickup,” Jackson told her, scooting Olivia away before she could question the woman further. If he wanted to pay twenty-five dollars for a mangy four-dollar armadillo, well…it wasn’t any skin off anybody else’s nose.
In the car Olivia insisted on giving him money for the desk. He didn’t argue.
“It’s hotter’n blue blazes in here,” he said. “Crank her up and turn on the air conditioner. How about we get some lunch now? You know how to get to Congress Avenue?”
“Of course. But the air conditioner is broken.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to take it in on the fifteenth and find out.”
“Why wait until the fifteenth?”
“Payday.”
He bit his tongue and didn’t say a word. He wouldn’t be surprised if she insisted on paying for her own lunch.
She did.
“Sorry, darlin’, but I’ve got my pride. I invited you to lunch. I pay.”
He watched the struggle play at the corners of her beautiful mouth, then she said, “Thank you. The food was great. I loved the tortilla soup.”
“Best in town. Austin has some great places to eat. How about dinner tonight?”
“I don’t think so, but thank you. Jackson, I really don’t want to get involved. I’ve told you that.”
“Involved? You gotta eat, I gotta eat—why not? You have another date?”
She shook her head. “No, and I’m not likely to. I want to start stripping the desk, and I have some reading to do for my classes. I’m very busy. Thank you, but no.”
He didn’t plan to give up without a fight, but he let it go for the moment.
Olivia had been completely out of her mind in allowing Jackson Crow within fifty yards of her, certifiable to agree to his accompanying her to the garage sales, completely nuts to go to lunch with him. Driving home with him sitting in the passenger seat was torture. She hadn’t forgotten one moment of their night together in Ohio, the way his mouth felt on hers, the way his hands—
“Watch it!”
She skidded to a stop, realizing that she had nearly rear-ended a UPS truck. Her splayed hand slapped her chest, and she sucked in a noisy gasp. “Oh, dear Lord. I’m sorry. I didn’t see him. I didn’t see him. I swear I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
“No harm done, sugar. Don’t worry about it. Want me to drive?”
She shook her head, then eased around the truck. Once past, she stole a glance at Jackson. He was sitting relaxed in the passenger seat, one elbow out the window, one booted foot crossed over his knee, calm as could be. If Thomas had been riding with her, he still would have been cursing her stupidity. And she couldn’t imagine Thomas, or any man she’d ever known, spending a Saturday morning going junking with her. And enjoying it.
Yes, it was a good thing that Jackson lived so far away. Even for a woman who had sworn off relationships, a man like him would be hard to resist.
She pulled into the Jurneys’ driveway. “Where is your pickup? I don’t see it.”
“It’s in the garage.”
She frowned. “Which garage? Is it being repaired?”
“Nope. It’s running fine. It’s in my garage. Ready to go get the desk?”
“I don’t understand. Where is your garage?”
“Over there.” He pointed to the house across the street.
Four
“You’re living there?”
Jackson grinned as
he leaned against the side of her car and looked toward his new home. “Yep. Moved in last night.”
A sick feeling uncoiled in the pit of her stomach. “But why?”
“Well, the house was ready and the guys had my stuff on the truck, and I have to start work Monday, so it seemed like a good time.”
“No, I mean why there?”
“I needed a place to live, and it was for sale. I really like the place. Wanna come look around?”
“Jackson Crow, stop being obtuse! Why did you pick a house across the street from where I live?”
“Lucky, isn’t it? You know I’ve always been lucky. Did you know that they used to call me Lucky when I was in school?”
“Jackson, don’t try to feed me any of that baloney! You didn’t just happen to buy a house there! You’re deliberately trying to make my life miserable.”
“Oh, sugar, don’t be mad at me. I’ll swear on a stack of Bibles a mile high that I never intended to make your life miserable. After I let Mitch talk me into taking a government appointment and agreed to come here, I must have looked at two dozen houses. This was the one I liked the best. Honest. Cross my heart and hope to die.” He drew a big X across his chest and affected an expression of pure innocence.
She narrowed her eyes. “When did you buy it?”
“Oh, about two or three weeks ago.”
“Exactly what date?”
“Hmm, let’s see.” He stuck his fingers in his back pockets and looked skyward. “Seems to me I signed the papers the day after Matt’s wedding. As I recall you were still in Dallas visiting with Irish and Kim. You hadn’t even moved to Austin yet. Ready to pick up your desk now?”
She sighed. “I suppose so.”
“Good. Let’s go get my truck.”
He touched the back of her waist to guide her, and she almost jumped out of her skin. Why was it that a hundred men could make such a simple, polite gesture without her even noticing, and yet Jackson’s most casual touch could send her soaring?
This was not good.
Living in such close proximity was going to be a problem, but she could hardly order Jackson to move from his house, and she certainly couldn’t afford to leave her apartment.
“Look,” she said as she strode down the driveway, “if you’re going to be my neighbor, we’re going to have to establish some rules here.”
“Absolutely, darlin’. You come up with a list, and we’ll discuss it later in the week. Say, would you mind stopping by a grocery store with me while we’re out? I wasn’t kidding about needing sugar. My cupboards are totally bare. I don’t even have a jar of peanut butter or a box of Froot Loops in the house.”
“Poor baby.”
He ignored her sarcasm and flashed that grin again. “I’ll bet you don’t even eat Froot Loops.”
She tried to stay exasperated; she really did. But there was something so endearing about Jackson that her exasperation kept dissolving as fast as she could shore it up.
“What sort of appointment did you accept from Mitch?”
“I’m the newest member of the Texas Railroad Commission. The title is kind of confusing. We don’t have much to do with railroads—at least not anymore. Mostly we regulate the oil and gas industry. Three people were elected to head the commission, but one of them got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and resigned. Mitch talked me into filling out his term until the next general election.”
“So how long will that be?”
“Oh, a year or so. Isn’t that about how long you’re gonna be in town?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed. Was that a smile or a smirk on his lips? “Why can’t I believe that this is a coincidence? When did the governor ask you to take the position?”
“About six weeks ago. Long before you came to Texas—though if I’d known you were going to be living in Austin, I’d have already been here to greet you. Want a tour of my house?”
“Maybe some other time. I’d like to pick up the desk and get busy on it. It will have to be stripped.”
“I’ll help,” he said, a slow grin spreading over his face as he gently hooked his arm around her neck. “Stripping is one of my specialties.”
Olivia scraped the last blob of bubbly green goop from the table and wiped it down with a rag. Under all that paint, she’d found solid walnut. It was going to be beautiful. She dropped the rag on the newspapers layered over a shady section of Tessa’s driveway and picked up a steel wool pad to finish the process.
She hesitated a moment in her task, and her eyes went immediately to the male tush in tight jeans sticking out from under her car hood. Make that two taut male tushes. One was Jackson’s, the other was Bill Jurney’s. Jackson had insisted on tinkering with her air conditioner, and no sooner had he lifted the hood than the teenaged Bill joined him. It must be a male thing Olivia supposed. Jackson and Bill seemed to have bonded already, laughing and talking and taking a trip to the auto parts store for various doodads. Bill, who had obtained his driver’s license only a few weeks ago, now practically worshipped the long-legged Texan who seemed to know all about cars.
“I believe that’s got it,” Jackson said. He stood and glanced toward Olivia. When he caught her watching him, he winked. “I think we fixed it. How’s the stripping coming along?”
“I’m almost finished with this step. I still need to stain it. Did you really fix my air conditioner?”
“Think so. Bill, crank her up and let’s see if she’s cooling now.”
After running the engine for a few minutes, Jackson pronounced the job done and closed the hood. Still wiping his hands on a rag, he strolled over to where she worked. “Say, that’s looking great. Need any help?”
“You’ve done more than enough if you’ve repaired my car and saved me from melting in this Texas heat. Thank you so much. You’re a godsend, but I must insist on paying for all the parts you used.”
“No problem. Like I told you, it’s just being neighborly. The parts didn’t come to more than ten dollars, and I had some spare coolant. Bake me a chocolate pie some time, and we’ll call it square.”
“That’s a deal.” Of course she’d never baked a chocolate pie in her life, but she could certainly follow a recipe—or buy one from the bakery.
Jackson insisted on helping with the desk, and having two people working did make the staining go faster. He helped her move it into the garage and stayed for the first coat of varnish.
“I can’t believe that’s the same piece of furniture you got this morning,” he said. “It looks real nice.”
“I’m pleased with it.” She cleaned her tools, then snapped off her rubber gloves and laid them aside. “I’ll put another coat of varnish on it tomorrow.”
Jackson glanced at his watch. “Looks like I’ve got just enough time to go clean up before dinner. I’ll be back in a shake.”
“Oh, I can’t go out with you. Tessa has a meeting, and I promised to grill hamburgers with Jenny and Bill and a couple of their friends.”
“I know.” He winked. “Bill told me. I’m invited, too, and I’m bringing the ice cream.”
During the cookout and afterward as they sat in lawn chairs in the backyard, Jackson charmed Bill and Jenny and their friends the same as he charmed everyone else. Jenny and the Dobson twins, Erin and Edie, from down the street were absolutely mooneyed over him and giggled through the evening as only thirteen-year-old girls can giggle. Bill and his friend Greg glanced at each other and rolled their eyes at the girls’ behavior, but they hung on to every word of Jackson’s account of camping and white-water rafting in Idaho.
“That’s awesome,” Greg said.
“Yeah,” Bill added. “How old were you when you went the first time?”
“Oh, my brother Matt and my cousin Smith were about your age, maybe a year older. Kyle and I were two or three years older than that, in college as I recall.”
“Wow,” Bill said, “what a great way to spend the summer.”
“Yeah,” Jenny added wistfully. “
I’d love to go.”
“Oh, Jen, get real,” her brother said. “You’d be scared to death.”
“I would not!”
“Hey, pardners,” Jackson said quietly. The squabbling stopped immediately. “Tell you what. We can’t go white-water rafting down the Salmon, but we can go tubing down the Guadalupe.” He turned to Olivia. “Ever done that?”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about, so I suppose I haven’t.”
Both Greg and the Dobson twins were familiar with tubing, so they explained how you used an inner tube from a truck tire to sit in while the current of the shallow river swept you along.
“It’s loads of fun,” Erin said. Or was it Edie? Olivia still couldn’t tell them apart. “But we haven’t been in ages.”
“We’ll all go one weekend soon,” Jackson said, “if your parents say it’s okay.”
“Go where?” Tessa said, joining the group.
“Hi, Tessa,” Olivia said. “I didn’t hear you drive up. Jackson is promising to take the kids on a tubing trip.”
“Only if you go, too,” Jackson told her.
“Oh, I don’t know about—”
“Please, Olivia,” Jenny said. “Please, please, please. It will be such fun!”
When the twins and the boys added their own pleas, Olivia threw up her hands and conceded. “But only if your parents agree.”
“I’ll agree,” Tessa said, beaming.
Olivia shot her a dirty look, but Tessa only beamed wider. From the moment Tessa had met Jackson earlier in the afternoon and heard an abbreviated—and sanitized—version of their past history, Olivia knew that Tessa had matchmaking on her mind.
“We’ll see,” Olivia said.
“How about next weekend?” Jackson asked to the delight of the kids. “If we wait too long, the season will be over.”
“But there are seven of us, eight if Tessa comes.”
“Count me out,” Tessa said. “I don’t swim—or tube, but you can use my SUV.”