Natural Attraction

by C L Green

  “Had a wife. Didn’t you know?” I watch her eyes grow big and round as a look of horror crosses her own face. I guess she realizes she has let the cat out of the bag and she might get in trouble for it.

  “No I didn’t,” I whisper trying to preserve calm within myself. This is difficult to do when all I want to do is run screaming to Jax and demand he tell me all about his wife.

  Mel’s mouth forms a big O as she silently says, “Ohhhhh.”

  She starts looking around our immediate vicinity to see if anyone else has heard our conversation. Coming to the conclusion that no one is within earshot, she decides to busy herself hurrying ahead of me to clip more clips on the fence. Our conversation on the matter is clearly over.

  I watch her working for a minute as I consider what I should do with this information. Obviously everyone knew about Jax’s wife and decided not to say anything to me.

  Before I go worrying too much, I need to find out more about her. I need to find out how her relationship with Jax ended. I assume that it is safe to say that she is an ex-wife because Mel said ‘had’.

  I start to wonder if she aligns with all the references to three years ago. Did she leave him three years ago and destroy him? He has told me that he loved someone once. And that he lost her. I had just assumed he was talking about a girlfriend and not a wife.

  Surely having a wife would leave some evidence in his home? How had he managed to remove her from his home and his life? Had she hurt him so badly he had had every trace of her removed from their home?

  It explains why everyone seems so happy to see Jax taking an interest in me. If he was hurt so badly, I’m sure they have all felt his pain.

  I decide to let Mel off the hook and move closer to her saying, “Don’t worry Mel, I won’t tell anyone you told me. Jax will tell me when he is ready.”

  I watch her flash a worried look at me and then smile. “Thank you. And I am sorry I sprung that on you. I had no idea you didn’t know. I just assumed you did, especially after having lunch at Nan’s yesterday with the entire family.”

  “I can understand that Mel.” I speak softly and she looks relieved that I am not going to say anything. I then decide we need to change the subject.

  “Now let’s get back to our other conversation on this boy Jett you are keen on. Do you guys have an end of year get together or something with the school? It would be a perfect opportunity to ask him out on date!”

  I watch her face light up as she realizes I am not only letting her off the hook about the mysterious ex-wife, I am also more than willing to help her conspire to chase her chosen man.

  *****

  True to his word, Jax and his horde of workers finish the entire fence in a single day. Having started digging the holes at first light, it is now nearing four in the afternoon. Many of the men have now gone home.

  I am shocked to think of the monetary value of the labor hours that have been put into a fence for my dogs. I am also relieved the job is done and I no longer have to worry about my girls being safe.

  Ro and Rebecca have been cooking up a storm all day and each man is being sent home with a bag full of muffins, biscuits and quiches to have for dinner. It was lovely to see the grins on each of their faces as they accepted the offerings as they left for the day.

  The boys are out under the pergola drinking cold beers and saying their good byes to one another as Rebecca, Ro and I finished tidying the kitchen.

  Feeling overwhelmed by all the people who have thrown in to help me and my dogs today, I finally grow the courage to step up and give both of these wonderful women a grateful and heartwarming hug.

  “Thank you so much for today.” I hope I am expressing my gratitude strongly enough. It seems strange for me to be hugging two women who I have only just met, but it seems like the right thing to do.

  They both smile at me and Rebecca is the first to thank me verbally.

  “You are more than welcome. It is such a treat to see Jax so animated again. You have no idea how happy this makes us all.”

  Ro nods her agreement and gives me another hug. “I think she will soon though Bec.”

  She looks into my eyes and seems to be studying my soul by the way her blue eyes pierced deep into the depths of mine. Not too sure what she means, and not knowing how to reply, I just hug her again. She holds me in the hug tightly for a long time. She then finally lets me go, only to grab her handbag and phone off a bench before exiting to the pergola.

  “I’ll expect to see you for lunch on Sunday of course,” she announces as I see David nodding in her direction. He breaks away from his sons to move to Ro’s side as they head for their car and their home.

  Rebecca takes that as her cue to exit so she heads off to find Mel and Caleb who are amusing themselves in the lounge-room.

  Shortly after that, and following a round of back slapping thankyous from Jax, everyone else is on their way home.

  I am finally standing in his kitchen with Jax all to myself.

  Having spent the last few hours worrying over Mel’s wife slip, I can’t wait a second longer.

  Feeling there could be any number of reasons Jax has chosen not to tell me about his wife, I hesitate briefly as I decide how to broach the subject.

  Not convinced he is going to be all too happy to talk about it, I decide to place the kitchen bench between us. I do this because it makes me feel like I have a safety net. It gives me a barrier that I can use to give myself a head start if I decide I need to get out of there because the conversation has gone pear-shaped.

  Waiting for a moment when I have his full attention, I look direct into his eyes as I announce, “You had a wife?”

  I watch the shock register in his eyes as he realizes what I have just said. He flinches, blinks and then to my utter horror he flicks a switch and he roars, “Who told you!”

  Taken aback at his outburst and none too sure how to answer his question without dropping Mel in the proverbial shit heap, I straighten my back and narrow my eyes at him saying, “That is irrelevant. Why are you angry?”

  “Because it’s not anyone else’s fucking story to tell. I wanted to tell you when I was ready. Not when one of the other loose tongued assholes in my family forced me to. I knew I should have kept you away from them but they kept fucking reeling you in. Today, while my guard was down, I suppose they thought they would open their big flappers.”

  Well that was not exactly the reaction I was expecting. He is shooting at the messenger and ignoring the subject.

  “Tell. Me. Who. Told. You. I’m gunna kick their fucking arse till it bleeds,” he grinds out through gritted teeth. His eyes flash dark blue with fury. They look like they are going to burn fire into my soul.

  Jesus, he’s scary.

  Ideas flow through my head on how I am going to deal with this but in the end I decide to go with my old faithful response of being honest.

  “No one told me. Mel let it slip in a separate conversation.”

  I watch his face carefully, wondering if I have made a bad mistake putting the bench between us. I am now thinking I might need to start planning on how to get around it in time if he either goes for the door or the phone to ream Mel a new one.

  I see the shock on his face. I then watch his face soften as he realizes there is no way he can blame a sweet and innocent sixteen year old girl for letting a small piece of information slip in a conversation. Especially considering it was doubtful he had prewarned her not to mention his ex-wife in the same way he had no doubt done with his parents and siblings.

  I tentatively decide my decision to be honest has paid off. Keeping my gaze on his eyes I plead with him.

  “Please don’t blame her or tell her I told you. I promised I wouldn’t say it was her and I don’t want her not to trust me. She’s a lovely girl and I felt such a strong connection with her today. It was nice. Please don’t wreck that for me. She meant no harm.”

  Jax nods, blinking slowly. His fury clearly over as fast as it has arrived.r />
  At least I now know Jax is in the fast to anger and fast to forgive group of personalities. This is just another thing to like about him because I don’t like people who fester on anger and let it dictate their lives.

  My preference is that if you are angry, just get it out there and get it over with.

  “I’m going to take a shower and clean up.” He turns towards his bedroom door. “Let me think about how to go about this while I shower and I promise I will tell you about her when I get out. You can shower in the other bathroom at the same time if you like.”

  This seems like a good plan after a hot day in the sun putting a fence up, so I nod my agreement as he heads to his shower to think about the conversation he will soon be having with me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jessica

  Jax must have some serious thinking to do.

  I know this because I have finished showering and I am already dressed in a fresh t-shirt and running shorts. I have even had time to blow-dry my hair out long and straight around my shoulders.

  I have now returned to the kitchen to find he is still not out of his bedroom. Not too sure what to do while I wait, I opt to start making a salad to go with a quiche Ro has left on the bench for Jax and I to eat for dinner.

  Thinking back to the delicious salad that Jax made for us the night before, I end up digging deeper and deeper into his vegetable crisper. I do this to make sure I have gathered as many colors as I can. Perhaps I can make the salad and he can make the dressing?

  I am finishing tearing some iceberg lettuce onto two plates when Jax’s bedroom door finally opens and he wanders out. His hair is still damp and he is wearing a long pair of khaki cargo shorts that hang low on his hips. He is shirtless and his feet are bare.

  I can see every firm muscle clearly defined on his chest. I glide my eyes over his hard pectorals down to the softly rolling mounds defining his powerful abdominals. My eyes move to the delicious grooves that dive down his stomach towards the top of his shorts.

  I hear myself gasp slightly as I take in the view and decide it is illegal how good-looking this guy is without his shirt on. I see a glimmer of a smile raise the edges of his lips as he looks across at my efforts to make a salad.

  “You’re not gunna fry lettuce for dinner are you?” He teases, grinning as he looks at the array of vegetables I have laid out on the bench.

  “No I’m not.” I grin back as I drag my eyes away from his body to concentrate on salad making. Picking up a carrot in one hand and a cucumber in the other, I peer at them carefully, wondering how to prepare them for my salad. I have only ever eaten salad out of a bag or container or one that has been served up on my plate by someone else. Slicing or dicing carrots and cucumbers is a bit out of my league.

  Jax watches me peering at the vegetables and decides to take pity on me. Heading to a drawer under the counter, he rattles around for a few seconds and then hands me what looks like a plastic loop with a blade attached to it. It has a short, orange handle attached to one end.

  “A carrot curler.” He announces as I put the vegetables down and take the weird looking tool from his hand.

  I raise my eyebrows at him and peer closely at the carrot curler, clueless as to how to use it. Do I poke the vegetables through the loop? It looks a bit small so I’m not sure they will fit.

  “Here let me show you.”

  He gently takes the curler from my hand and grabs the cucumber first. Running the tool down the length of it, long curly strings of cucumber start to peel away magically.

  With a few quick sweeps he builds a small mound of curled cucumber. Splitting the mound in two, he places some on each plate. He then hands me the curler back.

  “You can do the same to the carrot if you like.”

  Grabbing the carrot I start scratching away but I cannot get the strokes long enough to do decent curls. All I end with is a pile of carrot splinters.

  Jax smiles at me again and moves to stand behind me. Gently wrapping his arms around mine, he helps me hold the carrot with one hand and then helps me hold the curler with his other hand.

  All thoughts of the carrot and the curler leave me as I feel the hard warm muscles of his chest push against my back. My senses are assaulted with the spices and headiness of his freshly applied cologne. I involuntarily take a huge breath through my nose as I savor the smell of Jax against me.

  “You smell nice too,” he chuckles as I realize I have been sprung not concentrating on curling carrots. Clearly not as distracted as I am, he deftly drags my hand along the carrot to produce a couple of perfect curls. Letting go of me, he steps back as he says softly, “I think you’ve got it now.”

  I smile back up at him and give a few more unsupervised swipes on the carrot to produce a couple more perfect curls. He’s an excellent teacher.

  “Too easy huh?” He grins at me and starts looking at the array of vegetables I have laid out on the counter.

  He picks up a big, orange, gnarly root looking vegetable that I have pulled out of his crisper and chuckles. “Yam. How were you planning on preparing that for a salad?”

  “Um…” I look at him helplessly having no idea. “Perhaps you have another tool?”

  He looks at me and I watch his dimples explode on his cheeks as he tips his head back and starts roaring with laughter. I watch his abs rippling as he tries to smother his laughter to talk.

  “Yam is sweet potato babe, and you boil or bake it. It’s not something you slice up raw to put in salads.”

  “Oh.” I drag my face from his abs to his eyes. “No wonder I had no idea what it was. It needed cooking. We’ve already covered my lack of cooking skills. Old ground, move on.”

  He grabs the offending yam and puts it back in the fridge returning with a white salad onion. “Here, slice this thinly and I’ll julienne some capsicum.”

  Relieved that I have been assigned a simple task, I take the onion and set about chopping it up on a wooden board. In the time it takes me to slice the onion, Jax juliennes a red and yellow capsicum. He also makes tomato wedges and finishes whisking some oil, garlic, herbs and lemon juice together for a dressing.

  Boy is he fast in the kitchen.

  While he carefully arranges the salad on our plates, I carve two big hunks of quiche and serve them up as well. Deciding it is still warm outside, we opt to eat inside at the kitchen table where it will be cooler.

  Most of our meal is eaten in silence as we think about our activities of the day. We also brood about the impending conversation Jax has promised to have with me.

  After finishing eating and quickly tidying the kitchen, he gently takes me by the hand and leads me into the lounge room. Much to my surprise he does not lead me to the couch to be seated. Instead, he guides me over to the wooden cabinet where all the photos of his family are displayed. He bends to open the top drawer.

  Placing his hand in the drawer he slowly lifts out a large photo frame and hands it to me. Looking up at him I can see that his eyes are laced with pain as he watches my face and my reaction to what I am about to see.

  Setting my face into a neutral look, I look at the picture in the frame. It is a picture of Jax in a gorgeous black tuxedo. He is standing, beaming, next to the most stunningly beautiful bride I have ever seen.

  She is small, tiny in fact. Very much like a pixie with her white blonde hair ornately wrapped over her head in fine braids that loop together at the back. Massive bright blue eyes stare back at me from a face that is glowing with pure joy.

  This is a happy couple indeed.

  I look up from the photo to see Jax still studying me carefully. Unsure how to start the conversation I opt for the easy question first. “What was her name?”

  “Jessica.” He whispers her name reverently. The pain in his voice as he whispers her name gives me the first confirmation that this was the woman he loved.

  He bends back to the drawer and gathers two more pictures and hands them to me.

  One is of Jessica sitting on a big gr
ay Arabian, not unlike Maverick. She is wearing a fluorescent bib with the number 254 on it. The other is of her gardening in front a brick veneer house.

  I notice the house is different, it is not this house.

  “She died.” Jax whispers breaking into my thoughts as I study the pictures.

  I gasp as I realize what he has just said.

  Oh my god.

  No wonder he didn’t want to talk about her before. It must be dreadful to love someone and then they die when you are still young. I put the two pictures I am holding back in the drawer. Wanting to hear more about her and how she died, I gently take his hand and lead him to the couch.

  “Tell me about her,” I encourage softly as we sit down.

  He nods but then does something unexpected. He leans across and lifts me to place me facing him in his lap. Leaning back, he looks into my eyes and starts to tell me her story.

  “I met Jess when I was twenty-two years old. We met at Luke’s house. She was Teagan’s’ older sister by just one year. I think I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. She was a delicate little pixie and my protective instincts kicked right in the second I saw her.

  From the first time I saw her, to the last time I saw her, I felt like my heart was being ripped out if I had to spend any time away from her.”

  Well that explains his desperate bid to keep me close.

  I sit quietly as I wait for him to continue. His eyes are blank, I can see he is struggling to tell me what he needs to say.

  “She was heavily into endurance riding when I met her and she soon had me roped in to be her strapper. Nearly every second weekend of the year she toured around the endurance circuit having a fine old time.

  Not knowing much about horses at the time, I was happy enough to tag along because I loved camping. I also loved visiting new places, especially with Jess. She taught me how to strap and she taught me the basics on feeding and caring for horses.”