by Rachel Hanna
“Yes, that’s the one. Why do you ask?”
Leo reached into his pocket and pulled out some folded up pieces of paper and handed them to Jackson. Mrs. Parker leaned forward to look over his shoulder. On the paper was a story printed from an Internet tabloid. It was clearly about Roma and showed pictures of her doing cocaine in the back of some club. The story was talking about how she was going broke buying drugs and had lost her last two gigs because she showed up high. Mrs. Parker ripped the paper out of his hands and started scanning the story again with wide eyes.
“Look, Leo, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but tabloids aren’t really right all the time. They like to make things up and use photoshop to corroborate their stories. It makes them more money if it’s something outrageous.” Mrs. Parker didn’t seem to be buying Jackson’s doubts and made her way up the stairs to where Roma was staying, her lips pursed in a tight line.
Jackson knew that look meant she was on a mission and there was no changing her mind, so instead, he just followed her so he could be there to calm things down when the damage was done.
Mrs. Parker swung the bedroom door open like a mad woman to find Roma laughing on her cell phone and speaking with someone in Italian. Without a word, she grabbed Roma’s purse and dumped it out on the bed. Everyone gasped as a small bottle of Jack Daniels, half full, and a rolled up bag full of white powder rolled out onto the mattress. Roma’s eyes went wide, and she hung up on whoever she was talking to. She was clearly about to plead or make an excuse, but Mrs. Parker beat her to it.
“So, you thought you could fool my family and use my son? You must be a really dumb model, dumber than the rest. Your pretty face isn’t going to save you here. Get out of my house before I call the police and report the fact that you brought drugs into my home!”
“But, I’m having his baby...” she pleaded in a thick Italian accent. She was squeezing her eyes in an attempt to produce tears on demand, but her tear ducts were not cooperating.
“Are you? Well, let me go get that home pregnancy test so we can confirm everything right now,” Adele said as she started toward the door.
“No!” Roma shouted, and Jackson knew the answer. She wasn’t pregnant.
“No? And why is that, Roma?” Adele said, hands on her hips.
“Um... I... Well, I may not be pregnant...”
Roma glanced at Jackson, looking for a savior, but he put his head down and moved out of her way. Roma grabbed her stuff and scooped it back into her purse before running out of the door. She left the Parker house without a word, even as Leo yelled some choice words after her.
Jackson’s mother made a motion like she was dusting herself off after some hard, dirty work, and turned to her son. “Well, don’t just stand there. I believe you have a nice woman to win over. Now scoot.” Jackson smiled at his mother’s back as she went back about her business as if nothing happened. Leo held up his hand to give Jackson a high five, but instead Jackson went in for a hug. He was just so relieved that Leo of all people had helped him find a way out of this mess. He should’ve known Roma wouldn’t dare be pregnant. And he wondered for a moment just how far she would have taken the fake pregnancy. The thought scared him a little.
“So how are we going to convince your mom to listen, buddy?” Leo thought for a minute then whispered an idea into Jackson’s ear. “Well, then, I guess I’ll see you tonight, Leo. Thanks again for helping a guy out." Jackson winked at him and walked him out. Leo’s skateboard was sitting on the porch, and Leo hopped on it to skate back home.
Jackson ran upstairs to change. He had some things he had to take care of, and he only had a few hours to do them in.
Rebecca had somehow made it through the day without unloading on a customer or having another fight with Leo. He’d gone for a ride on his skateboard for a little while that afternoon and came back in a better mood. Hopefully, she would be able to get her optimism back half as easy as her teenage son.
Now in the shower, she let the warm water distract her and work out some of the kinks in her stressed body. When she turned off the water she could hear music coming from the living room. Curious as to what Leo was up to, she quickly wiped down and pulled on some pajamas. She didn’t expect it to be a high impact night. She’d probably read and sulk in the bed most of the night.
When she stepped out into the living room, her eyes quickly narrowed. The music playing was Frank Sinatra, not something her son would generally be listening to. Out from the shadows stepped Jackson, dressed in some nice jeans and a polo, one of the most dressed down outfits she’d seen him in. She was about to tell him to get out of her house when Leo came out of his room. “Just dance with him, Mom. Do it for me.” Leo and Jackson must have cooked up something together, and she didn’t like the feeling that she was being manipulated. However, she also couldn’t ignore the request of her son. She was just now able to communicate with him again, and she couldn’t afford to ruin it.
Jackson held out his hand to her, and she set her face in a scowl but approached him and took his hand nonetheless. Leo disappeared back into his bedroom, probably to give them privacy. At least without him in there she could be honest and didn’t have to pretend to be okay with this.
“So, now you’re using my son to manipulate me?” Jackson looked offended by her question, and she almost wanted to take it back, but then again, she didn’t want to give him the chance to toy with her either.
“Your son actually came to my mother’s house today with some interesting information. It turns out that your teenage son knew more about Roma than I did.” Rebecca found herself getting slightly curious. “He found an article about her in a tabloid that said she was losing money and contracts because of drug use. My mom confirmed that this afternoon when she searched Roma’s purse. We assume she just wanted money. There’s no baby, Rebecca.”
As much as Rebecca wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, she wasn’t sure she was out of the woods yet. The situation had really shaken her up, and she’d been rethinking the fact that she should get into a relationship in the first place. When Rebecca didn’t respond, Jackson dipped her and smiled. “I have some other news too. I called the office today and talked to Mark, my assistant. He’s going to step into a leadership position and help me learn to take time off and enjoy life again. They’re going to be sending me a computer. I’ll be looking for an apartment and moving some of my work here. I’ll still have to go into Atlanta once or twice a month, but I’ll be living here. I want to be with you and Leo, Rebecca.”
As much as Rebecca wanted to protest and stay strong she just couldn’t. She had been strong for too many years, and she just needed someone to count on and lean on right now. She fell into Jackson, forgetting about the music and the bad morning she’d had and just clung onto him for dear life. She began to cry and he just held onto her, rubbing her back. It felt so comforting, reminding her of the way she used to comfort Leo after he had nightmares when he was little. “I love you,” she told him, and he whispered it back in her ear as they swayed back and forth to the music.
She just barely noticed Leo peeking out from his room, winking and giving her the thumbs up. She laughed away her tears and invited him in for a hug. For the first time in a long time she felt like she had a family, and she was happy. She hoped that wherever her husband had gone he was happy for her too.
Chapter 15
Addison shut the door to her old room and looked at herself in the vanity mirror. It had been a long time since she’d been back in this room alone, since she usually visited during the holidays with her husband. She could tell by looking at herself that she looked different, like something was going on in her life, but she hoped that it was her paranoia.
Not that her mother hadn’t already noticed that something was going on with her, and Jackson would probably sniff it out soon too. She hoped that it might be awhile since he had his own stuff to deal with right now. She was very happy for him, finally looking for a woman to be serious with. She�
��d secretly been worried about him for years, wondering if he’d ever find a serious woman and step away from his work long enough to have a family.
Thinking about the future he might have made her sad though, and she pulled out her phone to check it. As usual, there were no messages of any kind. Something about a cell phone not in use could really make a woman feel lonely.
She sighed and tugged at her shirt. It felt a little tight these days. She’d found herself gaining a little weight over the past few months, and her body didn’t look quite like it used to.
She had once loved change, especially when she got married and moved to another city. Everything felt great and brand new with someone to share it with, but now she hated change. It made her afraid. She knew she should probably talk with her family about what was going on since they’d find out eventually one way or the other. She couldn’t hide what was going on with her forever, but she just hoped to hold it off until after the holidays.
She wanted nothing more right now than to distract herself, and everyone else, with a fun Parker Christmas, an event the whole family came for every year.
But would her own problems end up causing drama she didn't want or need right now?
Chapter 1
Addison sat on the bed in her old room and remembered her younger years. Her walls were still painted a pale shade of pink, and her cheerleading trophies still adorned the shelves on the walls next to the closet.
She wasn’t quite the baby of the Parker family, but her brothers all watched over her as if she was. She felt bad for snapping at Jackson recently, but she was mentally and physically tired these days. And her brother could take it. He always took the brunt of her mood swings, being that he was like a father figure to her anyway.
Addison had only been four years old when she lost her father, so she had never really known the love of a Dad. Since her mother never remarried, she didn’t have that fatherly bond with anyone except Jackson. He had headed up their family in such a responsible way, and she was sure their father was proud of him. It occurred to her that she’d never told her brother that, and he would most certainly appreciate it. Just another thing on her “to-do” list.
She wasn’t used to feeling afraid. Even as a child, she was surrounded by her four brothers anytime she needed something. A close knit family, the Parkers survived the death of their father and continued to thrive despite every obstacle thrown their way.
She had watched her mother, Adele, overcome the loss of her husband, raise five children and build a business that had become a cornerstone in January Cove. The coastal Georgia town was her home, and she loved being back, although she had run out into the big world of interior design as soon as she was old enough.
Addison was the wild child of the family. Always had been. She was what most people would call a “free spirit”, and she craved a big life outside of the small town of January Cove. She wanted to be known for something, and she longed to use the creativity she had brimming from every pore of her being.
She was forever embarrassing her mother with her childhood antics such as toilet papering the principal’s house in high school, organizing a student sit-in to oppose the new dress code rules and even writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper with her views on just about every political decision in their town. Addison wanted her voice to be heard, and her ideas to be known. She had big dreams and an even bigger plan for her life.
As soon as she was old enough, she went to school to be an interior designer and headed off to Atlanta to make it big. Her mother was her role model, and she wanted to succeed just like her. But her plans were derailed.
At first, things went well. She became known for her superior sense of style as she decorated houses all over the Atlanta area. One of her living room designs was even featured in the local newspaper in the lifestyle section. She’d sent a copy of the spread to her mother who bragged about her all over January Cove for days.
When she met Jim, she’d been in Atlanta for about eighteen months. A client introduced her to him at a charity fundraiser, and she was taken with him from the start. He was an up and coming attorney who had just moved to Atlanta from New York. He was nothing like the guys she’d dated in the past, especially given the fact that he had a thick Northern accent and she was the epitome of a Southern belle. Well, a quirky Southern belle. She liked to think of herself as Scarlett O’Hara but without the hoop skirt.
They’d fallen in love hard and fast. Within six months, she found herself walking down the aisle at a small chapel on the outskirts of the north Georgia mountains. Her family didn’t make the wedding as Jim really wanted it to be a small affair with just the two of them, a minister and their witnesses. It wasn’t what she’d dreamed of as a little girl, but she had convinced herself that the wedding wasn’t important. The marriage was her focus, and she wanted it to be perfect.
So, she went to work making herself into the perfect wife. They bought a house in an upscale neighborhood and started getting involved in the Atlanta lifestyle. They belonged to all the most prestigious clubs, and Addison found herself getting further removed from interior design while Jim’s name was known all over town for his lethal skills as an attorney.
Whenever she spoke to her mother or one of her brothers, she pretended all was well. As far as they were concerned, she and her husband were jet setters, flying all over the world enjoying the finest of accommodations. In reality, she spent a lot of her time alone, cleaning their large empty house and waiting for her husband to come home. She was too proud and too embarrassed to tell her family about her loneliness, not because they would say, “I told you so”, but because they would worry. And she never wanted to worry the people she loved most.
Jim worked all the time, and he often traveled alone and stayed late at the office. She tried to be understanding because he was building a business after all, but it was hard. Trying to create the perfect marriage alone was impossible, and talking to a man who debated others for a living was far too tiring for Addison.
What bothered her most of all was how different she was becoming. Her personality was squashed, and her dreams seemed lost in the wind. Everything she had dreamed of - and the reason she left January Cove - was gone. She was stuck in a lonely marriage with a man who seemed incapable of loving her the way she needed to be loved. She was occasional arm candy at fundraisers and company dinners, but she was otherwise a single woman in a large house.
She wasn’t as close to her family anymore either, and that broke her heart. Looking back, she couldn’t figure out where she had gone so wrong to completely screw up her life so badly. Her family was her rock, and they had been through so much. Coming home to January Cove had not only been about trying to figure out what to do about her situation, but also to reconnect with her brothers and mother. She hoped she could repair what had been lost over the last few years.
The ocean offered her a sense of calm that couldn’t be matched by anything else. All the yoga and meditation in the world - something she did in Atlanta - would never equal the sound of the waves crashing into the shore over and over.
Talking to her family about what had happened to her was going to be difficult, and she needed some down time to get her mind clear. She was tired lately, so waking up at six in the morning was challenging but necessary. As she slipped out the front door, the sun was just peeking over the dunes across the street from the Parker home.
Her long, flowing dress blew in the ocean breeze as she walked down to her favorite spot. She had wonderful memories of playing volleyball with her brothers and building sandcastles with Aaron when they were younger.
She slid down onto the sand and pulled her knees up. Wiggling her toes in the sand felt like heaven, even as the cooler temperatures whipped into her face. The smell of the salty sea air was a welcome departure from the smoggy conditions she was used to in recent years. There were no car horns honking, just the sound of sea gulls and waves lapping the beach.
While she l
oved big city life at first, she would never admit to her family that she missed home. She loved her career, but she loved January Cove more. Still, coming back would have seemed like failure to her, even though she was one hundred percent sure her family would have welcomed her with open arms. That’s just who they were. They were her rock, and for some reason she’d avoided their support in recent years.
Maybe it was her pride. Her mother had always said she was just like her father, although she didn’t remember him really. She was only four when he died, so her recollections were muddled at best. She had often tried to dig deep within her soul to draw out any little memories of her father. Maybe the sound of his laughter or the smell of his cologne. But she never could remember anything. All she had to go on were old photographs her mother had shown her from time to time.
Addison always dreaded Father’s Day when she was in school. She was supposed to be “Daddy’s girl”. As the only daughter in their group of five kids, it had been her right and privilege to be “Daddy’s girl”, but that had been taken from her at such a young age. Even now, there was a pain in her heart where her father should have been, and she wondered how that factored in to her choice of Jim as her husband.
From all she’d been told, Jim was nothing like her father. Her Dad had been kind and caring and attentive to her mother and siblings. Jim had turned out to be none of those things. But maybe she had been looking for a strong male figure in her life? She didn’t know, and she had spent so much time lamenting her choice in husbands that her head hurt.
A lone sea gull flew overhead as the sun continued to make its ascent over the horizon. She stared up at it, but caught a person’s face instead.
“Jackson!” she said, holding a hand to her chest as she tried to calm her pounding heart. “Good Lord! You scared me to death!” She was half angry and half relieved that she wasn’t alone - and that he wasn’t an axe murderer.