A Better Reason to Fall in Love

by Marcia Lynn McClure

  ❦

  “I just thought of something,” Tabby said as the old pickup rumbled back toward town.

  “What’s that?” Jagger asked, lacing his fingers with hers where their hands rested on his thigh. Tabby looked to him, smiling as she studied the way his left elbow rested on the door of the open cab window as he drove.

  Tabby giggled to herself. “Naomi has to eat a frog!”

  “What?” Jagger laughed.

  “Well, you see…it’s like this,” Tabby began. “Naomi’s a skeptic when it comes to the theory of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

  As the old yellow Chevy headed back toward town, Tabby explained to Jagger about Naomi’s vow to eat a frog if she could ever link Jagger Brodie to Kevin Bacon. Jagger chuckled, the stars winked with brilliance in recognizing romance, and the cream-colored moon seemed to glow with the same hope of one day owning love that was growing in Tabitha Flanders’s heart.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Go on, Naomi. Just do it,” Emmy urged. “People eat them all the time. Just think of it as a little bitty chicken leg.”

  Drawing a deep breath, Naomi playfully glared at Jagger.

  “What’re you looking at me for?” Jagger asked, taking the guitar pick out of his mouth. “I’m not the one who said I’d eat them.”

  “But you’re the one who jumped on Tabby’s Kevin Bacon wagon,” Naomi said.

  Jagger smiled and shrugged in feigning innocence.

  “I’ve tried to tell you, Naomi,” Tabby giggled. “Anything is possible. Everyone is connected to K.B. somehow.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Naomi said, staring at the plate of fried frog legs as if they may as well have been fried spiders.

  “Go on, darlin’,” Jagger’s grandmother urged. “I cook ’em plenty fine. You’ll like ’em. I promise.”

  Tabby exchanged smiles with Jagger, her heart leaping in her chest the way it did every time he looked at her. He was so handsome—so talented, witty, strong, and kind—not to mention a marvelous kisser!

  “Man! I cannot believe how much I missed because of that stupid training thing in Chicago,” Chloe grumbled. “I swear, I missed all the fun.”

  “Not all the fun,” Armando chuckled, putting an arm around Jocelyn’s waist. “You do get to see Naomi eat a frog. Well, eat part of a frog, at least.”

  Chloe laughed. “True. This will be fabulous!”

  Chloe nudged Tabby with one elbow, and Tabby smiled at her sister. She was glad Chloe was home. She’d missed her so much. Chloe had always been her closest confidant and best friend. It was wonderful to have her back.

  “My Maw Maw fries up the best frog legs in the South, Naomi,” Jagger said with an encouraging nod. “And I’m not just saying it. Right, Maw Maw?”

  Genevieve Chiasson nodded. As the elderly woman’s attention fell to Tabby, Tabby smiled, and Genevieve smiled in return—winked. Tabby had met Jagger’s grandmother the week following the dreamy night she’d spent at the drive-in with him. Jagger had performed at Sweet Genevieve’s several nights that week and had asked Tabby to accompany him to the restaurant. It was on one of those nights that she’d met Genevieve Chiasson—that she’d first stood in awe of the elderly woman’s southern charm and classic beauty. It was just as if she’d stepped out of a picture from the past. Jagger’s grandma was kind and soft-spoken and exuded serenity like a fragrant summer breeze.

  When Jagger had explained to his grandmother that Tabby’s friend had promised to eat a frog upon losing a challenge, Genevieve laughed and offered to fry up a batch of frog legs. Jagger knew his grandma could pull off not only getting hold of some frog legs via her restaurateurs’ connections but also frying them up so tasty anyone could eat them.

  Naturally, Tabby was elated. Jagger began to silently think he’d do anything to make Tabby Flanders smile. He’d even considered the offer the agent had made—the incredibly lucrative recording contract. In the past, he’d had numerous other agents approach him with other outrageous offers, and he’d turned every one of them down—because he didn’t want it. Jagger didn’t want fame and ridiculous wealth. Even if he hadn’t seen what it did to his uncle Leon, even if he didn’t know the sacrifices made on the altar of fame and fortune, he still wouldn’t have wanted it.

  Yet a quiet little nagging doubt—a fear that Tabby might be disappointed in him if he didn’t want to share his music and talent with the world—had begun to sort of pinch the back of his brain. What if she thought he was weak for not signing with an agent? What if she thought his desire to just have a regular job and continue to enjoy his music simply because he enjoyed it was stupid?

  He glanced at her and couldn’t help but smile when he saw the bright delight in her eyes at watching her friend get her comeuppance. He felt soothed—because Tabby Flanders wasn’t like other women. Tabby valued the past, nostalgia, the simple things that made life a voyage to be relished. She wouldn’t want him to be gone touring all the time. What simple pleasures were in that?

  “Go on, darlin’,” Genevieve prodded Naomi. “They’re some kinda delicious! I promise.”

  “Yeah, hurry up,” Jagger said. “I have to be back to playing in five minutes.”

  “Just give me a minute,” Naomi said. She shook her head and looked up to Anthony.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Naomi. He’ll still want to kiss you…even if you have eaten a frog,” Emmy teased. She looked to Professor Lowery. “Isn’t that right, Anthony?”

  “Of course,” Professor Lowery chuckled. “Here,” he said, picking up a set of frog legs. “I’ll go first.”

  “Me too,” Jagger said, picking up another set.

  “I’ve had them before, so it doesn’t bother me,” Armando added, carefully choosing a set from the large platter of frog legs and sauces.

  Tabby wrinkled her nose as she watched Jagger and the other men bite into their servings of amphibian limbs.

  Jocelyn groaned and covered her mouth. Emmy just laughed.

  “See?” Professor Lowery said. “They’re actually very good.”

  Genevieve smiled, winking at Tabby again.

  Jagger held out his set of legs to Tabby in offering her a bite. But she wrinkled her nose again, shaking her head in refusal.

  “Go on, Naomi,” Emmy urged. “Just get it over with. You said you’d eat a frog…so do it.”

  “That’s the last time I try to trump the power of Kevin Bacon,” Naomi mumbled.

  Tabby wrinkled her nose again as she watched Naomi tentatively select a set of legs.

  “Well, here I go,” Naomi mumbled.

  “Wait!” Tabby exclaimed, reaching out and taking hold of Naomi’s hand to stay her from biting into the frog limbs. “You don’t really have to eat them, Naomi. Really.”

  “No,” Naomi said. “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’ll just be one of those things you can say you’ve done that not so many people have.”

  Yet Tabby felt bad. It was obvious Jagger, Armando, and Anthony were actually enjoying the strange delicacy. Armando had already picked up another set. Still, she didn’t want to make Naomi miserable; she’d just wanted to tease her.

  Tabby held her breath as she watched Naomi carefully bite into the batter-encrusted frog leg. After a moment, Naomi raised her eyebrows and took another bite.

  “Hmm,” Naomi mumbled. “It’s actually very tasty.”

  Genevieve laughed, affectionately patting Naomi on the back. “Good girl,” she said. “Now see, fried frog legs ain’t all that bad after all, are they?”

  “Not the way you cook them, Mrs. Chiasson…thank goodness,” Naomi said.

  “Well now, we can’t let Naomi be the only brave one in here,” Emmy said as she studied the platter on the table. Tabby watched as Emmy selected a set of legs. Holding them very daintily, she bit into them.

  “Mmm!” she exclaimed. “They are good!”

  “Let me try,” Jocelyn said, taking a set.

  “Me too,” Chloe said, following suit.

  “Well, n
ow you guys are making me look like a chicken,” Tabby said.

  “Here,” Jagger said, choosing a smaller set of legs for her. “Try it. I’ll finish it if you don’t like them.”

  Tabby smiled at him, accepting the stiff, fried set of frog legs he offered. Closing her eyes, she bit into them. They were good. They tasted a little like the catfish served at Sweet Genevieve’s.

  “Well, one thing’s for sure,” Chloe began. “I never in my life thought my sister would fall for a frog-leg-eating blues singer.”

  “I’m late!” Jagger mumbled as he dropped the remains of his frog legs onto the bone plate nearby. “I’ll meet you guys at Armando’s place in an hour.” He leaned forward, placing a quick kiss on Tabby’s lips. “You ride over with them, baby,” he said. “I’ll meet you there as soon as I’m finished here.”

  “Okay,” Tabby agreed, though she hated to be separated from him.

  As Jagger hurried out of the kitchen, Tabby giggled as her attention fell to the seat of his pants.

  She glanced to Chloe when she felt her sister’s elbow at her ribs.

  “The Derrière-inator, indeed!” Chloe whispered.

  Tabby smiled. “Indeed!”

  Turning back to the platter of frog legs, she laughed. Everyone was digging into the remaining frog legs as though they were the last thing they were ever going to be able to eat.

  “Oh!” Genevieve exclaimed. “So y’all are findin’ out they’re not so bad after all.”

  Tabby laughed as everyone confirmed Genevieve’s frog legs were indeed delicious. She watched as her friends talked, laughed, and ate frog legs. It was a wonderful moment, a memorable moment, the kind she knew she would draw on in years ahead in lovingly remembering the past.

  Tabby glanced over her shoulder as she heard the music start. She heard an electric guitar lick and knew she would forever recognize Jagger’s cool blues style. As she heard him start to sing, she sighed. Life was good! In that moment, she felt pretty near perfectly content. She was dating the man of her dreams—was in love with the man of her dreams, actually—and she was surrounded by good friends. She was happy. Certainly, she’d be happier in an hour, when Jagger’s band had finished their set and he could meet them at the Acapulco for some late-night cliff diving.

  Days before, Armando and Jagger had been reminiscing about how much fun they’d had working summers at Armando’s uncle’s restaurant. Tabby and Jocelyn had listened with amused interest as the two men related stories of their diving days. Of course, Armando still dived, but it was fun to imagine them as two college students earning their tuition money by diving off a false cliff in a restaurant. Armando had suggested that Jagger come over to the Acapulco and brush up on his diving—just in case the sales and marketing analyst thing didn’t work out. Jagger had agreed but only after a lot of teasing and coaxing by Tabby. Thus, the evening had been planned. Everyone was already meeting at Sweet Genevieve’s in order for Naomi to make good on her ridiculous promise to eat a frog if Tabby ever managed to link Jagger Brodie to Kevin Bacon—so why not have everyone just head over to the Acapulco afterward? Anthony was invited to dive too. Armando told him there was a smaller cliff—only 15 feet from the surface of the water instead of 30 feet like the one Armando and Jagger would be diving from—that he could start on if he liked. Surprisingly, Anthony had agreed. Tabby smiled to herself, thinking that seeing Jagger Brodie in a bathing suit would be worth it if nothing else.

  “He’s hot, I’ll give you that,” Chloe said in a lowered voice. “You weren’t exaggerating when you said he was unbelievably gorgeous. It’s like every time he walks in the room, I’m still stunned by his good looks…even after this past month.”

  Tabby smiled and whispered, “I know. Me too.” She shook her head in disbelief. Accepting the set of frog legs her sister offered, she said, “But I just can’t figure out what he sees in me. I’m really just pretty plain and boring.” She looked to Chloe. “Sometimes at night, I wake up and—”

  “Wish he was right there with you?” Chloe teased.

  Tabby giggled. “I was going to say I wake up and think maybe I’m imagining this. Maybe my daydreaming over him at work has just sort of morphed into full-fledged hallucinating. But then he kisses me, and…to be honest, if anything were going to assure me that this is all real…it’s Jagger Brodie’s kiss.”

  Tabby and Chloe giggled together quietly.

  “Still,” Chloe began, biting into another frog leg, “don’t you ever worry that it’s just totally carnal? I mean, anybody could fall in love with that dude. Maybe you’re just in love with his looks. Don’t you ever worry about it? Don’t you ever wonder if maybe you need a better reason to fall in love?”

  Chloe’s words were like a sudden knife in Tabby’s heart.

  “You think I love him because he’s handsome?” she asked, horrified. Quickly, her mind began to list off all the reasons she loved Jagger—to check off an endless list of reasons, his ethereal looks being only one of the reasons.

  “I didn’t say that,” Chloe said, placing a comforting hand on Tabby’s arm. “I just said it might be hard to tell…if it were me…but it’s not…so it’s okay.” Not realizing how terribly she’d upset Tabby, Chloe continued to munch on a frog leg as she said, “I’m just saying, if it were me—and it’s not—I’d have a hard time telling if I were really falling in love with him because of who he is or whether I was just being like some starstruck groupie who thinks she’s in love with the rock star. You know?” Chloe paused to finish her frog leg and toss the remnants on the bone plate. “Seriously, Tabs…he’s so handsome! And I can totally see why you named him after his butt. It’s, like, perfect.” Chloe giggled. “You’re perfect…the two of you together. I love it!”

  Still, the conversation had lessened Tabby’s enjoyment of the moment. The fact that her own sister thought she could be so shallow as to like a man simply because he was attractive bothered her. There was no denying that Jagger’s looks had been what first caught her attention, but now—now she knew how truly gorgeous he was, inside as well as out.

  Yet Chloe had never been one to read other people’s feelings and fears.

  “What are you going to do if some big record producer discovers him?” Chloe asked.

  “What?” Tabby asked.

  “He’s awesome!” Chloe exclaimed. “Talent like that just has to be discovered eventually. How will you handle all the psycho women he’s bound to attract when he’s famous?”

  “Are you trying to freak me out, Chloe?” Tabby asked. She was irritated—angry even. She already had enough insecurity to battle where dating Jagger was concerned. She’d seen the way women looked at him—actually knew firsthand the kinds of things they said. She’d already spent hours and hours trying to figure out what he could possibly see in her when he could obviously have any woman he wanted. She was angry at Chloe for frightening her instead of offering encouragement.

  “No,” Chloe said, looking to Tabby at last. “Of course not. I…I just see some things that maybe you don’t…things you might not expect. After all, you’re the one who’s always saying ‘anything can happen.’”

  “Anything can happen,” Tabby said. “And life is unexpected most of the time. But that doesn’t mean you should go around expecting the worst.”

  Chloe frowned. “The worst?” she asked. “By ‘the worst,’ do you mean somebody discovering Jagger, so to speak?”

  “No,” Tabby said, shaking her head. She felt confused by her own feelings. “I mean, if that did happen—if that’s what he wanted—then I would want that for him.”

  “Even if it meant leaving you behind?” Chloe asked.

  “Yeah,” Tabby breathed—and she meant it. Her stomach churned at the thought, however. Would he leave her behind if someone offered him a career in the music industry? Statistics proved he would, even if it wasn’t right away. Famous people never seemed to be able to manage relationships for any length of time.

  “Are you ready?” Emm
y asked, coming to stand next to Tabby.

  “Yeah,” Tabby said.

  Emmy frowned as she headed toward the door. “Are you okay? You look a little green.”

  “Too many frog legs,” Naomi teased as Anthony took her hand and led her from the kitchen.

  “Or too many doubting tongues,” Jagger’s grandmother whispered in her ear.

  Tabby turned to look at Genevieve, who smiled at her with understanding—understanding and encouragement. Reaching out, Genevieve placed a wrinkled palm against one of Tabby’s cheeks, kissing the other with affection.

  “He loves you, Tabby,” she whispered into her ear. “No worries.”

  Tabby smiled and felt hope returning as Genevieve tenderly brushed a hair from her cheek.

  “Now, you children have fun,” Genevieve said as Jocelyn took Tabby’s hand and pulled her toward the door. “But you keep my grandbaby safe on those silly cliffs, Armando.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Armando said.

  “Come on, Chloe,” Jocelyn said. “This should be very entertaining.”

  “Oh, yeah!” Chloe exclaimed, dabbing at her mouth with a napkin.

  “Have fun, baby,” Genevieve said as Tabby smiled at her.

  “I will,” Tabby said. “And thank you so much for going to all that trouble, Mrs. Chiasson.”

  “You’re welcome, mon cher,” Genevieve said, still smiling.

  Turning, Tabby followed her friends out of the kitchen.