Southern Fried Blues (The Officers' Ex-Wives Club)

by Jamie Farrell

  She heard the distinct sounds of cooler handles groaning as they took on the weight of the ice and food packed inside, then footsteps toward the door. She was about to flip her duffel shut when something green and wiggly stuck its head out of the corner and leaped onto the bed.

  Anna yelped. “Ohmigod!”

  The lizard froze on the bed. Its throat pumped, and it trained one beady eye on her. Jackson flung himself into the room. “Anna?” The lizard dashed over the corner of her comforter and disappeared somewhere on the opposite side of the bed.

  Anna sucked air through her nose. “Gecko.”

  She couldn’t leave with a lizard on the loose. What if it stayed? What if it left lizard slime in her bed or it crawled in her underwear drawers?

  She tried to rub the shiver out of her arms. Jackson took two steps around the bed, but she flung a hand out. “It’s okay. I’ll get it.”

  He pinned her with one of those quit being an irritating female looks she was seeing too often from a guy who was a friend with benefits, then continued around the bed and squatted. “Think he went under?”

  Anna’s toes squirmed inside her hiking boots. “If you hadn’t come running in here, I could’ve grabbed him off the bed.” She shuddered. Did lizards bite? What about their tails? Could that one drop his tail? She so didn’t want to get stuck holding a lizard tail.

  Did the tails still move after they detached?

  Would there be blood?

  Jackson peered over the side of the bed. “Probably looking for a warm place to hide. He’ll find his way out if he gets hungry.”

  Hungry? Her gaze flew out to the gigantic brandy snifter on the counter beyond her bedroom door. “Walker,” she whispered. Did lizards eat fish? Or swim?

  “Walker?” Jackson asked.

  “My fish.” Anna dropped to her knees and squinted under the bed, but she couldn’t detect any lizardly movements.

  Jackson stared back at her from the other side. “You named your fish Walker?”

  Still nothing lizardly. She reached into her nightstand and pulled out a flashlight, then trained it under the bed. “Long story. Not appropriate for a gentleman’s ears.”

  He chuckled. “Got me there.”

  “Do you see it?”

  “You quit shining that thing in my eyes, I might.”

  There was a knock on the door. “Hell-lllooo?” Louisa yelled.

  “Oh, there he goes!” Anna lunged and caught herself across the temple. The flashlight clattered away. Something heavy bumped the bed, and her mattress slid above her.

  “Got it,” Jackson said.

  Anna rolled over. He winked at her on his way out. The lizard dangled from his fingers, and she swore the stupid thing blinked at her. “You stay right there, Anna Grace. Back in a minute to help you up.”

  If she could’ve reached a pillow, she would’ve thrown it at him.

  Louisa poked her head in the bedroom. “What’s going on?”

  “Luggage malfunction.” Anna pulled herself up. She tugged her hair to straighten her ponytail, then zipped her duffel up with the same efficiency she was using to slow her pulse.

  “You guys making out?”

  Jackson strolled back into the room and grabbed Anna’s bag. “We’re just friends. No making out.”

  Just friends? Who was he kidding? Louisa knew better.

  Of course, they weren’t much more than just friends, but still. Anna stalked after him. She’d just friends his ass off. “I can get my own bag.”

  “Shoot, Anna Grace, I haven’t been this useful since that day we met.”

  He shuffled ahead of her, fast enough that she couldn’t catch up. “I don’t have problems like this when you’re not around,” she said.

  “You saying you want me to leave you alone?”

  The thought sent a pang through her heart, but she stomped it with her hiking boots and an irritated growl. “Why do you like to be so difficult?”

  The full-force grin he tossed at her made her stomped heart flutter as if it had grown butterfly wings. “Too easy, Anna Grace.” Her duffel over his shoulder, he snagged the cooler too. “We all ready, or you need to give your fish some counseling on account of his near-traumatic experience?”

  The betta fish banged his face into the glass. Anna gave the bowl a little finger stroke, and Walker’s blue gills flared out.

  “That fish has issues,” Louisa said.

  “He’s a good fish.” Anna dropped a couple of fish flakes into the bowl, gave it another little tap, then grabbed her tent and followed Jackson and Louisa. Radish leaned her head out the truck window. She looked happy as a puppy in a field of rawhide bones.

  While Jackson had his hands full, putting Anna’s stuff in the bed, she took advantage of the opportunity to open her own door. Radish leaned off her seat to nose Anna’s cheek. Anna scratched her ears. “Hey, pretty girl.”

  Louisa boosted herself into the backseat with the dog. A minute later Jackson climbed in. “Y’all ready?”

  “Been ready,” Louisa said. “Let’s go make a campfire.”

  “You didn’t tell her?” Anna murmured. Kaci had cancelled her classes for the day, and she and Lance had been out at the campsite since noon. Odds were good the fire had been going since 12:03.

  She’d known Jackson had a devious streak, but his evil chuckle and the glint in his eyes sparked some sympathy for Louisa. “Anna Grace, you think you might could talk Louisa through that algebra homework she’s been whining about not understanding?”

  Louisa heaved a sigh. “It’s gonna be a long ride, isn’t it?”

  “You bet your x-squared.” Anna twisted in her seat to face the younger girl. “Bet you a marshmallow I can explain it better than Jackson.”

  Louisa straightened. She met Anna’s gaze for a long minute, then pulled up a backpack. “You’re on.”

  Jackson squeezed Anna’s knee. She settled her hand over his, and got down to the dirty business of talking math while he pulled on an old Bama cap and pointed the truck toward a little spot of land Kaci had borrowed for them for the weekend.

  CAMPING WASN’T HUNTING, but Jackson loved sitting in front of a roaring campfire under a full moon next to a pretty lady. Even Louisa wasn’t irritating him so much, though it looked like Radish wanted earplugs. Anna was being a right good sport about it all.

  Come to think of it, she was a right good sport about everything. Right down to his getting in her way when she was putting her tent together.

  He bet the fire was driving her crazy too, all those logs stacked up in the haphazard way that made a campfire good. But she was doing a good job hiding it as she rotated her marshmallow the perfect distance over the coals to get a nice, even brown over a gooey center.

  His groin got tight thinking about her gooey center, but with his sister three feet away on his other side, he’d have to burn all his own marshmallows if he didn’t want to embarrass any of them.

  “They don’t,” Anna said beside him.

  “Hm?”

  “The logs. They don’t bother me.”

  He rubbed his chin. Now he knew he hadn’t said that out loud. “I was thinking about your marshmallow.”

  “Not doing either of us any favors with that tonight.”

  It wasn’t funny, but he chuckled anyway. Because maybe it was a tad bit funny.

  His daddy would’ve thought so. Anything worth having’s worth working and waiting for, he always said.

  And suddenly Jackson was back at not funny. He shifted on the ground, looking past the fire to Louisa. He’d failed her in passing that lesson along.

  He didn’t much care for failing at anything.

  He didn’t much care for the thoughts he was getting about his sister lately either.

  He reached around Anna, and he might’ve accidentally on purpose bumped her arm that was holding her marshmallow so steady. He also accidentally on purpose sniffed in that pretty scent of her hair longer than he meant to while he grabbed the bag of marshmallows
.

  Because those were the only marshmallows he’d be getting tonight. “Don’t suppose you brought any pie?” he said softly.

  “Pie?” Kaci said from Anna’s other side. “You brought pie, sugar?”

  Anna held up a smoking marshmallow. That pout was cute as all get-out on her. “Burnt-marshmallow-on-a-stick pie,” she said. “It was almost perfect too.”

  “I’ll fix one up for you,” Jackson said.

  Mostly because he felt bad hers got ruined. Some too because it would irritate her.

  And irritate her it did. Her eyes glowed bright as the fire. “You need to worry about your own marshmallows.”

  He flashed her a grin he didn’t feel. She was a special lady. Starting to sneak into places she didn’t have any business being, making him believe he did need to be worried about his marshmallows. Mamie said he had a way of making women think it was their idea when they finally broke up with him, but she also said she planned to live to see him get his comeuppance.

  He wasn’t real happy with the idea of Mamie getting her final wish, but darned if Anna’s frown didn’t flip upside down when she took the stick he handed her. He had to swallow twice before he found the teasing note she’d expect. “You’re a softie, Anna Grace.”

  “Only because I know you’ll make it up to me later.”

  He blew out a slow breath. She hadn’t taken too well to being just his friend. But Mamie had mentioned that Louisa was taking up with a boy, one who was old enough he should’ve had a degree and a real job instead of four more semesters ahead of him. Jackson wasn’t about to be a bad example for her.

  Never mind he already was.

  But if Anna was willing to be miffed, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Provided it was only a little miffed.

  Because he wasn’t ready to push her away yet. He still liked her within arm’s reach. “You sure you don’t need me to show you how to hold that stick?”

  “Again with the worrying about your own.”

  Half of his blood drained due south. “Killing me here, Anna Grace.”

  “This friend thing was your idea.”

  “Here. Do one for me.” Louisa shoved her stick at him. “I like it a little burnt.”

  Turned out, Anna could roll her eyes out loud too. He stuck the marshmallow into the fire then cut a glance toward her. If she’d made any faces, they were gone now. She rotated her new marshmallow and scratched Radish’s head with her other hand. Radish opened one eye, and Jackson could’ve sworn his dog silently called him a dummy.

  A little too much female bonding going on around this campfire for his comfort. Didn’t usually mind being outnumbered, but then, he prided himself on knowing when to skedaddle away from the girls before they started getting too womanish. But that wood on the fire wasn’t the only thing burning tonight. Problem was, he couldn’t decide if it was Louisa’s brain from thinking so hard on the way up here, or something else entirely.

  “I said a little burnt,” Louisa shrieked.

  Jackson lifted the blistered marshmallow and blew out the flames. Over the crackling of the campfire, he heard Anna chuckle softly. “If you want it done right,” she said.

  That was a challenge if he ever heard one. He shoved the stick back at Louisa. “You go on and show me how to do it.”

  He picked up another stick and put a marshmallow on it, eyed the way Anna Grace’s marshmallow was toasting nice and even, and propped his own stick the right distance from the flames.

  “That’s not how,” Louisa said. She stuck her marshmallow into the coals. A shower of sparks exploded.

  Radish jumped. Anna yanked her stick away from the sparks, and her marshmallow flew right off the end of the stick. Jackson lost sight of it once it cleared Louisa’s head.

  “Dammit,” Anna muttered.

  Jackson sucked his cheeks in. He silently handed over his stick.

  “Now that’s a good marshmallow,” Louisa declared with her mouth full.

  “Think Anna Grace likes ’em gooey on the inside,” Jackson said.

  “That right, Anna Grace?”

  “Just Anna, please. And yes, I do. Hot, sticky, and melted on the inside, nice and toasty on the outside.”

  There went the other half of Jackson’s blood. He propped himself back on his hands to keep from going too light-headed. “Fits you perfect,” he said, and he almost sounded like his brain cells weren’t operating on a lack of oxygen.

  She cut her eyes away from her stick. “I’m toasty?”

  “Uh-oh,” Kaci said.

  Lance chuckled like a man who’d said his fair share of stupid things.

  “In all the good ways,” Jackson said.

  “What do you know about her gooey insides?” Louisa asked.

  Darned if Anna’s cheeks weren’t suddenly glowing bright as the fire. He couldn’t deny that he liked that polite side of her.

  “Gotta have a gooey heart inside to put all that time into helping you with your homework,” Jackson said.

  He liked that about her.

  Liked it a lot.

  Anna’s stick wobbled in the fire. She yanked it up, not so hard this time.

  “Sure you don’t want me to do that for you? Ain’t looking so steady, Anna Grace.”

  “I’m gonna put you on a stick and roast you.”

  Might’ve sounded like a threat to a weaker man, but Jackson liked those husky undertones.

  “If you two are planning on making out, you’re gonna have to do it in the truck, because I’m not sleeping in a dirty tent,” Louisa said.

  “No making out,” Anna said crisply. “We’re just friends.”

  “Friends who do the naked hibbity-jibbity,” Louisa said.

  Jackson shoved a marshmallow stick at her. “You talk to Momma that way?”

  “Where are y’all keeping the graham crackers and chocolate?”

  Jackson gestured across the fire. “Picnic table.” When Louisa stood, he shifted closer to Anna and nudged his nose against her cheek. “Might could lose her in the creek tomorrow.”

  She brushed a marshmallow kiss over his lips. “No, you couldn’t.”

  “Awful tempted.”

  He felt her smile. “I could though,” she said.

  Kissing Anna was always sweet with the right sprinkling of spice, but with melted sugar hot on her tongue, she was taking his mind and his body places he couldn’t stay.

  Twigs snapped. He forced himself to pull away. Clouds were rolling in, dampening the moonlight. When Louisa settled back next to him, Lance and Kaci stood. Lance mentioned a walk down by the creek, and Jackson’s hope for his own moonlit excursion squished into the dirt like Anna’s launched marshmallow.

  Anna paused between marshmallows to rub her bare arms before trading her empty stick for the new one Jackson had waiting. He stood, gave his pants a dust, and headed for the truck. A minute later, he dropped his favorite Bama sweatshirt into Anna’s lap.

  She made to hand it back to him but her nose twitched. She gave the shirt a sniff, then stretched it over her head. “Thank you,” she said in that same husky, sleepy way she used late at night when they were tangled up in his sheets.

  Jackson’s nerves coiled so tight between his legs, he wouldn’t be able to stand up again tonight. Couldn’t remember the last time he was jealous of a sweatshirt.

  They all went quiet, Louisa burning and eating half the bag, Anna doing more roasting than eating, Jackson getting jealous of the marshmallows every time she put one in her mouth. Eventually he caught her yawning. “Giving up?” he asked.

  She stretched her arms. “Mm-hmm.”

  Couldn’t blame her. With the fresh night air, a full belly, and being all cozy by the fire, sleep was one of his top-five camping activities.

  Sleeping curled up next to her would’ve been first, but with Hurricane Louisa here, he was plum out of luck.

  Jackson stood and held out a hand. “C’mon, then, Anna Grace. Better get you to bed so you can’t blame fatigue when I ca
tch more fish than you tomorrow.”

  He helped Anna up, then his sister. He wrapped an arm around each of them and walked them to their tent across the campsite from Kaci and Lance’s smaller tent. Radish trailed after them. “No pillow fights without me, understand?”

  Louisa smacked him in the gut. “Dirty old man. I’m telling Momma.”

  Jackson chuckled. He gave Louisa a shoulder hug, then shooed her into the tent. She rolled her eyes out loud again, but she zipped herself inside.

  He linked his hands around Anna’s back and pulled her closer, because not kissing her was about to drive him mad. He wanted to strip her naked in front of the campfire and see where else she tasted like marshmallows, but he couldn’t do that discreetly.

  Radish nudged between them, and he reluctantly let her go.

  “We’ll go for a walk tomorrow night,” he murmured.

  She brushed her finger along the edge of his ear in silent agreement. “As long as you’re not a sore loser when I catch more fish than you tomorrow.”

  “We’ll see about that, Anna Grace.”

  She kissed his cheek, then disappeared into the tent. Jackson headed back to the fire, listening to the girls talk about him.

  “Sorry I wrecked your plans,” Louisa said. Her voice dripped with Southern honey, the kind that made it impossible to taste the poison underneath.

  He started for the tent, but stopped himself. Some other Yankee girlfriend might’ve needed his interference, but this was Anna.

  Sure enough, her voice came out gentle as a feather, picking her words as though she were looking for good peaches off a late August tree. “Um, did you steal all the fish out of the creek?”

  “No.”

  That was his Anna, catching Louisa off guard. Jackson didn’t have to see his sister to know she’d be wrinkling her brow and doing that what in tarnation are you talking about thing with her lips.

  “And we have another three bags of marshmallows, and plenty of firewood,” Anna continued. “And the tent doesn’t leak, and I love campfire breakfasts. How would you have ruined that?”

  “You know,” Louisa said, a little less certain, a lot less sweet, “your time alone.”

  “With Kaci and Lance and Jackson? I can see them anytime.”