I’d studied art. I’d seen the greatest masterpieces in the world. I’d heard of artists having muses, but I’d never truly appreciated the concept or understood the gravity of that phenomenon.
Until I’d laid eyes on Josie Clarke.
The woman captivated me in a way I hadn’t even known existed. She was mysterious yet open. Reserved yet outgoing. Happy but also sad. A complex puzzle that I would gladly spend the rest of my life trying to solve if given the chance.
And last night, the intoxicating combination of her vulnerability combined with her sensuality was almost too much for me to process. I hadn’t been able to sleep at all. I’d spent hours just staring at her while she’d slept. Finally, I forced myself to leave her room because I realized that if she woke up to find me looking at her, that might be creepy as fuck.
I hadn’t been able to help myself, though. It was more than just her outer beauty that mesmerized me. It was all the things that I’d listed to her grandmother. Everything she did, every word she spoke, every expression that crossed her face, every movement she made, every breath she took pulled me deeper under her spell.
As I stood on the bank of the river that ran through the center of town and finished setting up, I stole another look at Josie, who’d barely said a word to me since she’d bolted out of the car after hanging up the call. I hadn’t meant to embarrass her with my answer, I hadn’t even meant to say the things I had, but when I’d looked at her, it all just sort of came out.
That kept happening around her. I was helpless when it came to her. It was as if I was being controlled by an outside force that I was powerless to resist. She overrode my common sense and my self-control.
Just like last night in the bathroom. Once I’d made sure that the scorpion I’d safely returned to the outdoors hadn’t left any friends behind, my intention was to walk right past her, go back to my room, and do my damnedest not to jerk off to the image of her naked body that was forever seared into my mind.
Instead, I’d found myself standing in front of her telling her that I’d wanted to kiss her since the first time I’d seen her. And then, after we’d made love, I’d planned on going back to my room and putting distance between us. But instead, we’d gone for round two and I’d spent the night memorizing every curve, every angle, every slope of her perfect, heart-shaped face as she slept.
And now, I should be finishing the set-up but instead I bent down and pulled my still camera from my bag and pointed it at Josie. I focused the lens so that it perfectly captured the rays of sun beaming down on her fiery locks, highlighting the strands of gold and copper.
As I began snapping pictures, Josie bent down and picked something up off the walking path and set it in the flower bed. I couldn’t quite see what it was.
I lowered my camera, covered the screen, and zoomed in on the shots. I scrolled through the rapid shots and it played like a still movie on my screen. She had lifted up a snail that was on the path and placed it on a leaf, out of harm’s way.
Her innate kindness even translated to mollusks.
“Hello there, son.” I felt a slap on my shoulder and turned to see the man that I was fairly confident was Colonel James Hunter.
“Colonel Hunter?”
He nodded. “Last time I checked.”
I offered him my hand. “Jackson Briggs.”
“Nice to meet you.” Colonel Hunter took my hand and shook it. I was shocked at the power behind his handshake. This man might be pushing ninety, but he could still do some damage. He was exceptionally strong.
I’d met a lot of people, including politicians, dignitaries, actors, and philanthropists. Titles meant jack shit to me. I was raised to respect my elders, no matter what their title. It didn’t matter if it was a sanitation worker or the mayor.
But this man standing in front of me inspired more than my usual level of respect. He was the real deal. I knew the moment that he shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye that he was the sort of man that other men looked up to and aspired to be.
“Colonel Hunter?” Josie approached us.
“Yes, ma’am. At your service. But you, young lady, can call me Grandpa J.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you. Thank you for agreeing to do this.”
“I never pass up a chance to talk about my Marie.” Colonel Hunter’s eyes lit up when he spoke his late wife’s name.
Josie smiled warmly, genuinely. “I just have a few forms for you to fill out and then we can get started.”
“Sounds good.” I watched as the two moved over to the bench where they were going to conduct the interview.
I returned my still camera to my bag as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I looked down and saw that it was my cousin Austin calling. When we were growing up, he would spend several weeks every summer in Wishing Well with us, and he’d always bunked in my and Beau’s room because we were the closest in age.
After high school, he’d gone into the military and I’d started travelling for work, so I hadn’t seen him since we were teenagers. I was looking forward to catching up with him and meeting his wife Sara and stepchildren Charlotte and Trevor.
“Hey, man.”
“Hey, Sara wanted me to check and make sure that you or…”
“Josie,” I filled in the blank.
“Right, Josie were good with hamburgers tonight.”
“Hamburgers are great for me. Josie is a vegetarian, but I know she wouldn’t want you to go to any trouble.”
“No trouble,” Austin assured me. “Sara’s been on a health kick, so we have some Beyond Meat patties in the freezer.”
“Thanks, man.”
“No worries, see ya tonight.”
“Lookin’ forward to it.”
I disconnected the call and before I could put it away it buzzed again. This time it was Mia.
“Hey.”
“Hi, I tried Josie but she’s not answering.”
“She’s with Colonel Hunter.”
“Aww, Grandpa J. He’s the best.” I could hear the genuine affection she had for the man. “Well, I just l wanted to let you guys know that I looked at the dailies you sent.”
Last night when we’d gotten to the hotel, before I’d almost had a heart attack when I’d heard Josie scream bloody murder, I’d uploaded the footage from the day to Dropbox for Mia.
“They look so good!” Mia exclaimed. “Josie is a natural! I can’t believe that she got Hank to string more than four words together. And the stuff with the locals, it’s gold! Josie really gets people to open up, she’s amazing.”
“Yes, she is.”
“How are things going? With you two?”
Mia might be new to the Briggs family, but she’d apparently jumped right in with the meddling. I could practically hear my mother’s voice in her question.
“Good.” If she thought she was going to get more from me than that, she was crazy.
“So, you two are getting along then?”
“Yep.” Her fishing expedition was going to be fruitless.
“Everything’s running smoothly? No issues?”
“Nope.”
There was a moment of silence before she blurted out, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I heard what you did when Josie had her meltdown.”
Shit. I’d totally forgotten that the camera was rolling, and that Josie’s mic was live. I hadn’t looked at any of the footage, I’d just sent the raw files to Mia. I was furious at myself for not protecting her. She had enough trust issues, and I’d unintentionally exposed a private moment in her life.
“Has anyone else heard it?”
“No. And I deleted it.”
I let out a relieved breath.
“I only said something because, well, I just wanted to say thank you.” Mia’s voice cracked. “I don’t know what she would’ve done if you weren’t there.”
“She would’ve been fine.” Josie was a lot stronger than people thought. She was a lot stronger than she thought, for that matter. I hated t
hinking of what she’d gone through, but you didn’t make it through that and still be as kind and empathetic as Josie was if you weren’t a fighter. She’d been betrayed in the most public, and intimate way and still had compassion and joy in her heart. She hadn’t let it break her spirit.
After promising to send Mia the footage from today, I disconnected the call as Josie approached me, smiling widely.
“We’re all set.” Her smile faltered when she saw my expression. I could feel the crease between my brows from the anger I felt over what she’d been through, and that she’d gone through it alone, so I relaxed my face. “Is everything okay? Who was that?”
“Mia, she saw the dailies and loved them.”
“Oh, good.” I could see that she wanted to press me as to why I probably looked like my dog had just got run over, but thankfully, she had an interview to do.
“Let’s do it.” I smiled.
As I watched her turn and walk away, back to Colonel Hunter, the realization hit me that by this time next week, I wouldn’t be seeing her smile, or hearing her voice. And even though I’d failed at protecting her by sending the raw file, then I wouldn’t have the chance to protect her from anything.
It felt…wrong. And I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do about that.
Chapter 20
Josie
“A soulmate is not found, darling, it is recognized.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
“Colonel Hunter—”
“I told you young lady, it’s Grandpa J.”
“Right,” I smiled, wondering if we’d edit that out or not. “You and Marie were childhood sweethearts.”
“That’s right, young lady.”
When he spoke about his late wife, it was like he was lit up from the inside out. Like she was a light that shined in him.
“And you were married for over sixty years.”
“Sixty-seven.” He nodded.
“And what would you say was the secret of a love that lasted a lifetime?”
“Well, now, I don’t know if there was any secret. But if there was, then it was Marie. My girl just, well, she was an angel on earth. She was my angel.” He lifted his hand and grasped dog tags and a cross that hung around his neck. He’d explained to me that some of her ashes were in the cross, so she’d always be where she belonged, right next to his heart. I about swooned right off the bench. “And she still is.”
“Was it love at first sight?”
“Well, now, it was for me. I don’t think she’d say the same,” he chuckled. “I grew on her, but from the first second I saw her I knew that she was the one. Her smile just lit up a room. Everyone that met her was better for it. People just gravitated toward her, but she was clueless about her effect on everyone. She thought I was crazy when I would point out how much people loved her, how much I loved her.
“Well, I think that the best anyone can do is marry your favorite person, the person that you miss if you’re away from them for even five minutes. The person you want to go to the DMV, and the doctor, and the grocery store with. She was the person I wanted to go to sleep with every night and wake up to every morning and do everything in between with. She’s my favorite person. Always will be.”
“That’s…beautiful.” I felt my eyes starting to water as he spoke about his late wife. There was so much love… in every word, every expression, every gesture.
“As far as secrets, the only thing that comes to mind is slow dance Sundays.”
“Slow dance Sundays?” I repeated, wiping the moisture from under my eyes.
“That’s right, young lady. Right after Marie and I met when we were thirteen, before she even realized she liked me, there was a wedding and reception at our church. All the adults were out on the dance floor, but her daddy wouldn’t let her dance because he believed that dancing was inappropriate behavior for a good Christian girl. He was a very strict man.
“I saw how sad she was as she looked out on the dance floor. So I brought her a piece of cake and told her not to worry because when we got married, every Sunday, we’d slow dance. That got a smile outta her.” A wide grin spread on Colonel Hunter’s face as he was obviously being transported in time. “Five years later, we were married on a Saturday. The next day was our first slow dance Sunday. And there hasn’t been a Sunday that’s gone by that I don’t dance with my sweetheart. When we were together, we’d mix it up and choose different songs to dance to. But whenever we were apart, we’d always play our song.
“Over the years, there were times that life got busy with kids and work, having guests staying with us, illness, and all the distractions that life brought. But no matter what we had going on, every Sunday before the clock struck midnight, I slow danced with my girl. It didn’t matter if she was cross with me, or tired, or busy. All that melted away when I got her in my arms.
“When I was in the war, we’d still dance every Sunday. Me, wherever I was in the world, and her in our kitchen. See now, we didn’t have any of that fancy technology that you young people do where we could see our faces on our phones. Sometimes it would take months for her letters to reach me, or mine to reach her. But every Sunday, she knew that I was dancing with her and I knew she was dancing with me. I do believe that if I had one secret, that might be it. Slow dance Sundays.”
“What was your song?” I realized as soon as I asked the question that I hadn’t been asking it as Josie the journalist. I’d forgotten that we were even filming anything. I sat up and tried to regain my composure.
The corners of Colonel Hunter’s eyes crinkled as he grinned. “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me.”
I didn’t know the song off the top of my head, but I’d be googling it tonight.
After I wrapped up the interview, I asked if I could take a photo of the picture he’d shown me while he was filling out the waivers, so that we could insert it during his interview.
“Of course.” He pulled out the black and white photo of Marie on a picnic blanket wearing a white dress. As I snapped a picture of it, I commented again, “She was so beautiful.”
“She sure was.” He sniffed as moisture gathered beneath his eyes. “Oh, and you know, my son Mike, he put all of my old pictures on the computer. I can have him send ’em to you over email if you want some more.”
“I would love that!” After making sure that I got a good picture, I handed it back to him.
As he put the photo in his wallet once more, he said, “You know, you are the spitting image of an actress from my time. I can’t remember her name…but my Marie loved going to the pictures to see her.”
“My grandmother is Josephine Grace Clarke.”
“That’s it.” He snapped his fingers. “Josephine Grace Clarke. That’s it. Well, whaddaya know. My Marie always wanted to meet her, and now her granddaughter is snapping a picture of her.” He touched the cross around his neck once again.
I wondered if he realized how much he did that. “Thank you again, for your time. Your story is…it’s inspiring. It makes me believe in true love.”
“Young lady, love isn’t somethin’ ya need to believe in. It’s there whether you believe it or not.”
It may have been my imagination, but I was almost certain that he tilted his head toward Jackson, who was breaking down the camera. As I looked over to the man that I knew I had no future with, I wished for something I knew I had no business wishing for. I wished that Jackson would feel even a tenth for me what Colonel Hunter felt for his Marie. I wished that he felt for me the things I was feeling for him. I wished that he loved me.
But even if he did, it wouldn’t change anything.
He’d said he didn’t want anything serious and he was leaving next week.
I also wished that it was as easy as Mia made it seem like it could be. That I could just have a hot fling and brush up on my triple Fs without forming any sort of attachment. But that wasn’t the case. My mind knew that this was temporary, it was my heart and hormones that hadn’t gotten the memo.
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Chapter 21
Jackson
“To love is brave, darling. If you’re not afraid, then it’s not real love.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
Josie had been quiet after we wrapped the interview with Colonel Hunter. We’d been on the road for a couple of hours and she’d barely said anything. It was clear that she was deep in thought about something. As much as I wanted to know what was going on in that pretty head of hers, I felt like it would be imposing to ask her.
“Have you ever been in love?” she asked as she stared out the window.
My knee jerk reaction was to say no. But after meeting Josie, I wasn’t so sure. Was what I felt for her love? Or was it just infatuation? She’d awoken things in me that had been dormant my entire life. Passion. Inspiration. Desire. Jealousy.
Was that the same as love?
“I don’t know,” I answered as honestly as I could.
She nodded thoughtfully, acknowledging my response.
“What about you?” The edginess that I’d felt when I’d seen her talking to Hank returned. I wasn’t sure why her answer meant so much to me, but it did. It felt like an eternity before she responded.
“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, I thought I was in love with Gio, but I think I was more in love with the idea of him. The idea of having a boyfriend. Not actually him. I mean, I obviously didn’t know him. Not the real him.”
There were questions that I had about that time in her life, but I wasn’t sure she’d want to answer them. Or if it was any of my business. If it were anyone else, I would have kept my curiosities to myself. I respected people’s private lives, and never pried. But there was something about Josie that brought out my most impulsive nature.
“How did you end up on a reality show?”
She didn’t answer so I glanced over at her and saw that she was staring at me with a blank expression.
Loving Jackson (Wishing Well, Texas Book 10) Page 13