Page 10 of Nashville Cowboy
“I’m only as good as my last performance.”
“You’re pretty special around here. Every now and again we see you in the ‘out and about’ section of the tabloids with some beautiful lady. You’re practically a legend at the General Store.”
“I’m no one special. Just a hard-working musician.”
“Whoowee.” Lincoln whistled. “Don’t say that around Pops.”
When compared to the back-breaking work of a rancher, yeah, not so much. Traveling from city to city, losing his voice because of singing all night in often smoky clubs, and enduring sleepless nights wasn’t hard work. Never would be to their father, or Linc, though he was kind enough not to say so. Were Jackson being honest, it wasn’t his definition of work, either. Punishing work was mucking a horse stall. Mending fences till your hands bled. Getting kicked in the ass by a pissed off bull. He was no stranger to any of it.
“I’m a songwriter and performer. That’s all.”
“Gotcha. But hey, you don’t mind me saying, you didn’t do such a great performance tonight of a man who’s over a woman.”
Anger flashed through him. “I am over her. She just happened to piss me off because she’s talented that way. She’s got a hell of a nerve saying I didn’t want to marry her. Like she didmea favor.”
Lincoln’s eyes widened. “Shesaidthat?”
He cocked his head. “Guess I should be grateful.”
“Gotta say, I’m a little confused.” Lincoln scratched his chin. “You just explained how you never want to be tied to one woman again, but you don’t agree Eve did you a favor. Both of those statements seem to be at odds.”
“They’re not. It’s got nothing to do with her. I just wised up, is all.” He chugged the rest of his draft and set it down. “And if she didn’t want to get married, she could have told me the day before. Hell, thenightbefore.”
“Amen, brother. Amen. I agree.” Linc raised his mug. “But would you have listened to her?”
“It wasn’t as if I wasn’t nervous about it, too. Our wedding was the only thing keeping me from Nashville. But I showed up. More than she can say.”
“Alright. Just saying. If Sadie doesn’t show up at the church, I’ll go find her and drag her there. One way or another she’s marrying me. It’s a done deal.”
Just the idea made Jackson’s stomach pitch and roil. “Shebettershow up, or I’ll be the one come lookin’ for her.”
“Guess we both would.” Lincoln laughed.
Jackson didn’t think this was funny. If he’d been embarrassed to be left at the altar by someone who was arguably the most beautiful woman in town, he’d be outraged to see it happen to his brother. It terrified him to see the gobsmacked look on Lincoln’s face when he spoke about Sadie. He was deeply in love with her.
Jackson cleared his throat. “But you two are fine, right? Solid.”
“Solid as a boulder.” Lincoln set his draft down. “I’ve dated plenty as you know, if you can even call it that. I know what we have is real, and not just due to convenience’s sake.”
Just then Becca Smith threw open the door and waltzed inside, a baby on her hip. “Homer, you get on home right now. You have a family waitin’ for you.”
“Be right there, baby,” Homer said.
Jackson immediately recognized Becca, a few years ahead of him in school, and Miss Homecoming the year she’d graduated.
“Oh, hey there, Jackson.” She waved and smiled. Still the same pretty blonde he remembered. The baby was cute, too.
“Good to see ya.”
Then she turned back to her husband, who happened to be the guy comforting his buddy. “Let’s go now.”
Homer clapped his buddy’s back, paid up, and was out the door within seconds. “Comin’, baby.”
No one laughed or snickered. If a man wanted to hold on to his woman around here, he best not make the bar his second home.
“You ready for that?” Jackson snorted.
“She’s found a way to keep me home. Then again, I don’t think I’ll hang at the Shady Grind getting drunk after we’re married. Why would I?”
