Page 110 of Nashville Cowboy
“Yeah.” He pulled her from her sitting position until she was sprawled over him. “It has nothing to do with us.”
“I know.” She kissed him. Tender and chaste, her lips barely brushing against his. “Tomorrow Sadie and Lincoln are back.”
“It feels like much longer than a week since they’ve been gone.”
“When do you have to leave?”
“Don’t you mean we?” Big warm hands curled around her wrists. “Soon.”
In Nashville, Eve wouldn’t know anyone but Jackson. He’d be busy and couldn’t babysit her all day. And what if they didn’t work out? If Jackson loved her, if this wastruelove, he was going to have to show her in some way. He would have to give up something, too. From where she was sitting, he wasn’t giving up anything at all.
“I’m sorry. Jackson, I can’t leave.” She traced the firm ridge of his jawline and the rough bristles there. “I want to, but I have obligations here, too.”
“After tonight, somehow I knew you were going to say that.” His arms tightened around her.
“Are you mad?”
“No, I can’t be. You’re being honest. Disappointed, yeah. I’m not hearing what I want to but I’d rather have the truth.” He brought her hand to his lips and brushed a soft kiss across her knuckles.
“Me too.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “But nothing changes the fact that I love you.”
“I love you, baby.”
She wished with all her heart their story could be different and more like Lincoln and Sadie’s. But the truth, important though it was, could be downright heartbreaking. She pressed her face to his neck and felt the salty wet tears come.
Chapter 36
When Eve woke early the next morning, she didn’t remember how she’d made it back to Mima’s bed. The last thing she remembered was feeling Jackson’s slow labored breathing beneath her and somehow falling into the blessed oblivion of sleep. She’d dreamt of her wedding day. Eight years ago, in her alternate reality, she’d walked down the aisle to join the younger and boyishly handsome Jackson Carver. And there were no complications. Just love.
Until this morning, Eve didn’t know it was possible to cry in one’s sleep. But because she woke up with tears in her eyes, a raw ache in her throat, and pain like a weight on her chest, she would have to say that it was.
Her mother was no longer in bed next to her. Eve had slept in her clothes and so she used Mima’s attached bathroom to clean up and smooth her hair down. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying but she couldn’t do much about that.
She heard familiar voices as she walked into the kitchen.
Then both her mother and Mima turned from where they stood at the stove.
“I made flour tortillas.” Brenda waved her to the table. “Have a seat. They’re almost ready.”
When Brenda Iglesias made tortillas, they were homemade, not store-bought and warmed. She must have been up at the crack of dawn to get started.
“I asked him not to, but Hank called me in sick to the Trueharts. I unexpectedly have the day off.” She smiled. “Isn’t that lovely?”
Her brain sluggish from lack of caffeine, Eve tried to take it all in. Soon enough she realized that all the men were gone. Even Jackson. Jackson, who had held her so tightly in his arms last night, as she quietly cried herself to sleep.
“Here, sleepyhead.” Mima handed her a cup of life, otherwise known as coffee. “Hank and Jackson got an early start. They’ve gone to the feed store, will run some errands, and then later they’ll pick up Lincoln and Sadie at the airport.”
“Oh, right. That’s today.”
Lord, it was going to be good to see her best friend. Eve would cry, and Sadie would bake chocolate chip cookies and force her to marathon rom-coms all day. Sadie would help remind her that life would go on, with or without Jackson Carver.
And it would. It just wouldn’t be nearly as sweet.
Eve sat to eat a quick breakfast with everyone, but she had no appetite. She picked at her eggs, chorizo, and tortilla and half listened to Daisy talk about the rodeo coming into town.
“No more spendin’ time with that Wade!” Mima interjected with no small amount of judgement. Her lips were twisted into a scowl that would be comical had Eve felt any kind of lightness about today.
Daisy switched to talk about suspensions and brakes and other things that Eve could hardly pronounce much less understand after only one cup of coffee.
