Page 12 of Nashville Cowboy
Sadie tried, oh how she’d tried to talk some sense into Eve, but she was having none of it. Sadie then sneaked Eve out and drove her home to the cabin they shared at the time. Both of them were sobbing so hard that it was a wonder Sadie could see the road in front of her.
Sadie made some calls and stayed with Eve while she fell apart. Eve’s mother showed up, tried to tell Eve this was just a bad case of cold feet. Convinced Jackson would soon be at their door, demanding to be let in, her mother prepared. She cleaned. Sadie baked cookies. Both of them were sure the wedding would go forth anyway, but simply get started a little late. Or maybe they’d have to reschedule to another day. People would be disappointed, but they’d make up some lame excuse. The wedding would go through.
Sheshouldhave talked to him first. Like a coward, she’d cut and run. Or maybe, she thought later, some immature part of her wanted Jackson to come after her, reassuring her once and for all she was all he’d ever wanted.
But he’d never called.
Never shown up.
If he knew the course her life took since that moment, he’d feel sorry for her. Good thing he didn’t know because she refused to be pathetic. She hadn’t exactly been a martyr when she’d walked away from Jackson so that he could have his dream. She’d walked away because of having been raised to believe that she didn’t deserve anything less than a man whowantedto spend the rest of his life with her.
A slice of a moment later that felt more like a decade, Jackson kept walking past her bedroom door. Eve relaxed again and started going over the list of things to do in preparation for the wedding. She had a working list on paper, of course, but there was also the one in her head. This was because, as usual, some of her best ideas came when it was time to sleep.
Tomorrow, she’d get up early and finish decorating the rest of the lodge for Sadie and Lincoln’s wedding shower. Daisy said she would help and between the two of them and Mima’s constant direction, they’d get it done. The food was being catered by Caroline, and they’d already discussed the platters. Also, there was… From a distance, Eve thought she heard a faint sound and turned her good ear closer to her cracked window. The music seemed to be coming from right outside her window.
Jackson. He was playing chords, the same pattern over and over again. No singing that she could hear as she strained even closer. She’d always loved his singing voice, a deep and emotional tenor, but hadn’t heard him in years. Jackson hadn’t been on the radio, but Lincoln owned a copy of a demo tape and she’d last heard his voice a couple of years ago. She sat up and moved closer, listening with her good ear for words when they came so that she could catch every single one wafting through the clear night air.
There were no words but eventually there came the single notes of a melody picked out on the guitar. The song sounded like a ballad, one that gave off a lonely timbre.
And Eve couldn’t help wondering now whether maybe she wasn’t the only one hurting.
Chapter 5
Eve was up the next morning before the sunrise as was her custom. For the next two weeks, Annabeth would take coverage so that Eve could focus everything on the last-minute wedding errands for Sadie. The wedding errands, and making breakfast, lunch, and supper for the familyandany hired ranch hands as Mima normally would.
She started the coffee for the household, dark and stout like Mima liked it, then made her way to the horse stalls. The Carvers kept their family horses separate from the cow ponies which were all stabled up the hill with Hank. Thimble was already awake. Taco, the male quarter horse who loved to bite grooms, refused to acknowledge Eve. Again. When she approached the stalls, he turned and literally gave Eve his generous backside.
“That’s okay, boy. I’m sure eventually you and I will get to liking each other again.”
Eve refused to give up on him. He’d liked her once, and Hank swore her voice soothed Taco. She groomed him on the rare occasion, but Hank was afraid Eve would be injured and much preferred to let the newly hired groom take care of Taco, who’d belonged to Jackson. But Thimble was special. She’d been originally purchased to be a cow pony, but a freak barn accident injured her hind leg which meant she couldn’t work with the cowboys any longer.
Eve carefully led Thimble out of the stall. She grabbed the groom’s bucket and spoke to her gently as she brushed her golden mane.
“I’m coming behind you, Thimble,” Eve announced as she walked behind and lifted first one shoe and then the other. “How about a ride this morning? I know I could use one.”
Nothing calmed Eve quite like riding Thimble, and she needed the serenity this morning. The quiet. She hadn’t slept well, because Jackson was mere feet away from her. The same maddening pull to him still existed despite all their time apart. It made no sense at all.
She’d been an idiot to think she could live this close to him for twoweeks. And if he made her squirm and sweat while outside her window, or down the hall, how would she walk arm in arm with him down the church aisle? She would not run out this time. This time he wasn’t going to get what he wanted. She wouldn’t make this easy for him. This day was about Sadie and Lincoln.
After taking Thimble for a ride as the sun rose over the plains, a beautiful burst of orange and red, Eve made her way back to the kitchen to start breakfast. While Eve thought the hands would have been happy with instant oatmeal the word “instant” was a four-letter word in Mima’s kitchen. During the entire time she’d stayed at the ranch, breakfast meant bacon, flapjacks, sausage, toast, grits, and eggs.
“Good mornin’,” Mima said as she wandered into the kitchen an hour after the sunrise. “You sleep well?”
Why would I? Jackson is in the house. He tried to fire me. You’re crazy to think we’ll ever be friends again. He hates me and I’m beginning to return the favor.
“Perfect,” Eve sang, turning a flapjack.
“Now, see? I told you everything would be fine.” Sha patted Eve’s back as she brushed by on the way to the coffee carafe.
“It’s not exactlyfine,” Eve said, intercepting Mima as she tried to pour with her left hand. She poured coffee into a mug and handed it to Mima. “Last night he fired me. He wanted me to leave.”
“And what did you tell him?”
Eve pursed her lips together as she recalled the way she’d almost caved and allowed him to intimidate her. It tended to be the norm for her these days. She would keep working on that.
“I reminded him that only you can fire me.”
“That’s my girl. Is Brenda having supper with us today?”
