Page 62 of Nashville Cowboy
“Hey,” Eve said, coming down the hall. “Y’all having blueberry waffles with us?”
Jackson strolled past her toward the kitchen and as he passed, Lillian noticed when he reached out for Eve’s hand. “Try to stop me.”
Eve smiled and the pinch of joy in her eyes gave Lillian a gallon of hope.
Chapter 22
Wedding day arrived and with it a set of nerves Jackson didn’t know he still owned. He no longer had any worries that Sadie would show up. Instead, his fear was entirely focused on performing the love song he’d written as a gift to Sadie and Lincoln. He’d now played in clubs across the US. But today he’d sing an emotional song in a close and intimate setting.
A few months ago, Jackson had started writing this song for Lincoln and Sadie as an homage to true and lasting love. The kind he wished for Sadie and Lincoln. At the time, he’d hoped and dreamed about a love that felt completely out of reach for him. Foreign.
But now the once-hazy picture had solidified to that of a woman who was no longer out of reach. No longer a dream. No longer just his painful past. Eve was warm and loving and everything he’d ever wanted. She clearly carried a great deal of emotional baggage, some of which was not his responsibility. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to fix it, but it did mean this all might take a long time to resolve.
When he considered all she’d been through, and how hard she was still fighting to get her spirit back, he couldn’t ask her to give up her life here and come with him to Nashville. She had a life in Stone Ridge, and a profession she loved that was fulfilling and secure. Show business was the opposite of secure.
That alone had made his decision so much easier.
“Jackson! Telephone,” Mima called out from the kitchen, holding the phone in her right hand and wiggling it. “Oh, it’s so good to have my hand back! Says his name is Billy.”
“Thanks,” Jackson said, taking the phone. Billy was an old band member, currently making bank working as a studio musician in Nashville. They’d remained in touch over the years. “How are you, my man?”
“Hey! Your manager gave me this number. Been trying your cell nonstop. Just thought I’d tell you I laid tracks down for Winona last week and she asked about you.”
Winona had always meant trouble for him. For one, they’d spent too much time drinking when they’d first met. The memory he had of her was more of a drinking buddy than a wife. But facts were, shehadbeen his wife, if even for a few months. She did like to lord that fact over him, as if he owed her something for the honor. He’d eventually walked away from all the hard drinking, but Winona still had a reputation as a hell raiser. She’d close out her stadium shows by announcing to the audience that she’d worked hard and was now going to go have herself a few tequila shots.
“What is she up to?”
“No good, I’m sure,” Billy continued. “She said she needs to talk to you and when someone told her you’d gone back to Stone Ridge, she said it wasurgentthat she talk to you.”
Jackson spoke between clenched teeth. “Did you give her this number?”
“Hell, no, brother. Just thought you should know.”
Jackson hoped his manager would have the foresight not to give out this number to anyone but his closest friends. He’d check his cell phone when they got into town where reception, though still spotty, at least existed.
“Thanks for the heads up,” Jackson said and hung up.
He had a feeling what this might be about. Winona was ridiculously jealous of him when she had no right to be. Occasionally, he’d post a photo on his IG with him and a woman he’d dated or even a fan with a backstage pass, and she’d become irate. She’d text and private message him that he was making a mistake dating that woman because she knew her to be a man-eater. The truth was that Winona, a full ten years older than him, was pushing forty and beginning to feel irrelevant.
“Thanks for looking out for me, Wy,” he’d text back because he’d learned the hard way not to get on her bad side.
He took one last moment to fool with his tie, grabbed his guitar case, and met Mima in the family room.
“There you are! Oooh don’t you look handsome, cowboy,” Mima said, finding her purse. “Now, Eve has gone on ahead because Sadie had some kind of emergency. You know weddings. Something always goes wrong.”
He snorted. “You mean like the bride not showin’ up?”
“Not usuallythatbad.” She clutched her chest. “Lord love a duck, you don’t think Sadie will run off?”
Attempting to reassure his grandmother, Jackson placed a hand on each of her shoulders. In recent years his aging grandmother had seemed to get tinier. Thinner. But the firecracker spirit was still there, a strong lady who took crap from no one.
“She’ll show.”
“Sugar, I want you to know something. Eve leavin’ you at the altar had nothing to do with you. She loved you as much as a womancanlove a man. With her whole heart and soul.”
“I know she did, and I loved her. But her leaving me at the altar had everything to do with me. She’d wanted to be reassured that I was choosing her and not just going through with the wedding because it had been planned before the chance to go to Nashville came up. I should have gone after her. She was scared and nervous. We both were.” He took a breath. “And I’m afraid she was right. I would have rather waited. Gone to Nashville with the band and been married to her later. But it was too late to change our plans, so I was going through the motions. Eve had more courage than I did.”
“That little girl is a fighter and she won’t play second fiddle to anyone.”
