Page 16 of Jackson's Redemption
He’d built a fire for me before he left.
On the heels of that realization came a hard, single knock on the cabin door. I jumped and stood there like a fool. I didn’t think I was ready to face him. At least not without coffee.
“Kate, you up? I brought coffee.”
Left with no choice, I opened the door. He was as massive as I remembered, and I took a step back to gain a little distance. So that I wouldn’t feel so diminutive next to him. He held out a Thermos and I took it. He also held up a brown bag.
“Sugar. Cream. A bagel with cream cheese.”
I took the bag as well and walked to the single table in the room. I poured all the creams and all the sugars into my coffee then swirled it around.
Jackson was blessedly silent the whole time. It was nice to be with a guy who didn’t talk unless he had something to say.
“Kate, we need to talk.”
I whirled around. “No, wait! Please. Let me go first.”
I had to go first. I had to let him know what a mistake last night was. What a mess I was so that he didn’t think anything like that could happen again.
“What happened last night…was wrong. You should know I don’t make a habit of that. Jumping into bed with men after just meeting them.”
“Wouldn’t care if you did.”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to take that, but he looked like he was going to say something else so, I held my hand up to stop him.
“I didn’t want to dump all this on you, but you have to know I’m not in a good place in my life. It’s more than just my father dying. I had to quit my job. Please don’t make me tell you why, because it’s so shameful. I lost my father. I lost the image of him. I lost my career. I’m held together, right now, with nothing more substantial than toothpaste. Last night was…intense. I can’t do intense. I can’t do complicated. I can’t spend the next two weeks fucking around without things getting complicated because, emotionally, I’m raw. I just want to spend some time in the woods away from everything and everyone, taking pictures and trying to think my way through this. Can you please understand that?”
He did that thing where he looked away as if he was taking the time to really think about what he was going to say before he said it. Then he looked at me, his expression intense.
Just like everything else about him.
It had been a good call to put up boundaries between us. Jackson Young was not something I could handle right now. I had this crazy fear that if I let myself lean on him, he would carry me.
“We can play this however you want, Kate”
“No hard feelings?”
His lips twitched at that. “Uh, no.”
“And you’re okay if we keep things from here on out platonic?”
“Never fucked a woman who didn’t want me to fuck her, Kate.”
I winced. He was right. I was being unfair to him. I had practically begged him last night—
You TOTALLY begged him last night.
Now, I was starting the morning telling him I couldn’t handle him or the situation and that I basically just wanted to be left alone. Only I couldn’t be left alone completely in Hope’s Point.
“Okay. Thank you. For letting me get all of that out. Did you want to say anything?”
“Not now. No.”
I slowly let a breath out wondering what he might have said, thinking I might have had a narrow escape. I took a sip of coffee and looked at him. He was dressed in jeans, heavy boots and a camouflage coat. He looked like a hunter.
“I really wanted to go hunting…photo hunting…but maybe, if it’s too awkward, I could hire a guide—”
“I’ll take you hunting, Kate. There is a cabin—a little rougher than this one—set deep in the woods to the north. I had it stocked before you came. You okay being out there for a few days with me alone?”
