on. If it were anyone else, I would’ve disconnected the call. But, since it was my grandmother, that wasn’t an option.
I was still thinking of a way out when the navigation system came through the speakers. “Your destination is on the left.”
“I’m sorry but we have to go, Grandmother.”
“Oh nonsense, this will only take a minute. If not for your rude interruption I’d already have my answer.”
I glanced up at him and saw that his mouth was turned up in the half-grin that I was so fond of. He didn’t look nearly as stressed as I was about this whole thing as he pulled into a parking spot.
Not sure what else to do, I turned the phone toward him as I mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
“Oh good. There you are. Now Jackson, what qualities in a woman turn you on? Or man,” my grandmother qualified. “Although I don’t get the feeling that is the way your bread is buttered, but who knows these days.”
“Well, ma’am, that’s not an easy question to answer. It’s not as simple as listing generic qualities that I find attractive. For me, it has to do with the individual woman.”
His eyes shifted to mine and my breath caught in my throat. I hoped that my grandmother wouldn’t notice that he wasn’t looking directly at the camera since she wasn’t wearing her glasses and I was holding the phone beside my face.
He held my gaze as he said, “It’s the way she stumbles over her words when she’s flustered, the way her eyes widen when I say something that surprises her, it’s the way her smile makes me feel like I can conquer the world, it’s the way that her hair smells like a summer day.” I was pretty sure he was talking about me, but I truly was out of practice with flirting and foreplay, so I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure. “It’s the way she makes everyone around her feel seen and special, it’s the way she takes my breath away every time I see her, it’s the way she blushes when she accidently sends the wrong text or misunderstands a conversation.”
Yep. He was definitely talking about me. Panic rose in me that she was going to figure that out and get the wrong idea about what this was.
I flipped the phone around, so the screen was facing me. “Okay, we have to go, Grandmother.”
“Oh my, those are very specific examples, young man.” My grandmother was fanning herself. “The woman you speak of is a very lucky lady.”
“I think I’m the lucky one,” Jackson replied. I could still feel his stare on me.
“I love you. I’ll talk to you later.” I quickly disconnected the call.
As soon as I hung up the phone, I looked over at him and my heart fluttered at the tenderness in his stare. It turned out my grandmother wasn’t the only one I had to worry about getting the wrong idea because when I looked in his eyes, I saw the future. I needed to be realistic about the situation.
Every day I read emails of women writing into the show asking my grandmother for relationship advice when it was clear that the male in the equation had no interest in a relationship. I’d felt sorry for those women and now I was turning into one.
I needed to remind myself that no matter what this felt like, last night was just that, it was one night. Nothing more.
Jackson was leaving the country in another week or so and even if he wasn’t, I’d overheard him telling his brother JJ that he didn’t want anything serious with anyone.
Even someone that takes his breath away every time he sees her? the little voice in the back of my head piped up.
Yes, little voice, even her.
Chapter 19
Jackson
“Great loves are like the hiccups, darling. You never know when you’ll get them or how long they’ll last.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
The town of Harper’s Crossing was no less charming than Firefly Island. In all my travels around the globe, I was beginning to discover that some of the greatest treasures were right here in my backyard.
As much as I’d loved exploring the world, I was starting to think that I missed being home. And that wasn’t the only thing I’d come to realize. Before I met Josie, I’d never thought there was anything missing, but now I knew that wasn’t true. I was missing inspiration and I’d found it in her. For the first time in my life, I