by J. M. Madden
Emily cringed inside. Neil had expensive tastes, but they weren't always her taste. It was hard to tell what he'd gotten her.
The men, or rather Neil, resumed their conversation. Oh, no, Emily’s heart sank. It was about horses.
Neil was very talented in creating a rapport with his clients. Somehow, even if he didn't know anything about a subject, he could say just enough of the right things to sound like he knew what he was talking about. Not so with horses. Neil lived in Houston and had gleaned a few small details, just enough to make him dangerous.
"I checked the Texas Quarter Horse Association’s sales list the other day," he was saying now. "There were some beautiful horses that went though there. Although I thought they seemed too expensive. Most expensive one was a hundred thousand dollars."
Actually, the most expensive horse sold had been double that. Emily remembered because her brother’s horse got beat out for the highest price paid at the sale by that one.
Emily looked at Jackson and though he remained attentive to Neil she could see the derision in his eyes. When Neil sat back for the waiter to set down his drink, Jackson glanced at her, lifting his brow sardonically. She forced herself to show no expression on her face but it was hard. He knew as well as she did that if he ever took Neil to the Blue Star he'd be chewed up and spit out in no time.
Jackson didn't try to touch her any more after that, though he had several chances when Neil was distracted. Emily wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed. Both she supposed.
The waiter brought the food and it was as bad as she had feared. Neil had ordered her an Oscar, beautiful lump crabmeat scattered over the steak. Emily reeled back in her chair. Though she loved the taste of it, she was allergic to crabmeat.
"What's wrong?" Neil asked, cutting into his own Oscar.
"She's allergic, you dimwit."
Neil looked shocked at Jackson's scathing words, but even more shocked as he took the plate and raised it up in the air for one of the waiters to take away, well away from Emily.
Their water returned and took the plate away, apologizing profusely. It wasn't his fault, though. It had been Neil's for ordering it.
Though he'd slowed, Neil continued to eat, watching the situation. When the harried waiter returned Emily ordered the roasted chicken—the same thing she'd ordered the last time they’d come to this restaurant. Then she sat back in her seat, crossed her arms and glared at Neil, watching him eat.
"Why are you aggravated with me?"
Emily could have screamed. "Because you ordered me seafood, when you know perfectly well that I can't have seafood."
Neil scowled and shook his head. "There isn't much seafood in an Oscar. I can't believe you sent that steak back."
Emily felt like she was talking to a child and she wasn't in the mood for it any more. Her frustration with the situation and the people in it were at an all-time high. Dropping her napkin to the table, she stood from her chair. It was time to go. She turned to Jackson. "Mr. Windwalker, it was a pleasure. Neil, I'll talk to you later."
"Emily, where are you going? Don't be like this," Neil called, but he couldn't leave the table and stick his client with the check.
She turned back to him for a moment. "Enjoy your dinner with your client, Neil. I'm going home. I'll talk to you later."
He looked somewhat appeased, but still put out that she'd made a scene. He looked around the restaurant self-consciously, then sat back down. Emily caught a glimpse of the laughter in Jackson' s blue eyes before she turned away.
Luckily there was a cab right outside the door. She called it to her with an upraised hand and slid inside. Once she'd given the driver her address Emily leaned back against the seat with a sigh. What a train wreck of an evening.
Back in her apartment she kicked off her heels and unzipped the tight skirt of her dress. All of this torture just to be tricked and insulted and disregarded. What a wasted night. Men were assholes.
Emily slipped on a pair of soft gray sleep pants and a t-shirt, hanging her black and red outfit on a hangar. Then she went to the kitchen to scrounge up something for dinner. As she waited for her leftover Thai food to reheat, she called Kendra.
"Oh, please tell me there was a fight or a kiss or something good to end your night so early."
In spite of herself Emily laughed. "Not exactly." She related everything that had happened, including Jackson touching her finger under the table. "I'm so aggravated at Neil, though. I've been with the man for months and he still can't remember I'm allergic to crab. It's kind of a big deal, you know, with that whole anaphylactic shock thing that’s such a downer. But he keeps screwing up. Why, Kendra?"
Her friend sighed on the other end of the line. "Because he doesn't care enough about you to remember, that's why. I love you, Em, but that guy is just using you. He's an asshole. A user. I'm surprised he hasn't asked to copy your contacts list yet."
Emily laughed because she'd wondered at that too.
"So, what did Jackson do when you left?"
"Gave me this look that told me he was laughing at the entire situation," she admitted. "I may not go back to the restaurant for a few years, if ever."
"It can't have been that bad."
"Bad enough," she sighed.
Her doorbell rang and a pang of fear raced through her. If Jackson was in town it wasn't a huge stretch of the imagination to think that he knew where she lived. Any of her siblings would have told him. Crossing the cool tile floor she peered through the peephole and cursed.
"Kendra, let me call you back. I have company."
"Oh, please let it be the delectable Jackson," she whispered.
Emily laughed. "Nope. Worse. If you don't hear from me by morning you'd better send a search party out for my body."
Emily looked down at herself. She was presentable enough, she supposed. She swung the door open. "Hello, Neil."
Without even a word of greeting her fiancé stormed inside her apartment. "What the hell were you thinking, Emily? You probably just cost me one of the most lucrative commissions of my career."
Emily laughed in spite of his anger, swinging the door shut behind him. "I doubt that."
Neil spun on her, his blue eyes furious. "Why are you laughing?"
"Because Jackson is an old boyfriend of mine from Honeywell."
His face screwed up into confusion. "Where the hell is Honeywell?"
And wasn't that the rub. She'd been with Neil for months now and he didn't even remember the name of her hometown. "It doesn't matter, Neil. What matters is that I think Jackson was using you to get close to me."
Neil planted his hands on his hips. "So why didn't you say something at the restaurant? Why did you have to behave that way?"
Emily shook her head, turning to walk across to the window that looked out over the Houston skyline. "I'm not sure."
A hard hand gripped her elbow and spun her around. Emily gasped at the unexpected movement. Her own anger began to build. "I can see you're not going to behave rationally, Neil. Let's meet up and talk about this after you've had a chance to cool off."
"I'm not going to cool off for a while, Emily. I've wasted an entire week with this man, running his Indian ass all over Houston when he wasn't even going to buy anything. I've passed on other potential customers because I was catering to him."
Rather than let her go, Neil grabbed both of her arms and gave her a shake. "How long have you known that he was here? The entire week?"
Emily shook her head. "Tonight was the first time I've seen him in three weeks."
Neil's eyes narrowed on her. "In three weeks? Where is the last place you saw him?"
"At my father's ranch for Chad and Lora's wedding shower."
Neil shoved her away, violently enough that Emily stumbled on the dragging length of her long sleep pants. Staggering, she recovered her balance, but her anger surged to an all-time high. "I don't know why you think it's okay to manhandle me the way you just did, Neil, but you need to get the hell ou
t of my apartment. And you know what?" Emily scrambled at her hand, ripping at the diamond engagement ring there. She tossed it to him, enjoying watching him fumble to catch it. The chunky diamond fell to the floor and he had to scramble to find it.
"What the hell are you doing, Emily? Is this really a big enough issue to cancel our engagement over? This is because I won't settle on a date, right? We'll settle on a date."
Emily shook her head, heaving a sigh, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. "You just don't understand, do you Neil? It's not about the wedding date or Jackson or any of it. We've been together four months and you still don't remember the name of my hometown, or the fact that I'm severely allergic to crab, or that I get nauseated in your car when you wear the cologne your ex gave you. It's the fact that you don’t care enough to take the time to learn any of that. You're too self-involved to even notice the little things that are important."
He blinked and frowned, and for the first time her words had apparently sunk home. "Oh. When you lay it out like that I can see why you would be aggravated."
They stared at each other for a long moment. He spun the ring on his forefinger a couple of times before clearing his throat and jolting into motion. He headed to the door of the apartment, but turned back at the last moment. "I'm sorry, Emily. You're right in everything you said, and I apologize for that. Maybe we can, uh, grab a drink sometime or something."
Then he disappeared out the door.
Emily thought her emotions would be torn up, but they weren't. Their relationship had been building—or falling—to this for a while, she'd just been reluctant to admit it. And now that she thought about it, she was relieved. Yes, it was convenient having someone to go to dinner with occasionally, or to hang out with, but Neil was too high maintenance to do anything with. Emily had never felt like she'd been able to relax in his presence.
Her phone buzzed on the coffee table and she picked it up.
Need me to come over and kick some ass?
She laughed, just as Kendra wanted her to do. No, I'm good. I'll call you tomorrow.
You'd better!
When a second knock pounded on her door, she worried that she would have to yell at Neil again. Padding to the door she looked out the peephole and sighed. Of course. What else was this night going to throw at her?
"What do you want, Jackson?"
"May I come in?"
At least he'd asked, she mused.
Opening the door wider, she stepped back to let him in. Jackson took his hat off as soon as he entered, smoothing his hair back. A few long black wisps had fallen from the braid to hang alongside his corded neck.
Jackson's hair was a badge of his heritage. Though his mother's family hadn't accepted him the way they should have, he still honored his heritage. Years ago, his hair had been short, but he'd let it grow long after his grandfather died. More than once she'd braided it for him, admiring the strength of the black strands. Now it reached down past the middle of his back.
He held out a black handled bag with elegant writing in gold. “I brought you your chicken dinner.”
Emily blinked down at the bag and smiled ruefully before taking it. Leave it up to Jackson to remember.
Jackson moved around her apartment looking at things curiously. He'd never been here before, in spite of coming to Houston several times for stock shows or sales. He'd been with her brother, then, and she'd always met them out. Now he was looking at her things, probably gaining insight she couldn't afford for him to have.
"Are you here to gloat?"
Turning, he lifted one dark brow. "Why would I gloat? I made you uncomfortable and I wanted to apologize for that. It was never my intention to put you in the position I did. I didn't think about how you would react when you saw me. I just wanted to see you."
That mollified her a bit. She'd thought that the entire dinner scene had been a sneak attack, meant to embarrass her. If she'd taken the time to think about it she'd have realized that he was too honorable to do anything like that. "Okay. Thank you for that."
Jackson had never given her any reason to doubt his word. Yes, he was a little pushy when he wanted his one way, but weren't they all?
"Can I get you something to drink? Water or a soda?"
"I would take a water, please."
"Have a seat."
Emily disappeared into the kitchen, set the black bag on the counter and returned a moment later with two bottles of water. Jackson now sat in her favorite armchair leafing through the book she'd left on the table beside it. The book was a romance, and her face flamed as he looked at the front cover again. It wasn't as bad as some covers she'd seen, but the couple of the front were definitely in a suggestive position.
Breathing through her embarrassment she handed him a bottle, then sank into the corner of her couch, folding her legs to the side. She cracked the top on her own bottle and took a hefty swallow. Her emotions were running hot and cold right now and she was so out of sorts.
Emily was also very aware of Jackson's proximity. Just a few weeks ago he'd been kissing her to the point that she'd have probably gone further if given time. That fact didn't make her happy with herself, but there was no getting around it. Jackson knew all of her buttons to push.
It was so dangerous that he was here.
"What are you doing here, Jackson?"
"Checking on you, I told you."
"Not in my apartment. In Houston. Why are you here?"
He blinked at her and his cool blue eyes turned cautious. "I wanted to meet your fiancé and see if he was worthy of you."
She barked out a laugh. "Are you serious? I'm thirty-one years old and you're checking up on me like I'm a teenager? Do you know how infuriating that is?"
Jackson sighed and inclined his head the tiniest fraction. "I can imagine. I apologize again, Emily. I'm not making a very good impression, am I?"
She shook her head, turning to look out the skyline window. "How did you even know where Neil worked?"
Jackson chuckled and she realized the stupidity of her question. "Oh, never mind."
Neil liked to put his picture and name on everything. He had signs all over town on every listing he had, plus a few more places. It probably hadn't been hard for Jackson to place him.
"He's pretty upset. Thinks you were stringing him along."
Jackson's lips curled up. "To an extent, I was. I had him show me some properties around town, but I never promised I would buy from him."
"Why even waste the time?"
"It wasn't a waste of time. I got to know exactly the kind of man Neil was. And I didn't like him."
She shook her head, amazed at his audacity. "It doesn't matter if you like him or not, Jackson. You're not the one marrying him."
He gave her a probing look. "You aren't either, apparently. Where's your ring, Emily?"
She could have screamed in exasperation. "It's none of your business, Jackson! Why can't you get that through your thick skull? Nothing I do in my life is any of your business."
"I disagree," he said quietly, in counterpoint to her vehemence. "Everything you do concerns me, Emily. And I think you know why."
She sighed, closer to tears than she wanted to be in front of him. "I need you to leave, Jackson. I can't do this right now."
To her surprise he didn't argue, just quietly got up out of the chair. "I'll leave for now, Emily, but I want you to have dinner with me. I'll give you a week, then you need to send me a place and a time. I'll be there."
Aggravation rolled through her, but she tamped it down. She was winning right now. Pushing to her feet she walked him to the door. When he turned to look at her, she expected him to swoop in for a kiss, but he didn't. Instead, he stroked a cool finger down her cheek, gave her a sweet smile and left.
Emily leaned against the door after she closed it, feeling drained. She'd gone through more emotions in the past hour than she had in the past month and she was wrung out. She needed to hop in the bath and relax.
After so
aking for over an hour and replenishing the hot water twice, she was no closer to deciding how she felt about tonight. Overall, she was relieved that she didn't have to deal with Neil anymore. He'd been too high maintenance and they hadn't been a good match. Her entire family would probably cheer when they found out that she'd dumped him, because he would not have fit in on the ranch at all. She would probably take some ribbing about him too, but she supposed she was due.
Now she also didn't need to worry about getting him to the wedding. With the diverse group of friends, family, and neighbors that was sure to be there, Neil probably would not have been able to control his mouth. Though he was in the public eye all the time and worked with many different types of people, he hadn't seemed to master the art of acceptance. When they were in private, he'd felt comfortable enough with her to show his true colors, and it had been more than aggravating. Emily had hated how narrow minded and mean spirited he was about people different from himself.
Jackson being in town worried her, because there was only one reason for him to be here. Her. There were no horse sales going on right now that she knew of, and he definitely wouldn't take a vacation. In all the years she'd known him Jackson had never taken time off, because he was doing what he loved. Wasn't there a saying like that? If you do what you love you never work a day in your life, or something like that.
Plugging her toe into the running faucet, she replayed the scene in her living room. He hadn't been as pushy as he normally was. Maybe because he was trying to be sensitive to her feelings? That was why he'd given her the week to get used to his presence here. Emily knew in her heart that he had basically given her a week to get over Neil, then he would be coming for her.
The thought sent a little thrill through her, but she tamped it down. It didn't change their circumstances at all. Despite his being here in town now, he wouldn't be staying. Houston was not the town for him. And she wasn't the girl.
Chapter Ten
As Jackson walked through the ranch house, he knew he'd found his new home.
