House Divided

by Peel, Jennifer

  “I thought you weren’t trying to seduce me.”

  He grinned and touched my face lightly. “I’m not, but I’d like to be able to in the near future.”

  Oh my.

  “Brady, I think we should take this slow, maybe try dating again before we rush into marriage.”

  He leaned in and kissed me tenderly, first on the lips and then he made his way to my neck. “We dated for two and half years already,” he said in between kisses.

  “We were kids, Brady.”

  “Tell me you don’t love me, Ellie.”

  I had to hold his face. He was driving me crazy nuzzling my neck.

  He looked into my eyes, and I think my body temp rose to fever level.

  “I can’t do that,” I whispered.

  He smiled seductively.

  “But, I still don’t think we should rush into marriage. Have you even told your parents your intentions?”

  He lay down next to me, and I found myself once again in my favorite position, in his arms with my head on his chest. He placed the blanket over us, but seriously, I was warm enough without it. He kissed the top of my head, and then he sighed. “I told them I love you and that I had every intention of winning you back.”

  I could tell by his tone it didn’t go well, but I had to ask. “And what did they say?”

  “It doesn’t matter to me, Ellie.”

  “Brady, can’t you see it does matter?”

  “No, darlin’, it doesn’t matter. We’ve already wasted ten years, and I don’t plan on losing you again. They know we’re a package deal.”

  I took in a deep breath. I didn’t know how to respond. More than anything, I wanted Brady, but I just wasn’t sure I could go through this again. And what if his parents could persuade him to leave me, like they did the first time?

  Brady replied to the silence as if he read my mind. “Ellie, there’s nothing they can say or do to change my mind. I’m not eighteen anymore. I know I’ve made mistakes, huge mistakes. And if I have to, I’ll apologize to you until the end of time, but Ellie we belong together, whether or not our parents approve. What matters is that we love each other.”

  I sat up and propped myself against his muscular chest so I could see his face and eyes.

  He looked at me imploringly.

  “What am I going to do with you, Brady Jackson?”

  He ran his fingers through my hair. “You know what I want, Ellie.”

  “I know. Let’s just take it slow. Ok?”

  He took me in his arms again and kissed me until I almost said, “Let’s go the courthouse first thing in the morning.” As our lips parted, he gazed into my eyes. “Ok Ellie, I’ll do whatever it takes, but just know I plan to change your name and residence as soon as possible.”

  “Ok. Then you better saddle up, cowboy.”

  I have a feeling this is going to be a bumpy ride.

  Chapter Thirteen

  We spent the rest of the night making up for lost time as we talked and kissed until the sun crept up in the eastern sky and barely touched the lake’s horizon. I should have been exhausted, but I hadn’t felt this awake in years. Neither one of us wanted to say goodbye, but Brady had meetings to attend at the bank and I really needed to get to the hospital. And I didn’t want to worry Doris when she arrived at the house and saw my car and no me. I think we both enjoyed the feeling of not having strict curfews and rules that we had to abide by.

  As we talked through the night, my worries of us not liking each other went out the window. If anything, I liked him more. He had grown into a kind, generous, hardworking man; just like I had always imagined he would. The only problem besides his parents was that he loved Kaysville, and I wasn’t too sure I could after all that had happened. And I sure as heck didn’t want to live this close to his parents, but as he talked about his home, I could tell it was a labor of love for him. I decided we would just see where things went, and we would cross those bridges when, and if, we had to. Brady, though, was ready to run across the bridge to the other side and then burn it down. There was no doubt I wanted to be with him, but I had some serious reservations, and I would be tiptoeing across any and all bridges until I could come to terms with them.

  Now more than ever, I was determined to get my aunt to talk to me about the past. I needed to know why the Jacksons hated me so much. I knew Brady said he didn’t care where his parents stood when it came to me, but it mattered to me, and it mattered to any future family we may have together.

  Brady put out the fire, and I could tell his injured leg was a little stiff; I’m sure being out in the cold night air didn’t help. I asked him about it, and he said once in a while it bothered him, but I shouldn’t worry about it. He walked me up to his house so I could use his bathroom. I couldn’t help but grin as we walked in. It was a beautiful home with careful detail, but it was such a bachelor pad. The only furniture he had was a leather couch, which sat in front of a huge flat-panel T.V., and he had a card table and fold-up chairs in his breakfast nook.

  I think he could tell why I was grinning. “It could definitely use a woman’s touch,” he said.

  “Um, you could say that. Do you at least have bedroom furniture?”

  “Does a futon count?”

  I shook my head no and laughed.

  He took me in his arms and looked at me lovingly. “How’s this? We’ll go furniture shopping, and I’ll let you furnish the whole house how you like it.” He sexily grinned. “Especially the bedroom.”

  I reached up and touched his cheek. “I thought we were going to take things slow?”

  He reached for my hand and kissed my palm. “I really don’t want to.”

  I smiled. “Brady.”

  “Darlin’.”

  “You realize I own my own home, right? I guess, technically I own two homes now. And I’m not too crazy about living this close to your parents.”

  He looked disappointed, but he bounced back quickly. “Fine, I’ll start looking for a job in Atlanta and we’ll live there.”

  I got up on my tiptoes and pulled his head toward mine and kissed him softly. “Brady, I love you,” I whispered.

  I don’t think I had ever seen him happier than when I said those words. He responded by kissing me harder. “I love you, Ellie, and I don’t care where we live, just as long as we’re together.”

  “We don’t have to decide today.”

  He picked me up and swung me around. “I guess I better get you home.”

  We didn’t say much on the way home, but we didn’t need to. I loved how Brady would just glance my way and smile or hold my hand. It was like ten years had been erased and we had never been apart. When we arrived at my aunt’s house, he walked me up to the door and gave me a long goodbye kiss. When he was done, he ran his finger along the length of my cheek and looked into my eyes. “What’s it going to take before you’ll marry me?”

  After that kiss I thought, Not much, but I knew better than to say that. I thought for a moment. “How about you get my aunt to call you Brady instead of that Jackson boy.” I knew that would buy me some time to come to terms with some of the other issues we faced.

  He pulled me close and chuckled. “Ok, Ellie. Get ready to pick out a wedding dress and book the church.”

  He sounded a little too optimistic. I didn’t think he realized who he was dealing with. My aunt was going to give that boy a run for his money, and I was going to take pleasure in watching it.

  I took a long hot shower and mulled over the last several hours. I had so many emotions running through me, from blissfully happy to scared out of my mind, but the overriding thought was, Brady Jackson loves me and he wants to marry me. I wanted to marry him too, but I wasn’t sure what this town or his family would do about an Eaton-Jackson reunion. I even worried about my aunt. If there was a wedding, it would be all sorts of uncomfortable. I couldn’t imagine his parents ever inviting us over for family gatherings. In essence, it would be as if Brady was disowned. Of course, Benjamin and Kendra w
ould be ok with it, so I was happy about that. But I also worried about the children we would have and how they would be ignored, or treated less by his parents, because I was their mother. I was concerned about where we would call home. I knew Brady meant it when he said he would move to Atlanta, but I could tell it disappointed him. I could see in his eyes that he pictured us in his log cabin. Sure, I would love to be closer to Aunt Lu, and I could technically work wherever I wanted to, but half of this town hated me, and I wasn’t sure marrying Brady Jackson was going to win me any points.

  The hot water ran out before I could resolve my thoughts and feelings. I wish I could be like Brady and only care that we loved each other. Of course I knew that was the most important thing, but I was very gun shy after the last ten years, and I knew how persistent his parents could be. They made it nearly impossible for us to be together when we were younger. I know Brady kept repeating he wasn’t eighteen anymore, but family is family, and sometimes we do stupid things for them, like getting engaged to a girl you don’t even love.

  I called the hospital to check on my aunt as soon as I dried my hair. I was running a little late. I hadn’t planned on spending the night with Brady, but I would give almost anything to wake up in his arms every morning. Maybe not outside in the freezing cold, but I had to admit it felt like heaven this morning as I watched the sunrise, wrapped up against him. My aunt was doing well, so I took my time getting ready. I knew it was going to be a long day, living on no sleep. I hadn’t done that since my college days. Stopping to get a large diet coke on the way to the hospital was a must-do. I would be living off the euphoria of the previous night and caffeine.

  When I got to the hospital, they were getting ready to move my aunt to the fourth floor, into a private, regular room. She was looking better, but annoyed. She wanted to go home. I walked up to her and kissed her cheek.

  “Where have you been this morning, Ella Lu?”

  “We’ll talk when we get to your new room.”

  She looked me over. “You were with that Jackson boy weren’t you?”

  I just smiled. I didn’t think the nurse needed to hear about my escapades. I also smiled because she didn’t call him Brady.

  “That’s what I thought,” she said. At least she half smiled. I think she was still having a hard time coming to terms with it. I knew she was being selfless and trying to make me happy, like she had always done, but her hate for the Jacksons ran deep, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy for her to see me with Brady.

  I held her hand as she was being pushed in a wheelchair to her new digs. That annoyed her too; she wanted to walk. But she did squeeze my hand tight, and I liked that. We got her settled in quickly. She was propped up with several extra pillows, as requested. As soon as the nurse left, she asked me to do her make-up, hair, and paint her nails.

  “Sure. Have one of the doctors caught your fancy? Are you planning on beating me to the altar?” I teased her

  “Why in the world would I do that after all these years? Men are nothing but the worst kind of trouble.”

  I laughed. “True, but sometimes they’re worth all the trouble, right? I mean, you loved George Reed.”

  She looked at me as if she wasn’t sure what to say.

  I stopped shaking the taupe nail polish I had in my hand. “You did love him, right? You were married.”

  “I came to love him,” she said as if she were ashamed.

  “If you didn’t love him, why did you marry him?”

  She didn’t answer, so I started painting her nails.

  After several minutes, she broke the silence. “Ella Lu, I’m not proud of my decision, but he knew I didn’t love him when we got married. He loved me, and he promised me that he would be such a good husband that I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from falling in love with him. He was quite a bit older than me, and he was very charming and, of course, extremely wealthy, and at the time I was desperate to get away from my life, so I agreed.”

  I kept my eyes on her nails. I hoped that would help her to feel more comfortable. “How long did it take you to fall in love with him?”

  “Longer than it should have.”

  “Do you regret it?”

  “Ella Lu, where are all these questions coming from?”

  I closed the lid on the nail polish and set it down. I looked into her deep brown eyes. I needed to see her reaction to this. “Brady wants to marry me.”

  “What did you say?” she asked cautiously.

  “Well, since he wanted to get married at the courthouse this morning, I told him no.” I smiled.

  “No child of mine will marry at the courthouse.”

  “That’s what I told him, and he’s willing to wait until I’m ready, so he can marry me properly at the church.”

  She looked stoic, but sad.

  “Aunt Lu, could you accept Brady? Maybe even love him?”

  “Accepting him and loving him are two very different things, sugar.”

  “Ok, well let’s just start with the accepting part.”

  “Does he make you happy, Ella Lu?”

  I couldn’t help it, the tears came. My aunt gave me her look, but didn’t say anything.

  “Yes. Yes he does, but I can’t stand the thought of disappointing you or upsetting you again.”

  She carefully touched my cheek so as to not ruin her freshly painted nails. “Oh, sugar, I’ve never been disappointed in you.”

  “Yes you have. I remember the look in your eyes that night in the pastor’s office when you found out I had been seeing Brady.”

  “Ella Lu, I wasn’t disappointed, I was worried. I could see myself in you that night. I could see the way you looked at that Jackson boy; it was the same way I had looked at his daddy when I was that age. And that boy looked and acted just like his daddy had.”

  “Aunt Lu, what happened between the two of you?”

  “Ella Lu, it’s neither here nor there.”

  “Please, Aunt Lu, I need to know. I need to know why the Jacksons hate me so much.”

  “Ella Lu, I’m tired.”

  I knew she wasn’t that tired, but I had no right to push her, especially in her condition. I stood up, and kissed her forehead. “Ok, I’ll curl your hair while you rest.”

  She closed her eyes, and I plugged in the curlers she had Doris bring along with her cosmetics. Aunt Lu still kept her hair long. It had been graying for years, but she faithfully dyed it. As I brushed her hair, I could see the start of her roots, but I would not be mentioning those, because I knew she would’ve called in her stylist to come to the hospital. I’m pretty sure that would be frowned upon, but she wouldn’t care.

  I began sectioning off her hair and rolling and pinning it. She was silent, but I knew she wasn’t sleeping. I asked her if she felt like sitting up some, so I could roll the back of her hair.

  She sat up and grabbed my arm. “Ella Lu …”

  “Are you ok?” I asked. The way she grabbed my arm worried me.

  “I’ve known Isaac Jackson my whole life. I was literally the girl next door. Both of our families lived on Elm Street back then.”

  I continued to do her hair as I listened. I had been waiting to hear this story for far too long.

  “Isaac was two years older than me and friends with my older brother and your uncle, Zack, who died in Vietnam. I was the kid sister who annoyed them, that was until my freshman year. I’m not sure what changed. It was the year I had won my first pageant. I also won the high school talent show. I sang, “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.”

  She smiled as she remembered. It made me smile too.

  “The night of the talent show, I saw Isaac sitting in the front row, and I noticed as I was on stage, he looked at me differently than he ever had before. I thought maybe he thought I was silly in my blue taffeta dress, but afterward he came up to me and privately whispered in my ear that I looked beautiful.”

  Oh, that reminded me so much of Brady. I could picture it perfectly. It made me happy and terribly sad all
at once. Especially if she loved Mr. Jackson the way I loved Brady.

  She continued on. “He asked me to junior prom that year, but my daddy said I was too young to date, so Isaac didn’t go. Instead, we sat on my back porch sipping sweet tea and playing checkers.”

  Oh my goodness, that was adorable.

  “I had my first kiss that night.”

  I could see the pain in her face as she spoke. She was still keeping her eyes closed.

  “My daddy let me go the next year. It was Isaac’s senior prom. He was the prom king, and we danced all night. He left that fall for the University of Alabama. He loved that danged school. He came home on the weekends and to see me compete in all my pageants. The day I graduated from high school, Isaac asked me to marry him. I said no.”

  “Why?”

  She opened her eyes. “I was young and I wanted to see where the pageant circuit would take me,” she said with regret. “I knew I had a good shot at Miss Alabama the next year. Isaac said he would wait, so I went off to Auburn. We wrote and met on the weekends when we could. I won the Miss Alabama pageant the following summer. Isaac asked me to marry him again. This time I agreed, but I was obligated to run in the Miss America pageant. Isaac said he would wait again. I didn’t think we would have to wait long. I didn’t think I had any chance of winning. In fact, I hoped I would lose. I wanted nothing more than to become Mrs. Isaac Jackson. We had our whole life planned.”

  Her voice began to shake as I unrolled her hair and began to comb out and style her curls. I started to tear up too. I remembered doing the same with Brady, and I remembered the crushing weight I felt when it didn’t happen.

  “I was even going to transfer to that school for him.”

  “Really?”

  “That never leaves this room, Ella Lu.”

  I smiled. “My lips are sealed.”

  I would have done the same for Brady.

  “Everything was set for me to start school there the next semester, but to my surprise I became Miss America. Who would have thought a girl from Kaysville, Alabama would become Miss America? Isaac was so proud of me, even though he knew we would have to wait another year to be married. We adjusted our plans. Isaac would finish his senior year, and I would travel the country in my new role.”