by Rachel Hanna
"Well, happy Thanksgiving. Come on in. Most of the family is already here, so let me introduce you." Adele led her and her son into the kitchen where everyone was standing around talking and laughing. Rebecca had never felt that kind of camaraderie in a family. Being an only child and losing her parents young, she had never been to big family functions. Their family was incredibly small, even when her parents were alive.
As she walked into the kitchen, her concerns were relieved when everyone welcomed her with open arms. There was no silence or strange looks being shot her way like she wasn't supposed to be there. Instead, everyone came up and either shook her hand or gave her a friendly hug. There was definitely something to be said for living in a small town. Southern hospitality at its best, she thought.
"Welcome," one of the women said. "I'm Tessa Reeves. I'm the newest member of the Parker family, I guess you could say. I'm dating Aaron, the youngest brother over there with the blonde hair." Aaron smiled at her from across the room and Tessa blew him a kiss which made it very obvious that they were newly in love.
"Oh give it a break. Gag," one of the men said. "I'm Brad. I'm one of the unattached brothers that my mother is trying to marry off." Rebecca had to laugh at that, and she immediately noticed how good-looking he was. In fact, all of the Parker men in the room were very good-looking, and Adele was a beautiful woman.
"He's just jealous that he doesn't have a woman right now," Kyle said pushing his way through the small crowd. "Listen, people, I invited Rebecca and her son so let's not show her how crazy our family really is." Everyone laughed and nodded their heads, and Rebecca felt immediately at home. "This is Jenna, my girlfriend, and her daughter Kaitlyn."
"Hi, Jenna. Hello, Kaitlyn. Very nice to meet you. I'm Rebecca and this is Leo," she said. Leo stood there with his arms crossed only nodding his head when people said hello, completely disinterested. She wanted to smack him, but she figured that probably wouldn't be the best way to introduce herself to the Parker family.
"Where's Jackson?" Kyle said looking around.
"I don't know. I know he was upstairs making a phone call and taking a shower earlier, but I haven't seen him in a couple of hours," Adele said.
"Relax, I'm coming. The life of the party is…" Jackson said as he made his way down the stairs and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw red curls from across the room. Rebecca turned around and their eyes locked, but not in a good way.
Chapter 5
Jackson felt like the breath of been completely sucked out of his lungs when he saw her. He'd had a hard time not thinking about her since yesterday, but he should have been livid. After all, she was rude to him and completely uninterested in his business.
"Rebecca, this is my brother Jackson. He lives in Atlanta, but he has graced us with his presence for the Thanksgiving holiday," Kyle said putting his arm around his brother. Jackson just stood frozen in place staring at Rebecca. She stared back, but he could tell that she was gritting her teeth as he could see her jaw clinching from across the room. Her son sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, much like Jackson did when he was stressed out.
"Rebecca. Nice to meet you," Jackson said nodding his head. Normally, he would reach out and shake someone's hand when he met them, but he didn't think his touch would be welcome to her right now. Her son, Leo, stood there with his arms crossed staring at Jackson. He could see the anger under the surface, but he wasn't altogether sure that the anger was completely related to him. The kid just seemed angry all the time.
"Nice to meet you," she said softly before turning around and looking back toward the kitchen. "Boy, something sure smells good. Adele, do I smell peach cobbler?" she said desperately trying to change the subject and get out of the foyer.
"Absolutely. It's an old family recipe. Come on, I'll show it to you." Adele took her in the kitchen and Leo just continued staring at Jackson while everyone else started to mingle again. It was like there was a silent message going back and forth between the two, and Jackson wasn't really sure what to do about it.
"Have a seat," Jackson said to Leo pointing at one of the kitchen chairs in the breakfast area.
"I don't want to sit down," Leo said crossing his arms.
"Suit yourself, but with such a big family, chairs are hard to come by around here." Jackson shrugged his shoulders and walked past Leo into the kitchen.
Jackson watched Leo out of the corner of his eye, and the boy eventually walked over and sat down. Apparently, his mother must've told him to leave the telephone alone because he wasn't pulling it out of his pocket. He looked bored, as many teenage boys would have in that situation, but more than that he looked almost sad. Jackson wondered about it, but didn't have a lot of time to think before his mother was dragging him through the kitchen to pick up a heavy box off of one of her top shelves in the laundry room.
He should've known better when his mother asked for his help because she was up to no good.
"So what do you think?" she asked rubbing her hands together and grinning. Obviously, there was no box in the laundry room.
"What do I think about what?" Jackson asked even though he knew exactly what his mother was referring to.
"About Rebecca. Isn’t she beautiful?"
"She's very nice looking, mother. But I'm not interested." Jackson turned to walk out the door, but Adele grabbed his arm.
"Why aren't you interested?" she demanded to know. Looking down at her the blue eyes, he felt sorry for her. He knew that she just wanted him to be happy, and that's what he wanted too. He just had absolutely no idea how to get there.
"Well, for one thing, I live in Atlanta and she lives here. For another thing, she has a son with anger problems and I don't need that in my life right now. For a third thing, I met her at the coffee shop the other day and we didn't exactly hit it off."
"Oh, Jackson, tell me you didn't make her feel unwelcome here." Adele shook her head and closed her eyes. Why did he feel like he was a three-year-old getting in trouble for putting his hand in the cookie jar?
"I didn't do anything. It's a long story, but suffice it to say she is not a fan of mine. She had no idea I was a Parker, and I had no idea she would show up here for Thanksgiving."
"Mom, the turkey is ready. Everybody is starving," Brad said popping his head in the laundry room door. "Did I interrupt something?" he asked with a grin. Brad was notorious for being the nosy one in the family. Most people would probably think the only girl, Addison, was the nosy one but not so in the Parker clan. Brad was always trying to find out the scoop, and they often joked that he should've been a reporter.
"No, honey, you didn't interrupt anything. Let's go have some lunch. After all, we do have guests," Adele said cutting her eyes up at her son. She walked out into the kitchen and went back to her normal self, preparing food and cutting up with the family. Jackson stayed in the laundry room for a moment so he could look at Rebecca from across the room without her thinking that he was some kind of stalker.
His mother was right about one thing. She really was a beautiful woman. He'd never seen hair that color of red before, and it was thick and curly. She had a unique look, and it was hard to take his eyes off of her. Her skin was like porcelain, and her blue eyes were crystal clear. But just like her son, she had a hint of sadness in her eyes. It was like something bad had happened to the both of them, and they were having a hard time getting their heads above water. He vowed that he would try to be kinder to her today and let their meeting yesterday be a thing of the past. He just hoped that she could do the same.
***
Rebecca couldn't believe it. Of all the crappy luck in the world, she had to see her absolute worst customer standing there at the Thanksgiving table. And the fact that she kept catching him staring at her only made her more uncomfortable.
It was hard enough bringing her unruly teenage son to a strange house on Thanksgiving without the glare of the world's worst customer. Okay, so maybe she was overreacting a bit, but the last person she wanted to
see was this man. Jackson Parker. Who knew he would be one of the Parker family? They all seemed to be so nice, but maybe he was their exception. Maybe he was the black sheep of the family.
The only problem was that he seemed very nice at the present moment. Not only that, but she was finding herself noticing just how handsome he was. The tallest of the group, he had those brooding, dark good looks that women search the world over for. But not her. She didn't have any interest in him, she told herself.
As they sat around the table, she found herself feeling more comfortable. She couldn't tell what Leo was thinking as he was being his quiet, teenage self. At least he wasn't mouthing off or saying anything offensive. She'd wanted to wash his mouth out with soap a few times in the last couple of months.
The food was great, and the conversation entertaining. The Parker family was loud, and they reminded her of those big Italian families from up north that she was so accustomed to. Even though she wasn't Italian, she sure enjoyed being around her friends' families growing up. There was always something going on, and lots of food and entertainment.
Her family was from an Irish background, but because the family was so small she never got to experience big family functions like this one. It was nice. She wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister to share her life with, especially as lonely as she felt in the world sometimes. Being a single mother and a widow wasn't easy, and she wondered if the stress of it would ever be lifted off of her shoulders.
"So, Rebecca, where are you from originally?" Brad asked. He seemed to be a very nice guy, and very inquisitive. In fact, she had noticed that he seemed to ask more questions than anyone else at the table during the entire meal.
"I'm originally from a suburb of New York City. That's where we lived before we came here." She felt like she was giving very short answers, but she didn't really want to talk about her past today. It was hard enough every other day of the year.
"So what made you move all the way to January Cove? I mean, this is a far cry from the big city," Brad asked. Jackson looked at her intently as if he was waiting for the answer to her question, and she didn't really know how to answer it. How had she missed preparing for all of this? Surely people would want to know the answer to that, but she'd never given thought to an appropriate, politically correct answer.
"Well, we just needed a change of pace…"
"Oh, mother, why do you continue to lie to people?" Leo muttered under his breath. The whole table went silent, and Rebecca could feel her heart pounding in her chest. What on earth was her son trying to do to her?
"Leo…" she said looking at him with that motherly glare that usually shuts kids up. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work too well on a fourteen-year-old boy whose hormones were raging.
"For some reason, my mother doesn't like to talk about my father's death," Leo said first looking at her and then looking around the table.
"Leo, this is not an appropriate conversation to have at someone else's Thanksgiving table. Stop it. Now." Rebecca tried to be as harsh as possible to get him to stop. It wasn't working.
"I don't get it, Mom. When people ask why we moved here, why can't you just say that is because you couldn't stand to live around all the memories anymore? The memories of how my father died? Why can't you just admit that?" He was staring at her with an almost desperate look on his face that she'd never seen before. It made her want to cry right there in front of everyone.
"Please, Leo, let's just go outside and…" she pleaded as she stood up and pulled on his arm. Everyone else at the table sat there in stunned silence watching the whole thing, and she was sure that they probably never felt more uncomfortable in their lives.
"No! You can never face the truth. Do you realize how difficult you can be sometimes?" he said standing up and slamming his chair into the table before walking out the front door. Rebecca stood there for a moment, tears welling in her eyes, as she scanned the faces of the Parker family.
"I'm… I'm so sorry. This was a mistake. I never should've brought him here. I have to go. I'm sorry…" she said grabbing her purse and her coat before running out the front door after Leo. She didn't have time to be embarrassed right now; although she was sure those feelings would flood her later.
Chapter 6
Jackson was shocked at what had just happened in front of him. The independent, strong façade of this Rebecca Evans woman was shattered before his very eyes. But he was more shocked at his own feelings. He wanted to protect her, to help her. But he didn't even know her. He wanted to reach out and embrace her and try to calm her down.
And he also wanted to help her son. The punk. The teenager he wanted to slap just yesterday.
He wasn't sure that he had ever seen that level of pain in someone's eyes before today. But the pain wasn't just in Rebecca's eyes. It was in her son's. It was a deep-seated pain that the kid seemed unable to describe with words.
He only knew that he wanted to help both of them, so he grabbed his coat and told everyone he'd be right back. He ran straight out the front door, hoping to catch up with Rebecca before she caught up with Leo. He wanted to find out what had happened to her husband, and what had upset Leo so greatly.
He could see her red curls bouncing in the cool November air as she ran toward the beach.
"Rebecca!" he called out to her. At first she didn't answer, but he didn't relent and she finally stopped for a moment to catch her breath and turned around. She looked desperate.
"I have to find him. I think he ran that way, toward the beach," she said trying to get her breath to cooperate.
Jackson finally caught up with her and put his hands on her shoulders. She seemed to jump a bit, but then she eased up. "He'll be okay. He's a teenager, and they can get a little hormonal at times," he said with a slight smile on his face. Her eyes started to fill with tears again, and she nodded biting her lip.
"He's been through a lot," she said as they started walking again. "I guess a lot of this is my fault. Apparently I haven't handled things the right way."
"Parenting isn't easy, especially when you don't have a partner to help you with it. I'm sure you've done the best you could."
She looked at him and had a quirk of a smile. "You sure aren't the man I met yesterday."
"Yeah, I was having a rough day. Business deal fell apart, and I guess I had a little more of an attitude than normal. I'd like to apologize for that."
"It's okay. I wasn't exactly in my best frame of mind yesterday either. We'll call it even," she said reaching out her hand to shake his as they walked.
"So tell me something. What is it that you're hiding, Rebecca Evans?" Jackson said. Her eyes got large as she heard his question.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if you're going to help your son, it sounds like his biggest request is that you be honest. Why don't you start with me? What happened to your husband, Rebecca? What exactly are you running away from?"
"You realize that it's really none of your business, right?" she said, a little bit snippy.
"I do. But it sounds like your son is asking you to trust people again. Maybe I can be someone that you can trust around here."
"But I thought you lived in Atlanta. You don't live around here," she said with a smile.
"Don't change the subject, Rebecca."
"Fine. I'll tell you my story as soon as I find my son. Right now I can't think about anything else."
"Well it's a good thing he standing right over there then." Jackson pointed across the beach where Leo was standing, throwing seashells into the surf. He turned around and cut his eyes at Rebecca and Jackson before continuing this task. "Why don't we sit down right here for a little while? We know he's safe, but it looks like he might want some time alone."
Rebecca slid down into the sand next to Jackson. Nervously, she started making mounds with her hands, so he nudged her with his shoulder.
"Well?" Jackson said.
"You're a very persistent man, aren't you?" she asked wit
h a sad smile.
"I've been told that before, but it usually works well for me. I just want to help, Rebecca. I'm honestly not just being nosy. That's my brother Brad," he said with a laugh.
She chuckled, and then sighed before looking out into the ocean as if it was going to provide her with the answer she needed.
"Okay, here goes. Our lives changed forever on September 11, 2001." She looked at Jackson, and his eyes widened as he put his hand over his mouth.
"On my God," he said.
"See? That's why I had to leave New York. Everything was a reminder. But not only that; people around me kept saying they were sorry. It's been twelve years, and people are still telling me they're sorry. I know they mean well, but I don't need an extra reminder of the tragedy every single day of my life."
