Finding Summer

by Rice, Rachel E.

  Summer gazed around the room and walked to the cabinet. “We might freeze, but we won’t starve to death.” The cabinet was stocked with an array of canned goods. “I will be just fine. Don’t worry about me. I have to complete a report you requested after I look for the bedroom,” Summer said amused.

  Carter’s eyes fell to the floor.

  “What?” Jackson asked, waiting for more bad news.

  “There are no bedrooms. It’s just this one large room,” Carter said biting his lip. “That’s the restroom,” he said, glancing in Summer’s direction.

  “Great. Now what am I going to tell Victoria?” he asked angrily, throwing his phone on the table. “I have to sleep in the same room with my assistant, who happens to be a gorgeous woman.” Jackson spoke without thinking.

  Summer’s glance locked on his. He realized that he shouldn’t have blurted out his feeling in front of Carter. He thought Summer was the hottest woman he had laid eyes on, and he was surprised at his words because he wasn’t allowing himself the luxury of frivolous thoughts.

  “Mr. Van Hughes…”

  “Please, call me Jackson. My father is Mr. Van Hughes and since we’re going to be stuck in here together for two weeks, we may as well get use addressing each other by our first names.” He gazed at Carter. “I hope we at least have a separate toilet and shower.”

  Carter walked to the makeshift door of plywood with a handle and pointed proudly. “I had my men get on it and they finished it in a matter of minutes when I said the big boss was coming. I’m sorry if you’re inconvenient Mrs. Winter,” Carter said surveying Summer’s body. His eyes drawn to Summer’s face and mouth.

  “It’s Ms. Winter, Carter,” Jackson said watching Carter’s reaction to Summer.

  “Oh. I hope this won’t be your last visit,” Carter said, meeting Summer’s glance. Jackson stared at Carter. Carter had known Jackson a long time and didn’t expect such an unexpected look of displeasure on his face.

  “Ms. Winter is a devoted employee and she’s not here looking for a husband. She’s with me on business and I’m sure that if she was looking for someone, it wouldn’t be with you.” He stood, looking at Carter. Carter got the message. Maybe Jackson hadn’t changed. Perhaps he was that same football jock from high school that had the pick of the litter of the most desirable girls, Carter thought.

  All Jackson’s friends, including Carter, thought he had hit a touchdown when he became engaged to Victoria. She came from a wealthy family and she was the prettiest blonde in their graduation class who had never slept with Jackson.

  Carter knew that when Jackson became engaged to Victoria, Jackson didn’t know about her notorious reputation for giving blowjobs to his team mates; however, no one would risk telling him about her, especially if they wanted to keep their position at Van Hughes Oil and Gas.

  Jackson gave his entire football circle of friends jobs at his company. After all, they had had a hand in making him the most sought after quarterback in the country and this had helped further his playboy reputation.

  “We have work to do, Carter. I will see you in the field in an hour.”

  Carter left the house. Summer looked at Jackson in silence.

  “If we’re going to work together, then you’ll have to stop planning my life,” Summer said. “I can tell Carter if I’m not interested. I don’t need you to do that.” She threw her purse on the cot. “I’m going to take a shower. Please leave the papers on the table that you want me to work on.”

  Facing the plywood door, Jackson walked to the stove and threw another piece of wood in it, wondering why he would react that way toward Carter. He was a changed man. He was no longer a boy. He remembered something his grandfather had once said: “When I was a boy, I behaved as a boy, but when I became a man, I put away boyish things.”

  Man or boy, Jackson didn’t want to share Summer with anyone.

  He realized that was why he was throwing himself into his work so seriously, toiling day and night. It was something about the office, no, it wasn’t the office—it was Summer, who made his day worth living. Now, with her standing right in front of him, he knew that he didn’t want to lose her.

  He added more wood to the stove, trying to make it warm and comfortable for Summer, then he left while she was in the makeshift restroom. When she came out from the small closet of a bathroom, she expected to see Jackson.

  But he didn’t return until late. He staggered in, holding on to Carter for help getting him through the doorway. Summer sat up on the cot, grabbing for her robe.

  “Put him down over there. I’ll take care of him, Carter,” she said.

  Carter glanced at her. “You know this is not part of your job.”

  “Yes, I know, but I have done this before.” Summer looked over at Carter. Carter placed Jackson on the other cot in the corner of the shack. “What would make him drink like this?” Summer queried.

  “I’ve known Jackson since we were football heroes in college. He drank hard and played hard. He always talked about the girl that got away. He never got over her, and it was around the time his mother died.”

  Carter sat at the table after covering Jackson up with a heavy blanket. “I have coffee. Do you want some?” Summer asked, hoping Carter would continue talking.

  “Yeah, I’ll take a cup. I need something to sober me up.” Summer poured him a cup and he sipped it. “When Jack returned from Texas, he was a changed man. He stopped behaving like a spoiled child and he stopped drinking. Something is making him drink more now than ever, though. Maybe it’s his engagement to Victoria. He never wanted to marry her. He wanted to marry a girl he met in high school. That’s all he talked about. How he was going to find her one day and ask her to marry him even if she was married, because he knew that they loved each other and that nothing would keep them apart.” Carter glanced across the table, meeting Summer’s eyes. He continued.

  “He never found her. He tried, but with his football career and college and pressure from his father and Victoria, well, that left little time for anything else. When he came home, it was as if all the life had drained out of him. He was like that television episode, The Walking Dead, just moving aimlessly but not enjoying anything.”

  “Did he say anything about the girl?”

  “He couldn’t remember anything and it frustrated him. He could always drink and that never bothered him, but it’s affecting him now,” Carter said, looking into Summer’s face and enjoying the last drop of coffee. He stood. “I’m leaving.” He stretched his arms over his head. “We have to be out in the field tomorrow morning. Have him ready and sober, please.”

  “I’ll try,” Summer assured Carter.

  After closing the door, she turned and looked at Jackson sleeping. She walked over and laid another blanket over him. When she pulled his blanket to his chest, he caught her hand and said, “Don’t leave me.”

  These were the same words he whispered before in his sleep. When he was sleep, he appeared to remember some things, but when he was awake, he couldn’t remember anything.

  Summer climbed into her cot near his bed, and slept, knowing that her Adam was beside her.

  The clock rang loud and when Jackson opened his eyes, Summer had coffee with poached eggs and corn beef hash waiting for him. “This is all I could find for breakfast,” Summer said, handing him a cup of coffee.

  “I didn’t bring you down here to cook, but you don’t know how much I appreciate the coffee and breakfast,” he said, sitting up and stretching. “Tonight I’m taking you out for a wonderful dinner.” I hear they have a diner that’s all the rage. It’s booked up until May. We have the best table in the house. The one directly under the Moose’s head on the wall, he said, shifting his glance to Summer.

  Summer raised an eyebrow. “Well, Jackson, how can a girl turn down an invitation like that? How many girls can say they dined under a moose? I hope it’s not on the menu.” Jackson broke into a hardy laugh.

  Standing up, he suddenly looked at himsel
f and asked, “Why am I still in my clothes from yesterday?”

  “Because you came home…I mean—you came back drunk and Carter laid you just as you are in your cot. I know I’m your personal assistant, but you said nothing about undressing you and putting you to bed.”

  “Only if you come to bed with me,” he said. Summer turned her back to Jackson.

  Then, turning around, she said, “Then you lied when you said that you had only one interest.”

  “I’m sorry, Summer. I didn’t mean to insult you.” He walked and placed his arm around her and she kept her back to him. He turned her around and she had tears welling in her eyes.

  “I didn’t mean what I said. I would never do anything to compromise you or my business relationship with you.”

  On the contrary, Summer was crying because she wanted it to be true. She wanted him so much that it made her body weak and she knew that regardless of a fiancée, if she didn’t get out of that environment with him, she would find herself in his bed with a man who was about to be married. She wanted her Adam but not this way.

  “When are we leaving, Jackson?”

  “We’ve just arrived here.” Jackson’s gaze fell on Summer. He saw in her eyes how uncomfortable she had become. He didn’t want her to leave his company. “But I can get everything completed in two days. Will you have lunch with me today and dinner tonight? Please.” He folded his hands together.

  “If I want to eat something besides canned meat, I guess we have a date.”

  “Will you forgive me? I will not let this happen again.”

  Summer wanted it to happen again and again and again.

  ***

  After leaving the diner, a car brought them back to their house. When they stepped inside, Jackson said, “It’s cold in here. I’ll light a fire.” Shaking, they glanced around and realized that they had used all of the wood. “It’s so cold and it’s too late to get someone to bring some over,” Jackson said, looking around trying to figure out how they could stay warm. He grabbed sleeping bags that were stowed under his cot and looked at the thermometer. “It’s below freezing in here.”

  “It’s so cold,” Summer said, shivering and trying to still her chattering teeth.

  “I’ll have to sleep with you. If you have a problem with that, then tell me now, and I won’t do it,” Jackson said.

  “I’m too cold to care about anything,” Summer admitted getting into the bag. Jackson brought the remaining blankets and laid them on Summer and then he crawled into the sleeping bag beside her.”

  “Are you feeling better?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m still so cold,” Summer said.

  Jackson took Summer and put his arms under her and brought her to him. She glanced at him. He held her in his arms and she closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of his body and the feelings she longed for. She felt sexual heat ease through her body. He felt sexual desire consume him.

  They were embracing each other, feeling desires they couldn’t discuss. She tucked her face under his arms. He held her tight.

  They woke the next morning with Summer lying in his arms with her face buried in his chest. Jackson glanced at her and she was still asleep. He remembered the feeling he had when he woke with the girl of his dreams sleeping in his bed. It was that same feeling he had that made him declare that he could never be separated from her again. It was then that he knew he had found the perfect girl for him.

  When Summer woke, her body lurched in surprise. “We shouldn’t be together like this,” she said, embarrassed.

  “Just a few more moments. I want to remember you lying in my arms,” Jackson admitted.

  “A man that’s engaged and marrying in a few weeks should not be talking like this.”

  “I have embarrassed you, and overstepped my bounds, and I apologize once more. But I won’t apologize for my feelings.”

  Summer wiggled out of the blanket and stood. She reached for a quilt and sat on a cot. “We are both to blame for this.”

  “No one is to blame because nothing happened,” he said, reaching for his smartphone. “We need some wood so we won’t repeat what happened last night.”

  They looked at each other with disappointed glances. “Thank God for electricity,” Summer said shaking and holding a blanket covering her head and body. Summer made coffee for the two of them and afterwards, retreated into the shower. The smell of the coffee was dominated by strawberries. Jackson searched his senses but he couldn’t piece together why he adored that smell.

  One of the workmen brought over wood and Jackson made a fire warming the room.

  She wrapped a towel about her head and exited the makeshift shower wearing a heavy bathrobe. Her face was flawless without makeup. It had a youthful glow, like a teenager. She turned to see Jackson staring in her direction.

  “It’s your turn now. Finally I’m warm.”

  “What? Oh me…yes?” Jackson said, absentminded. Summer pointed to the shower. She turned her head and went to the section she had cornered off to set boundaries between the two for privacy. She reached for two blankets and laid them across a string separating their cots.

  After Summer dressed, she waited for Jackson. He walked to his cot with his dark blond hair wet and in disarray. He set her heart palpitating. Oh, how handsome he appeared at that moment with a large towel around his waist and the top of his body shirtless. She quickly reached for a flannel shirt and helped him into it.

  Standing in front of him, buttoning his sleeves, he gazed down on her and laughed. “What are you doing?”

  “Now it’s time for me to say I’m sorry. I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking,” said Summer, moving away from him.

  “I wouldn’t dare,” he said with a raised eyebrow and a smile.

  “I’m use to doing this. I took care of a blind man once.”

  “Oh,” Jackson murmured. “I was hoping you were going beyond your personal assistant duties.”

  She moved away turning her head and the gap that had existed before remained intact.

  There was a knock on the door and two men brought more wood for the stove. Shortly afterward, a car arrived and took them to the oil site.

  Chapter Fifteen

  They returned to San Francisco, and Jackson went to his home in the hills. He called Angela and asked her to take it off the market. He remained there and went to work from there each day. He hadn’t spoken to his father or Victoria in weeks. When Victoria tried to reach him at his office, he informed Summer to tell her that he wasn’t in. He left the same instructions for his father.

  There was something about his trip that changed him. It was something about his home that bothered him, and it was something about Summer, which made him feel he shouldn’t marry until he could reconcile the gap in his memory.

  It was Friday and Jackson had a tiring week. He was looking forward to getting into bed and not showing his head until Monday morning. His father had finally gotten in touch and convinced him that he should consider running for office of some kind and eventually run for governor of California. The older man was sure that if Jackson were governor, he could make a difference in their state. But Jackson didn’t want to do anything that he wasn’t passionate about, and he didn’t want to marry someone he didn’t love.

  When Summer sat at her desk, the door opened to her office and in marched Victoria, looking upset, her eyes hard with anger. “How are you, Victoria?” Summer said warmly.

  “You know damn well how I’m doing.” Victoria bent down to look into Summer’s eyes.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you are talking about,” Summer said, surprised.

  “Where’s Jackson?”

  “He’s…” Before Summer could complete her sentence and before she could alert Jackson, Victoria had marched into his office and slammed the door.

  ***

  “Victoria. I’m glad to see you. I wanted to tell you…” Victoria glared down on Jackson with her arms crossed.

>   “Don’t get up. This won’t take long. I came here to tell you that I know what you did that week you took off with your personal assistant.”

  “Are you talking about Ms. Winter?”

  “You know damn well I’m talking about Summer,” Victoria said with nostrils flaring.

  “If you’re wondering whether something happened, it did not. She is too decent. And she would never have anything to do with me because I’m engaged to you.”

  “Well, you’re no longer engaged. You can’t make a fool out of me. I will not stand for it. Besides, do you think I sat around waiting for you? I’m keeping the ring and I might sue you and name Summer in the suit.”

  “Are you finished?” He stood glaring at Victoria, then smiled. “I’m glad you made this easy. I knew about you and Carter all along, and the only one who could have said anything to you would be him. I don’t blame him. You mean nothing to me and she means everything. If you mentioned Summer’s name, you won’t have to sue me, I will sue you and your father for defamation of character, and you know who will win that case. He took her arm. “Please leave me.” He showed Victoria to the door.

  Summer glanced up from the computer to see Victoria’s cold face and wrinkled brow, and Jackson with a smile escaping his gorgeous face. He looked more handsome than at any time. It was as if a weight had been lifted from him and he could breathe again.

  “Summer, please come to my office. It’s not about business. Well, it is, sort of.” And he turned with the door open and Summer sauntered in behind him. He sat at his chrome and glass desk. “Please sit.”

  “I don’t know how to say this but I have something I need to tell you,” Jackson said.

  Summer sat and looked at Jackson’s incredible blue eyes. “I’m not marrying Victoria.”

  “I knew something was wrong when she came in here. I hope she doesn’t blame me for …”

  “You are not to blame yourself for anything. If you want to blame someone, blame me. I knew that we were not good together, but at my father’s insistence, I made the choice. I should have told him no. I was trying to make him happy because I didn’t know how many years he has left.”