Southern Fried Blues (The Officers' Ex-Wives Club)

by Jamie Farrell

Real good, indeed. He was a perfect new first.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “My pleasure, Anna Grace.”

  “Let’s not wait so long to do it again.”

  His answering chuckle sent a happy after-shiver through her. “Yes, ma’am.”

  And because he was the obliging kind of gentleman, they didn’t.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Her baby steps had become leaps that burst beyond the tethers of her old life.

  —The Temptress of Pecan Lane, by Mae Daniels

  ANNA AWOKE SUNDAY morning to the soft pitter of rain. Someone was snoring, but when she rolled over to give Jackson a shove, he was watching her.

  Not wide awake, but awake enough that the continued snoring couldn’t be his. “Your dog sleeps loud.”

  Beneath the sheet, he ran a hand over her bare hip. “She’s not the only one.”

  She did give him a playful shove then.

  “Rested yet?” he said. “I’m real good in the shower.”

  His gray sheet was draped across his stomach. She reached out and traced the 33 in the middle of the Auburn tiger paw on his chest. “Showers are cold.”

  He screwed his eyes up all crinkly and his lips did that thing like he was holding back a laugh. “Anna Grace, you been showering with the wrong people.” He rolled up and over her with a speed she still found uncharacteristic of him, but the grin was all Jackson. He dipped his head and pressed a kiss to the hollow of her neck. “You go on and head to the bathroom, and I’ll show you how two people are meant to shower together.”

  That sounded promising.

  Radish snorted. Her tags jingled. Jackson’s hand slid up to caress Anna’s breast, but when the dog let out a low growl, he stopped and cocked his ear toward the door.

  Something that sounded suspiciously like a lock clicked somewhere beyond the bedroom.

  Jackson was out of bed, reaching for one of the random pairs of pants scattered about the room, when the hollering started.

  “Jackson Beauregard Davis, you’ve got some explaining to do!”

  Whoever she was, she was spitting mad.

  And Anna couldn’t help but silently echo the mystery woman’s sentiment. Mad and all.

  Jackson and Radish disappeared outside the bedroom door. “Pipe down,” she heard him say. “The neighbors might still be sleeping.”

  “You wanna tell me why in tarnation Craig was out there this morning instead of you?” The woman made an outraged squeak. “You stood me up for a girl, didn’t you?”

  Anna’s pulse ricocheted through her veins like an unstable electron. Jackson was a decent guy, wasn’t he? There had to be a reasonable explanation for a woman having a key to his house. A woman who thought she’d been stood up. For what? Church?

  Lordy, what had she gotten herself into?

  Anna scrambled out of the bed. She pulled the sheet off and wrapped it around herself. Twice.

  Whoever the woman was, Anna wasn’t taking a chance of meeting her naked.

  Though a meeting would take place and explanations would be given.

  Jackson talked softer now, too quiet or too far away for Anna to hear more than the measured cadence of his voice. Her overnight bag was still upstairs and her dress was somewhere close to there, so she stomped over to his dresser. She located a T-shirt in the first drawer, then grabbed a pair of pants off the floor.

  Clean or dirty, she didn’t care.

  She cared only that she was in something more than her birthday suit.

  She was trying to hop into the jeans without dropping the sheet when the door clicked shut behind her. Jackson set her overnight bag on the bed. He eyed her, and a grin split his cheeks. “Don’t reckon you need any help getting untangled from that sheet.”

  Her face twisted disbelief. There was another woman in his house. “Maybe five minutes ago.”

  He ambled up to her, still eyeing the sheet. “You got yourself wrapped up good in there.”

  She arched an eyebrow. A very angry eyebrow.

  “You thinking about homework, or you waiting for me to explain the crazy girl making us breakfast in my kitchen?”

  He reached for the sheet. She swatted at his hand. “You’ll have better luck with her than you will with me right now.”

  That wiped his grin off. “Darlin’, not even in Arkansas. Tell you what. You take your time in the shower. Louisa’s gonna be a while out there.”

  Her eyes narrowed. He was playing with her again.

  Too bad for him she wasn’t feeling like being played with. “I’m locking the door.”

  “Go on and do what you need to.” He plucked the Bama shirt out of her hands, murmured, “Thank you, ma’am,” slid it over his head, and sauntered back out of the bedroom.

  Leaving her mighty glad she was in this only for the sex.

  LOUISA PROBABLY DIDN’T know it, but when she glared at Jackson like that, eyes flashing, nose flaring, she looked like Daddy used to whenever Auburn was losing a football game. “So it was a girl,” she said.

  “It was a wedding.”

  She morphed into pure Momma mode quick, eyes narrowing to little pinpricks while she tried to find something to do with her hands. She settled on flinging a spatula at him. “You got married?”

  Radish growled. Jackson flipped the spatula in his hand and headed to the refrigerator. He was glad Anna Grace looked angrier than a herd of rabid termites, because she was gonna need that mad to handle Louisa. Little sister had some territorial issues. “Mamie said it was a right pretty service.”

  Didn’t have to turn to know when to duck this time. Little sister was also predictable.

  “I’m calling Momma.”

  He was thinking eggs weren’t all that great of an idea for breakfast. Likely to wear more of ’em than he’d get in the pan, the way Louisa looked. But he had all the fixings for biscuits and gravy and grits, and he had a mighty big appetite this morning.

  The bedroom door clicked open.

  Jackson stuck his head back out of the fridge. Louisa watched the kitchen entrance with undisguised interest.

  Considering he’d made sure she’d never met any of his girlfriends, he couldn’t blame her. And he had to check his grin knowing what she was about to see.

  But he was more curious how quick Anna Grace would put it together.

  Pretty fast, turned out. She took two blinks at Louisa, then raised a brow at Jackson. “Kissing cousins? Kinky.” She swatted his butt. “Quit rednecking me.”

  “Didn’t mind last night,” he murmured.

  She blew out a girly huff.

  Louisa, for once, was speechless. Anna walked up to her, crazy hair, big purple bruise spilling over her temple and all, and stuck her hand out. “Hi. I’m Anna.”

  “She’s a Yankee? Does Momma know about this?” Louisa looked her up and down. “You bake biscuits? ’Cuz Jackson don’t need any more of those.”

  “Don’t pay Louisa no mind,” Jackson told Anna. “She thinks being old enough to vote means she doesn’t have to use her manners anymore.”

  Something flashed across Anna’s face, but those worry marks on her forehead faded as quick as they’d appeared.

  Louisa glared at him, then gestured to her own temple. “He do that to you?”

  Before Jackson could defend himself, there Anna Grace went being fourteen feet tall again. “I’m sorry, have you met your brother?”

  “Thought so, but he told me y’all got married yesterday, and you better believe my brother ain’t the marrying kind.”

  “He does like a good joke though, doesn’t he?”

  Jackson hid his grin in the freezer while he went digging for Miss Dolly’s mailman’s girlfriend’s niece’s biscuits to toss in the oven. He came home thinking he’d learn something about his family. Hadn’t struck him they might learn a thing or two about him too.

  Louisa was still eyeing Anna. “You bake him any biscuits?”

  “I don’t like to talk about my biscuits,” Anna said
as though she were sharing a secret.

  Jackson wasn’t so keen on the two of them having any secrets. He pulled a gallon of milk and some sausage out of the fridge. “Louisa. Grab me a skillet down there.”

  Her eyes rolled all the way up to her forehead, but she but bent down and yanked the cabinet open.

  Then shrieked like a girl.

  Anna leaned over and peeked in, then gave Jackson another girly look. “And you wanted me to make breakfast?” She pulled out his armadillo. “How you doing, Enrique? Kinda dark in there, isn’t it?” She checked to make sure his label was still on his bottom, then plopped him up on the counter. “So much better for all of us, isn’t it?”

  “She named the armadillo?” Louisa hissed.

  Jackson grabbed his own skillet and set about making breakfast. “Yep.”

  “She name anything else?”

  He worked up an old look of Daddy’s and stared at her. She shrunk a couple inches. He gestured to the pantry. “Momma teach you to make grits?”

  “What can I do?” Anna asked.

  “Sit down and look pretty.”

  She crossed her arms. But her fingers fidgeted, and he didn’t miss the glance she shot up to his clock.

  “Or you can go take a real shower before I feed you and take you home.”

  Surprised the heck out of him when she did just that.

  “She might be okay for a Yankee,” Louisa said. She dumped water in a pot and brought it over the stove. “But you didn’t really marry her, did you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Gonna let Momma meet her?”

  He scratched his head. Momma and Anna in the same room would be a mite bit more interesting than Louisa and Anna. Long as neither of them got any ideas. Much as he liked Anna Grace, he wasn’t interested in staying in anything long enough to watch it go sour.

  He reckoned she wasn’t either.

  They matched up nice that way. Plus, she was smart, she amused the dickens out of him, and last night had been worth the wait.

  Thought he might’ve even seen a few colors beyond shades of blue and green sometime in there.

  If she could handle his putting up emotional road blocks, he could handle her sticking around a while.

  Maybe not long enough to have to meet his momma, but awhile.

  Still, Louisa didn’t have to know that. “Ain’t decided yet.”

  About the time breakfast was ready, Anna came back out, her straight hair darker and dripping on the ends. Jackson slid her a cup of coffee. She went to the silverware drawer.

  And laughed.

  Prettiest thing he’d heard all morning. “What?” he said. “It’s organized.”

  “Nice try, but I have homework.”

  “Next time then.” He’d found some sticky notes to label parts of the drawer. Silverware slid all over tarnation every time he opened it, but he could mostly find a fork when he wanted a fork and a spoon when he wanted a spoon. And now Anna Grace had a good reason to come back and visit him again. He’d just have to make mention that he found a drawer organizer.

  “Homework?” Louisa asked.

  “Mm-hmm.” Anna moved to the table to set three places. “Trying to finish my degree and get a few certifications at work. What do you do?”

  “Little as possible.”

  Jackson’s ear twitched at the truth of that statement.

  “I tried that once.” Anna plunked a fork down, then a spoon and knife on the other side, and pushed up the bottoms until they were even. “Didn’t last long. I got bored.”

  Jackson pulled the biscuits out of the oven and dished up. Louisa took a plate for herself and moved to the table. “I don’t have that problem.”

  “Gonna have other problems real soon,” Jackson said.

  He felt her scowling at him. “Guess maybe if I wasn’t a girl, then I might’ve been good enough for the family business. But seeing how I am, it doesn’t do me much good to fight it, does it?”

  Jackson started a second plate. He kept his hands steady, but he was getting mighty annoyed. “Getting your grades up might do you some good.”

  “If you talked in plain English when I ask you a question, I might could.”

  Anna snorted into her coffee.

  Louisa flung herself back in her chair. “You ever listen to a rocket scientist try to explain algebra?” Her nose wrinkled. “Probably not.”

  “I liked algebra. Calculus too.”

  “You can do calculus?” Louisa’s incredulous tone made Jackson’s gentlemanly side want to offer Anna Grace another apology.

  But Anna took it in stride. “I can do anything I want to do.” She snagged the ketchup out of the fridge before she took the plate Jackson handed her, then went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Including let someone else make me breakfast once in a while. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure, Anna Grace.”

  He helped himself to his own plate, then joined the ladies at the table. He’d barely sat down before Louisa got that look again.

  The brewing trouble look.

  “You know,” she said, “Jackson was supposed to go hunting with me this weekend. He couldn’t go last year because he was over in the stupid desert, and now this year, he’s bailing on his family again. He tell you that?”

  Anna smiled blandly. “What’re you hunting?”

  “Snipe.”

  “A little early for snipe season, isn’t it?”

  “About a month,” Jackson said. Louisa looked disappointed that Anna was smarter than she looked about hunting. Jackson, though, was intrigued. “Rabbit and squirrel season now.”

  Louisa’s interest was obviously piqued. “You hunt?”

  Anna shook her head. “My dad and brother-in-law go every year. I fish though.”

  “Huh.” There was something too calculated in the tilt of Louisa’s head. “I might could give up a hunting weekend for a good camping trip.”

  Jackson stopped eating. If she was looking to interfere in his love life, she was looking in the wrong place. “Thought you didn’t like sleeping with spiders.”

  “Aw, shoot, if Anna Grace can do it, I can too.”

  “It’s just Anna.”

  “You sleep with spiders?”

  “Yep, and I bait my own hooks when I’m fishing too.”

  Jackson laughed softly. “Of course you do.”

  Didn’t matter what Louisa threw at her, Anna Grace handled it like a champ.

  That made Jackson happier than it should’ve.

  And when he dropped her off at the hotel, he was right glad for a few minutes of privacy. Especially since she was looking at that big old hotel like she had plans to go inside.

  If she was going inside for what he thought she was going inside for, he didn’t like it.

  Not that he should’ve cared.

  Still, he didn’t feel the least bit bad about pulling her across the seat and giving her a good reminder of what he could do for her.

  Didn’t mind that she gave it right back either. Girl could kiss like sweet rain on a hot Alabama afternoon. “You ever take that overnight bag to class?” he asked.

  Her hand slid somewhere it should’ve been physically impossible for her to reach, and he found himself mighty frustrated there wouldn’t be any follow-through.

  “You asking me for another sleepover?” she said.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “How’s Thursday?”

  “Long time away.”

  She laughed again. The sound suckered him deep in the gut, right in the place that used to ache after his daddy died.

  If he weren’t careful, she was going to do him good.

  She cupped his cheek and grinned a sweet little grin that made him think of peaches and pool parties. “Two tests Thursday.”

  “Two?”

  “Work and school. But I’ll be out of class early.” She pressed one more kiss to his lips. “Hope you and Louisa have a nice day.”

  He snorted.

  “Not easy being the ba
by sister. Especially when you have so much to live up to.” She said it lightly, but the way her eyes flicked down, he didn’t know if she was talking about Louisa or herself. She nodded toward the hotel. “I have some business I need to finish up in there.”

  “Want help?”

  “No.”

  “Had to ask.”

  “And I had to say no.”

  “Make sure you get all those no’s out before you come over Thursday night.”

  Her saucy grin promised all he’d be hearing out of that mouth would be yeses.

  Now if he could figure out how to handle having the perfect woman.

  ANNA KNOCKED ON the door of Room 416 in The Harrington. After a minute, Neil opened it and blinked bloodshot eyes at her. He was still in his white linen mess dress shirt and whatever liquor he’d steeped himself in last night.

  He stood straighter and winced. “Hey.” His voice was froggy. “Wanna come in?”

  She’d seen him drunk enough to know the next step. He wasn’t a mean drunk.

  He was a sorry drunk.

  And she was about to make him wish a hangover was all he had. “You have ten minutes to get yourself cleaned up and meet me downstairs. After that, I’m leaving.” Because she wouldn’t have this conversation with him unless he was sober.

  Or at least not getting drunker.

  Nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds later, Neil sat down beside her in the lobby, leaving a respectable distance between them. His eyes were still rimmed in brandy-overload and his movements were jerky, but he’d shaved and put on a shirt and pants that barely carried the scent of his pity party. “Hi,” he said.

  Anna sat as tall as she could without standing up. “You divorced me,” she said without preamble. “You insulted me in front of our friends, you broke my heart, and then you left me here. You don’t get back into my life. Not yesterday, not today, not ever.”

  His left cheek twitched like it always had when he was agitated. “I made a mistake.”

  “And now I’ve made a life. Without you. You don’t get a second chance, Neil.”

  “I just—” His head dipped to his knees. “I’m lost, Anna. I haven’t been on time for anything since I left. I can’t find stuff. I don’t know when I should book tickets to go home and see my parents for the holidays. I just don’t know.”