“We’ve texted a few times.” It was more like every day but, again, I wasn’t going to mention that to her. Although, knowing my mother, she probably already knew.
“Mia said that you two have been texting quite a lot. Every day in fact.”
“If you already knew the answer, why did you ask?”
“It’s the Dolly Briggs litmus test.”
“The Dolly Briggs litmus test?”
“Yes, I ask questions that I already know the answer to so I can gauge how much of the truth you are telling me.”
Fair enough.
“Your answer revealed that you are trying to downplay your communication with Josie, which means that it’s more than just a friendship.”
“I’m not sure I follow your logic.”
“How often do you talk to Holden?”
“We’ve been texting every day since he got hurt.” He’d been thrown off a bull and seriously injured his back. He’d had three surgeries and had a long road of recovery in front of him.
“Exactly.”
“How does me talking to Holden every day prove anything?”
“It doesn’t. You telling me that you talk every day does. If Josie was just a friend, you would’ve told me that you’d been texting every day. That means that she’s more than just a friend to you.”
I still didn’t see how that proved anything, but I wasn’t about to argue with my mom about it. Especially since she was right. Josie was a lot more than just a friend to me. And it was about damn time that I did something about it.
Chapter 34
Josie
“Darling, marriage is just a contract between two people, the terms of which are always negotiable.”
~ Josephine Grace Clarke
“She’s really in her element.” Mia observed as we both stood in the back of the community center and watched my grandmother hold court.
“Yes. She is.” Even though I’d grown up around her magic, it was still captivating to watch.
We were at the cast and crew screening of What is Love?, but the true star of the night was my grandmother. A crowd of at least thirty people of all ages were gathered around her as she regaled them with stories ranging from the Golden Age of film to Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s Oscar party. Men, women, teens, and children alike were hanging on her every word. She had an anecdote for every demographic.
I turned to Dolly who was standing beside me cuddling her newest granddaughter, Willow Faith, who just so happened to be the prettiest baby I’d ever seen. “Do you think Mr. Briggs is okay?”
When we’d arrived, my grandmother had asked Dolly if she could “borrow” her “handsomely rugged husband” as her escort for the evening. Walker had turned the shade of a ripe tomato. Even his ears were bright red. Dolly had graciously given her blessing, but I wasn’t so sure Walker was on board. Not that he’d had much choice in the matter. My grandmother had taken his arm and started working the room with him as her personal man-candy prop. She was her brightest and shiniest when she was the center of attention. I could not say the same for Mr. Briggs.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man blush so much.” Dolly’s bright smile spread from ear to ear.
“I’m so sorry,” I apologized. “I had no idea that she was going to do that.”
“Are you kidding me? This is great! He’s living out his childhood dream,” Dolly cheerily proclaimed.
Looking at Walker’s bright red skin as my grandmother hung onto his forearm, I felt the need to point out, “I feel like he might be embarrassed.”
“Oh, he absolutely is,” Dolly agreed whole heartedly. “But that’s what makes it even more fun!”
Mia and Dolly both chuckled, but I couldn’t help the knot of guilt that had formed in my stomach. I bit my lip as I started to formulate a plan for how to rescue him. It couldn’t be anything that would draw more attention.
Willow Faith started to fuss, and Dolly shushed her as she lifted her to her shoulder and patted her back, assuring me, “Sweetie pie, he’s a big boy. If he’s uncomfortable he is perfectly capable of handling it.”
I nodded and wished, not for the first time, that Dolly was a permanent fixture in my life. She’d been so supportive over these past few months. Not only had she checked in with me weekly, she’d insisted that I stay at Briggs Farm for the past two weeks as Mia and I worked like crazy in the editing bay to get the final edit of the film.
It was strange being at the farm, and in Wishing Well in general, without Jackson, but we’d been talking every day, so that helped. Over the past month, the dynamic of our relationship had shifted from friendship to something…more. I didn’t know what had inspired the change, but I wasn’t complaining.
After Hope Falls, we’d kept in touch. He’d texted me nearly every day, and even called a few times. Our conversations had been friendly but not personal. There was no flirting, no acknowledgement that we’d ever been intimate, nothing.
I’d tried to convince myself that being friends with him was better than not having him in my life at all, but I couldn’t help the fact that I missed him. I missed the more intimate side of our relationship.
But then one day—right after Willow was born, in fact—he changed. He’d started saying that he missed me. And not just in the generic sense of the word. He got very specific. Body parts were named. Things he wanted to do to those body parts and things he wanted me to do to his were described.
I couldn’t think about it while standing next to his mother.
The intimacy in our conversations didn’t stop there. We’d spent hours and hours talking about everything from our childhoods, our biggest fears, favorite foods, music, television, religion, political views. We’d both talked about wanting a family and that we’d hoped to have at least two children but would cap it at three.
I’d asked him about the time I overheard him telling JJ that he didn’t want to settle down, and he’d said that was before me. He also said that he’d lied when his brother had asked him that, because in truth, he’d already imagined those things with me.
I fell in lust with Jackson during the week we’d spent together, then I fell in like with him over the two months that we built our friendship, but I’d fallen in love with Jackson over the past month.
It was so strange to be in love with someone and have no idea when you’d see them. We hadn’t made anything official. So technically he wasn’t my boyfriend. But he was doing all the boyfriend things.
He’d sent me a huge bouquet of flowers to celebrate the screening. And he’d had them sent to his parents’ house, since that’s where I was staying. He wasn’t trying to hide the fact that we were…whatever we were.
“It’s time!” Mia clapped her hands as the lights flickered.
Jade O’Sullivan, who was handling all of our marketing for the film, stepped up and took the mic. We’d nominated her to speak for us because I hated public speaking and Mia wasn’t feeling like getting up in front of two hundred people after giving birth to a baby four weeks ago.
“Welcome to the cast and crew screening of What is Love?!”
As Jade asked everyone to take their seats and went through all the acknowledgements, I glanced down at my phone.
Jackson normally texted me when he woke up, and with the time difference he should’ve been up for at least an hour now. I didn’t like not hearing from him. I’d gotten very accustomed to our unofficial schedule.
“Is everything okay?” Dolly asked as she burped Willow.
“Yeah, it’s fine.” I just wish your son would’ve messaged me.
I pushed the disappointment aside as the lights went out and the film came on. It was a task that was made easier by the distraction from the butterflies having a party in my stomach. I realized that the film wasn’t an actual baby, but it did sort of feel like that. Even Mia, who’d just given birth to her own baby, said that was what it felt like to her, so I didn’t feel like a crazy person for thinking that.
I’d thought I’d be the most nervous
about my hosting, but I’d gotten used to seeing the footage after spending hundreds of hours with it in post-production. I’d grown to tolerate seeing and hearing myself, to the point where it didn’t cause me to be sick to my stomach with worry.
That was the other development in my life. After I’d made my statement, and the world had a reference for my side of the story, I’d been able to just let it go and say fuck ’em. If anyone actually wanted to know what had really happened, it was out there. And anyone that just wanted salacious fodder was not someone whose opinion I cared about.
It also helped my case that one of Gio’s exes had come out with her own story that included her saying that he not only admitted, but bragged about setting up the hidden cameras, had recorded me without my knowledge, and had sold the footage to several adult sites. Shortly after his ex came forward, he was subsequently arrested on several sexual harassment cases from women he’d met in bars, and a woman he’d worked with.
I’d hated that any other woman was violated by him, but it was validating for people to see him for who he truly was.
As the movie played, I did my best to just enjoy the film and try and watch it with fresh eyes. I had to say that Mia had really killed it with all of the experts that she’d gotten. We had medical doctors, psychologists, relationship experts, and anthropologists weaved in through our real-life couples and singles.
Throughout the doc the audience laughed and cried. There were a lot of awes and even applause. I had no idea how the general public was going to receive it, but I was proud of what we’d done.
By the time the final interview played, I could feel myself getting emotional. I knew that as soon as the credits began rolling there was at least a sixty percent chance that I would start crying. But I didn’t find out because before they did, an interview I’d never seen came onto the screen.
It was Jackson. He was on a movie set.
I gasped when I saw his face and turned to Mia who was smiling like the cat that ate the canary. “What is this?”
“Watch,” she instructed.
I turned to Dolly who was wearing a twin grin. Neither of the two were surprised to see Jackson.
I turned back and heard Jackson’s voice. “If someone would’ve asked me a few months ago what love was, I’m not sure what I would’ve told them. I probably would have said that it was a chemical reaction that had something to do with pheromones. I basically would’ve been talking out of my ass, because I had no idea.” He shook his head and smiled and my heart about exploded. “That’s not true, actually. I was lucky enough to be raised by Walker and Dolly Briggs. So, I had a front row seat to love being lived out. I could’ve told you what it looked like as an observer, but not a firsthand account.
“I could’ve told you that love is caring about someone more than you care about yourself. I might’ve said that love is making sure that your wife has a fresh pot of coffee to wake up to. Or that your husband’s favorite sweats are clean every Sunday so he can relax in them after church. It’s going out at nine o’clock at night when you have to be up at three a.m. in the middle of winter because your wife’s stomach is upset, and mint chocolate chip ice cream sounds good to her. It’s finding new hiding places for your husband’s favorite snack, cashews, so his nine kids don’t eat them, and he always has them on hand. It’s your face lighting up when your spouse walks in a room even though you’ve just seen them five minutes before, which I just saw both my parents do when I was home a few months ago. That’s what I’ve witnessed love is.
“But I never knew what it felt like until three months ago, when my brother volunteered me to go to the airport to pick up his wife’s producing partner on a Friday evening during going home traffic.”
A scatter of chuckles rolled through the audience and tears filled my eyes.
“It was the favor that would change my life forever. I arrived at the airport to find a stunning redhead cursing at her phone because she’d accidently sent her ride, who turned out to be me…” He lifted his hand. “…the wrong text.”
I blushed at the memory and hoped that he wouldn’t share what I’d texted.
“I didn’t have any idea who she was, but I asked if she was okay. When she lifted her head and her eyes met mine…” He took a deep breath. “I can’t explain, in words what I felt when she looked at me for the first time, other than to say that it was love. And over the next week, I fell deeper in love. So what is love to me?”
A montage of photos of me that I’d never seen before began playing on the screen. There was one of my first night on the farm with Duchess, one of me at the well in the town center, and candid shots that Jackson must’ve taken during Sunday dinner and during our trip, including the dockmaster from Firefly Island, the riverbank in Harper’s Crossing, me getting a manicure at his cousin’s house in Whisper Lake, and me speaking to reporters in Hope Falls.
“Love is caring about a diva horse and a tiny snail equally. Love is connecting with a curmudgeonly old fisherman and a shy six-year-old by listening to them and genuinely caring about the person that they are. Love is being brave in the face of a painful past. To me love is one thing. It’s Josie Clarke.” The final photo was of me arriving at the screening tonight wearing my grandmother’s red, vintage, floor-length body-hugging Dior dress. “She is love to me.”
My phone vibrated and I looked down to see that it was a text from Jackson that read: I’m horny.
I laughed but then realized what that meant. When I looked up, he was walking toward me. Not caring that I was in a dress so tight I ran like a penguin, I shuffled as fast as my legs would carry me to meet him and threw my arms around his neck. I could hear a swell of applause as my feet left the ground as he picked me up.
It wasn’t until his arms were around me that tears began to fall down my face. All the months of missing him, of missing his smell, his touch, his smile, his kiss flooded through me.
“I missed you so much! I love you so much!” I cried into his shoulder.
His arms tightened around me before he set me down. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I went up on my toes to kiss him, but I missed because he was getting down on one knee.
I heard a collective gasp from the audience and my hand flew over my mouth.
“Josie Clarke, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want you to be my wife and the mother of my children. I love you. I didn’t know what love was before I met you and now I don’t know how I could ever live without you. Will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?”
He lifted up a ring that I thought I recognized as my grandmother’s from her first husband, the one that had been killed in the war. She’d always maintained that he was her first love, and only true love. I’d asked her once if I could have it when I got married, and she’d told me only if the man I chose deserved it.
“Is that?” I pointed at it.
“Yes, darling, it is.” My grandmother said from behind me. “Now answer the man.”
“Yes!” I nodded. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
He slid the ring on my finger as I bent down and kissed him. The moment his lips touched mine, the rest of the world disappeared. For a split second we were the only two people that existed. He picked me up as the cheers grew even louder around us.
When he finally broke our kiss and set me down, people were offering us congratulations, but I heard my grandmother and Dolly running interference and accepting them to give us a moment of privacy.
“I can’t believe you’re really here.” I reached up and touched his face. “What about the movie?”
“It wrapped.”
“Really?” The last I’d heard, things weren’t going well.
“Sort of. Lancaster walked off the set and quit, and I followed him before they found a replacement.”
“How long have you been planning this?”
“For a month.”
“A month?!” I swatted his shoulder. “Why didn’t you say something?”
I couldn�
�t believe he’d known he wanted to do this for a month and he hadn’t even given me a clue that’s how he felt.
His lips turned up in a half-grin that sent a flutter down my spine. “I had to make sure you’d say yes.”
I laughed and hugged him again. I never wanted to let him go. He swayed back and forth as he whispered, “I love you so much.”
The motion reminded me of something. I lifted my head off his shoulder and looked in his eyes. “Do you think when we get married, we can have Slow Dance Sundays?”
“Fuck, yes,” he answered.
I started laughing but was cut off by his lips covering mine in a soul-bending kiss that sealed our deal. I was his, he was mine and every Sunday for the rest of our lives, we’d be slow dancing. What is love? This is love.
THE END
Educating Holden
Coming October 28, 2020
Pre-Order Now
Holden Reed
In the blink of an eye, my whole world changed. One minute I was riding high at the peak of my career, the next I woke up flat on my back in a hospital bed.
Returning to my hometown a broken man had never been part of the plan. Neither had my best friend’s little sister, the only woman I’d ever loved, and the person who had always been off-limits. I’d spent my entire life running away from my feelings for her, which was a lot easier before I looked out my bedroom window and saw her naked.
Olivia Calhoun
Nothing in my life ever changed. I went to bed at the same time. Woke up at the same time. Saw the same people. I was tired of living a Groundhog Day existence.
I was ready to shake things up. When my brother’s best friend, who also happened to be my lifelong crush, suffers a career-ending injury that lands him not only back in Wishing Well but living next door, I figure I this is my chance. What have I got to lose…besides my dignity and clothes, that is?
A Note from Melanie Shawn
Hey there, hi there, ho there!
Melanie and I (yep, Melanie Shawn is a sister writing team consisting of my sister Melanie and meeeee Shawna) hope you enjoyed Jackson and Josie’s road to happily-ever-after! This book was fun because we got to visit characters in some of our other series: Southern Comfort, Crossroads, Whisper Lake, and Hope Falls. Wishing Well is always one of our favorite places to visit and we’re already getting a little nostalgic because there are only TWO more books left in the series. Educating Holden will be out October 28th and the final Wishing Well book Kissing Beau is coming to you November 22nd. We’re stocking up on tissues now.
Loving Jackson (Wishing Well, Texas Book 10) Page 21
