by Anne Martin
“I’m tired of feeling guilty for having money. I’m tired of trying to spend it as fast as I make it. I’m tired of hiding half of who I am from you. Yes, I’m an investor, but it’s technically along the lines of gambling, and I did gamble excessively wherever I went, mostly so I’d get good enough to beat your pa.” He pressed his lips together like he’d said something he shouldn’t have.
I stared at him. What was I supposed to say? That creature, that monster-woman home-wrecker was exactly what he’d thought I was. He’d taken me for a gold-digger, but he’d still offered me a place with him, even if it wasn’t everything I wanted.
I blinked tears out of my eyes as I stared at Jackson, him staring back while the anger leaked out of him. He wasn’t naturally an angry person. It’s one of the things I loved about him.
“Jessie,” he said in a softer voice, arms unfolding. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t straight with you.”
“That’s the kind of woman you took me for?”
He winced like I’d punched him in the gut. “Not exactly. There’s a spectrum from women who like men better if they’re rich to the women who pursue money above all else. I loved you so deeply, I couldn’t be objective about you. To me, you were perfect, but no one’s perfect, it’s a logical impossibility, therefore, I was incapable of logic and couldn’t trust my own judgment.”
I shifted uncomfortably. Did I want to run? Yes. My feet itched as I curled my hands into fists. “That makes sense. And the part about gambling with my dad?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “You left without a word. I was waiting for a ransom note. I was distraught. For years I was distraught. I started gambling. I put the watch on the table at every game. I had the money to cover it because I wasn’t going to lose it. Eventually, he heard about me. I guess it was a little weird, me going to big games and playing until everyone had seen the watch then folding and walking away when no one recognized it. I actually got good at it.” He looked at me before he shook his head and flopped onto the bed. It was a very nice bed and he looked very good on it. “It took me two years to find your dad. Afterwards, he asked me if I was the one who broke your heart. I didn’t know, but I’d loved you. All I asked is if you were okay. I needed to know if you were fine. You know what he said? ‘Fight me. If you win, I’ll tell you what you want to know.’” He shook his head in disgust. “He killed me. Afterwards, he said to try again in a year. Three years trying to beat up your dad, Jessie, five years wondering if you were alive or dead.”
I stared at him. “You fought my dad? He’s not gentle.”
He rubbed his chin and gave me a wry smile. “No, he’s not. I couldn’t walk for a month after that first time. The next time didn’t go much better. I did learn how to be vicious.”
I snorted. “Well that’s useful in your line of work. What was that, making power plants?”
He frowned at me. “You haven’t started running yet.”
“Oh, I’ll get to it. Power plants?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. I use the energy released in the process of cleaning polluted waterways into energy, electricity, power. It’s a new way of clean energy that’s efficient enough to justify the expense of switching over.”
“Countries want to hire you?”
“Not hire, have my business. Positive power looks really good for reelections. I have a dozen plants already, and we’re powering millions of homes in some of the poorest places in the world.”
I nodded. “So, you’re so ashamed of your work that you didn’t want me to know about it?”
“I’m everything you hate. I’m the jerk rich boy who treats women like they’re objects to be bought and sold. Over the years, I got to know your dad pretty well. He talked about you, about how you’d wear furs or plaid without the slightest difference in how you carried yourself like a princess.”
I held up a hand. “So, you’re the one who told my dad about the wedding, not Cora? That makes sense. She hates him.” My legs twitched. I really, really had to run, but I still had questions I needed to ask.
“Jessie—”
I held up a hand. “One last thing. When you married me, alligators and kittens, did you want to marry me for real?”
He swallowed hard as he stared at me with a poker face that didn’t give anything away. “Desperately. I’m not a stalker, I swear it, but since your dad let me know you were safe and then had me deliver a package for him to Vegas, and the recipient pointed out your show, kind of persistently, I’ve been aware of you. I watched the three hundred every year just like your dad and all of his friends. When I married you, I asked for his permission, in case something crazy happened and you decided to make it real at some later date. He thought you’d say yes, that you wouldn’t be able to go through with my public humiliation. I didn’t plan on you being at that poker table, I just wanted to get rid of some heavy baggage.”
“How could your home be baggage?”
“It wasn’t home without you. I know that some women are good, but they aren’t right. Maybe it’s the crazy that I need. Jessie, you only gave me half of you, and I was already out of my mind in love. All of you, the sweet and the sassy and the mad as a boatload of drunk sailors? And in bed? Sweet Moses, you’re way too good in bed. You always have been. That’s always bothered me, how much experience you must have had to be so good.”
I snorted. “So the answer is yes, you wanted to marry me for real, alligators and all?”
He exhaled. “Yes. Alligators and all. You keep shifting. You really are going to run, aren’t you? Are you taking Cora with you? We’re friends, aren’t we? You’ll tell me where you land, won’t you? I don’t want to have to harass your father for another five years.”
I cocked my head as I studied him. “Yeah, Jackson, I’m going to run, but I’m not going to tell you where I land. You’re going to have to figure that out for yourself.”
He closed his eyes and nodded. I took one step back and then I ran, launching myself at him. I hit him, sending him down on the bed with an oomph.
He stared at me, bewildered. “What are you doing?”
“That was my big run. Were your eyes closed for it? Too bad, I’m not running again.”
I started unbuttoning his shirt.
He stilled my hands. “Miss Jessie, didn’t you hear me? I lied about having no money. I mean, money’s tight right now while I’m in development, as in I can’t buy five houses this week, but the assets are there. I’m not a broke gambler.”
I sighed heavily. “Jackson, I don’t care if you have all or none of the money in the world as long as you love me more than your money, more than your gambling. Can you do that?”
He rolled until we were lying side-by-side and cupped my face. “I can’t do anything else.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That’s Mrs. Dewitt to you,” I whispered before I kissed him until the cows came home. Not literally. We never found half of those cows we’d driven away, but we did find love, roots, home, and what else did we need?
The End
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