by Rachel Hanna
"And, Addison, just know that I love you," Jackson said.
"I know. And I love you too. I'll be home soon. See you at Christmas," she said with her voice cracking before she hung up. Jackson sat there for a moment wondering if there was anything else that he could do, but Addison was a grown married woman who had made her requests clear. And he understood that himself because he didn't like people interfering in his life either. But as her older brother and stand-in father for most of her life, he was used to taking care of things for his little sister. Feeling like his hands were tied, he set his cell phone down on the dresser and started to get ready for the Thanksgiving festivities.
* * *
Rebecca wasn't sure that she had ever been more nervous in her life. It was silly really, after all that she and Leo had been through in their lives, but going to a Thanksgiving festivity with such a well-known family was making her a little more than jittery. Of course, being a coffee shop owner, she'd had more than her share of espresso this morning. That probably wasn't the best idea given the fact that she was already anxious.
"I don't get it. Why can't we just have sandwiches on the beach like we said we would?" Leo whined. Sometimes she wondered if he was two years old or fourteen years old.
"Because I'm trying to make a name for myself in this town, and my best customer invited us. So you will act right and be kind to these people. You will say thank you and you will be polite. You hear me?" she said, putting her hands on his shoulders. She really hated this part of being a parent. Sometimes she was kind and meek like her mother was, and other times she had to be rough and tough like her father was. It was a very hard balancing act. She was never really sure that she was doing it right. It was times like this that she really missed having her husband there.
"Fine. Is it time to leave yet?" he asked looking down his cell phone.
"Actually, yes it is. We're going to walk there because it's just a couple of blocks over."
"Walk? Why can't we drive a car like normal people?" he said throwing his hands up in the air.
"Because it's one of the perks of small-town life, Leo. Get over it." She was tired of being so rough on him this morning, but he had started with his whining first thing in the morning. She just didn't understand him anymore. He had gone from being a sweet young boy to a hormonal teenage mass. She sure couldn't remember acting that way to her parents, although her father never would've allowed it. Again, she felt a momentary sense of loss when she thought about her husband. How he could've changed Leo's life. Would Leo be a better kid right now if his father was still alive? Was it even his fault that he was so angry right now?
She had tried a couple of times to talk to him about his anger issues lately, but he just went inward and started playing video games or texting on his phone. Maybe every parent of a teenager went through this at some point, but she was quite sure that she had seen parents out in public with their teenagers having a good time and interacting. That had stopped with Leo over the last year or so. She missed their close relationship, but she had absolutely no idea how to get it back.
Rebecca packed up the muffins that she had made to take to the Parker's and they headed downstairs and out the door. Their walk was quiet, with Leo texting on his phone as usual. Honestly, sometimes she thought about grabbing it out of his hands and flinging it out into traffic. Only there was no traffic in January Cove, so it wouldn't do much good. It would likely lay out in the street untouched for hours. It was a ghost town on Thanksgiving, and it wasn't busier on most days anyway.
"Leo, can you please stop texting? If you don't, I'm going to take that phone and put it in my purse for the rest of the day," she said raising an eyebrow to him as they walked. He rolled his eyes, sighed and shoved it in his pocket. The last thing he wanted to do was lose that phone, and she knew it.
"Why do you care so much what these people think anyway? They don't even know us. They don't even know our story," he said. She was shocked by him saying this, specifically the mention of "their story". What exactly did he think their story was?
"Because it's good to make new friends, Leo. This is our new beginning. I did this for you just as much as I did it for me."
"Yeah, right," he said.
"So you think I did this whole move for me? Trust me, Leo, it's very hard for someone my age to just pick up and leave everything they've known their whole life. I did this because I felt like we needed a fresh beginning somewhere without all the memories of what happened. Don't you like it here?" she asked exasperated.
"It's alright. Of course, I don't really care where we live. It's always the same."
"What do you mean?" she asked, finally excited that he seemed to be opening up. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders, grunted and stopped talking. She'd come so close to getting him to say something, anything. But he didn't. And they walked the rest of the way to the Parker's in silence.
When they arrived at the house, Rebecca felt her nerves cropping up all over again. Her palms were sweaty, and her heart was racing. What was it about hanging out with these people on such an innocuous holiday that was making her anxious? Maybe it was because she hadn't really been to any big family functions in years. She didn't really have any family, and she didn't like to impose on friends back in New York.
But this was different. They needed support, some kind of anchor in January Cove. She just needed something new, something to take her mind off her growing problems with her son and her floundering business.
"Remember, be nice," she said reminding her son by wagging her finger in his face. They walked up the steps and rang the bell, ready to have a big family Thanksgiving with a family they didn't know.
The door flung open, and a small petite blonde woman was standing there. She assumed that this was Adele Parker, the renowned real estate broker and perfect mother to the Parker kids.
"Welcome!" she said throwing her arms out and bringing Rebecca into a big hug. It took her aback because she hadn't felt the love of a mother in so many years, but Adele Parker wasn't her mother. It was a strange sensation that she couldn't place.
"Thank you for having us. I'm Rebecca Evans, and this is my son Leo." Rebecca pulled back from the hug and put her arm around her son's shoulders. Of course, Leo wiggled out from under her grasp and crossed his arms. For a moment, there was a spark of silence as Adele looked into Rebecca's eyes and then over at Leo. Rebecca was so embarrassed, but she tried to play it off and just smiled.
"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 cra
zy 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 had 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 clenching 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 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.
