Doing her best to push the temptation of calling him aside, she tried to turn her thoughts to restful things. The ranch, tomorrow's chores, anything that would help her fall asleep. But it was useless. Her mind continuously latched on to thoughts of Jackson.
They had only known each other for a few weeks, and she was not Briony.
Would Jackson regret sleeping with her if she couldn't shake the contract?
She hadn't told him everything, and he had been adamant, he needed that in order for them to have a relationship. In the heat of the moment, she had tossed it all aside.
But the biggest stumbling block was she had slept with Jackson after knowing him for a matter of weeks. It was something Briony would have done taken Jackson to bed the second he gave in, and it sickened Brianna to even compare herself to Briony.
Briony would screw anyone who interested her. Brianna wasn't built like that. She couldn't keep her heart and body separated when she took a man to bed. Though she already knew her heart was just as drawn to Jackson as her body was, she hadn't wanted to give in until she knew where he stood.
Or at least that he cared. Braving her family and protecting her while she played the role of her sister without causing a scene went a long way to showing her that he felt something but did he care for her? Or was he stringing her along until he finally had his curiosity about the contract was appeased?
Though he had been concerned about Christopher, she added that to the positive column. Maybe instead of guessing, she should have stayed downstairs and asked.
She flipped to her right side. Before she became her sister's body double, Brianna hadn't been this suspicious. Now, it was ingrained to always question everyone's motives. It was a survival instinct since her family's betrayal.
If she couldn't count on the people who were blood, then what was to say strangers wouldn't stab her in the back as well. There were a few exceptions Brianna had allowed into her heart, but it had taken a lot of time and trust.
Both were in short supply these days. Especially with how vehemently Jackson had reacted in the beginning. How could he change his tune so quickly?
There had to be a catch, didn't there?
Her mind continued to spin. With everything that had happened that day, she was sure she would lie awake, but exhaustion pulled her under.
Her dreams were filled with hers and Jackson's dark-haired child screaming for Daddy to push her higher. The bright pink tire swing blinding in the sunlight matching the child's overalls as she squealed in delight when Jackson shoved the swing higher.
Chapter Nine
Jackson jerked upright in bed as Brianna came clattering through the den into the kitchen.
"Sorry, Jackson," she called as she ran back into the room with a thermos. "There's an emergency at the Kilby farm."
He rubbed his eyes and swung his legs over the side. "Give me a second, and I'll leave with—"
She waved him back into the bed. "No, sleep in. I'm not sure how long I'll be. It's one of his alpacas, so I might be there a while. Just call Callie or Derrick when you're ready to leave, so they can come over and lock up the house."
Surprised, he could only stare as she shoved her feet into a pair of boots. Just as she opened the door, he scrambled from the bed in only his boxer briefs. "Wait. You trust me in your home?"
"Of course, I do. And the second we get some time, I'm trusting you with everything." She leaned forward and pecked his lips. Before she could leave, he snagged her wrist.
"I'm sorry I rushed you last night." He leaned against the doorjamb, scratching at the stubble on his jaw. "I'm not sorry for the act itself because I wanted you then, and I want you now. But I am sorry because we both said we'd wait until there weren't any secrets between us—"
She pressed a hand over his mouth and smiled. "You're cute when you ramble." A quiet sigh passed her lips. "I agree with everything you just said, and I want to talk when we have more than five minutes to spare. We both have a past that needs to be dragged into the light of day before we can build anything." Her pretty blue eyes filled with doubt. "If you still want to build anything, that is."
"I do."
The clouds cleared from her eyes, and the sparkle of sunlight returned. "Great. So…" She hooked a thumb toward the porch. "I have to go, but we'll talk later."
His gut twisted as he released her wrist. "Later."
She dashed away, and he winced when the screen door shut with a bang. Shaking his head at how happy she seemed this morning, he headed back to bed. It was too early to puzzle out why she had all but run from him after Christopher pulled them from the bed.
The one-eighty gave him pause, but then again, he'd had his own doubts slamming into him last night. They hadn't known each other long, and even though he had held the contract over her head in the beginning, he hadn't been completely honest with her either.
He had told her about his parents. It had been easier than explaining he was the reason his partner had died in Chicago, and Jackson had fled to Alabama to avoid the painful memories.
* * * *
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Callie's shout jerked Jackson from a deep sleep. Realizing he only had his boxer briefs, Jackson made sure the sheet covered everything important.
"Mom said hell, does that mean we're allowed to use it now?" A boy that looked eerily similar to Callie in miniature asked.
"No," Derrick stated, crowding in behind the group of people hovering in the den archway. "Boys, go load the supplies onto the cart."
"I want to stay and see what Mom does," the younger boy said.
Derrick cuffed him on the back of the head. "Go on, Caleb. You and Daniel get the supplies, and maybe your mom will let you help feed the bears."
Jackson frowned. Did he just say bears? Shaking his head, he watched the boys race for the door, fighting each other to get through it. Their rapid clomps drifted away as they ran down the porch steps.
Callie's smile turned playful. "Are you naked under there, Deputy Delicious?"
"Hello, I'm right here," Derrick said, nudging Callie's shoulder with his arm.
Not tearing her gaze from Jackson's chest, she reached back and absently patted her husband. "I know, hon, but we're both allowed to look, and you have to admit … there is a whole lot of real estate to look at. Nice chest definition there, Deputy Delish."
Jackson felt his face flush but refused to lift the sheet to cover himself. He wasn't a damned Victorian maiden. Raising his gaze to Derrick, he arched a brow. "Can't you do something with your woman?"
Derrick grinned at her. "Hon, I feel as if you don't appreciate my chest as much now."
Callie turned and swept her hand over Derrick's chest. "Oh, I'll appreciate it hard when we get home—"
"Jesus, stop—"
"No. Usually, Derrick says, 'Jesus, babe. Keep going.' "
"Oh, my God." Jackson flinched while Derrick laughed.
"How about we keep our bedroom escapades private, hon?"
"Fine. Though your chest is way better than Deputy Delish's is." Callie turned back to Jackson and smirked. "Not even the second date, and you're already relegated to the couch."
"Aaaand, on that note, you need to get our boys, or they'll head off without you."
Her gaze softened when it fell on Derrick. "Fine. But if they get their arms eaten, that's on you."
He laughed and shook his head. "As if you'd ever let anything happen to our kids," Derrick said as he tried to steer his pint-sized wife toward the door.
Jackson knew the woman only moved because she wanted to. If she'd dug in her heels, she wouldn't have gone anywhere.
"I begged to get on the couch," he called out to her back.
Two snorts and a chuckle made Jackson cradle his face in his palm.
Callie replied, "Then you're not doing something right since obviously you slept alone and not even in a real bed. Must not have satisfied my bestie."
Stubborn to the end, Jackson said, "It's a
bed, and Brianna will be in it the whole night next time."
Derrick roared with laughter as his wife said, "Don't bet on it. She'll have you in her bed or not at all."
The screen door slapped shut, and Jackson growled as the pint-sized terror got the last word.
"Dammit! I need coffee," he groaned.
"And better come back lines, or Callie will eat you for breakfast."
Irritated at being woken up for the third time, Jackson stood and yanked clean clothes from his bag. "Seems she already did."
"Nah, if she'd really wanted to dig into you, she would've mentioned the blanket draped over you. Brianna refuses to share that one in case it loses its softness." Derrick headed to another door to the left of Jackson. "I'm making coffee."
"Thank God."
"Nope, you can thank Jesus since she went to the grocery store for Brianna a few days ago."
Jackson grunted. "Callie is not Jesus."
"Tell her that when she's got me tied to the bed."
"Dammit! Quit over-sharing." He tugged the dark green shirt over his head.
Derrick popped his head around the corner, an evil smile etched across his face. "Isn't that what friends do."
"No!" Jackson shouted, setting the suit he'd borrowed on the club chair before setting his go-bag next to the door. "I'm going to use the bathroom."
When Jackson joined Derrick in the kitchen, the man was cleaning up. There was a plate of scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and crisp bacon set on the counter. "You make this?"
Derrick snorted. "No, Callie."
"Seriously?" He nervously eyed the food.
"No, not seriously." Derrick huffed. "Of course, I made it."
"Oh, then it's not poisoned." Jackson walked to the fridge and pulled out a jar of peach jam.
"Coffee?"
"Sure. Plain." Jackson slathered his toast with the jam and watched as Derrick unerringly moved to the cabinet that held the mugs and took two down. Another shift to the right, and he had sugar, which he spooned into one of the coffee cups. "You know your way around."
"I should. We spend just as much time here as Brianna does at our place." Derrick set the non-doctored cup of coffee next to Jackson. "If you're serious about Brianna, then you better get used to us being underfoot."
"I know," Jackson said around a mouth full of food.
"Man, chew your food first. I swear you're as bad as our boys." Derrick lifted his coffee to his lips and sipped before asking, "You got plans today?"
Swallowing his bite of food, he nodded. "Just need to change my oil and air filter."
"Where are you taking your car?"
"I'm not. My dad taught me to take care of my own car. Unless it's complicated, I can do it."
"Lucky. I need to take ours in, and I don't have time today." Derrick rinsed his cup and set it in the dishwasher. "With Brianna on the emergency call, I'm going to need to do the intake and inoculations on our newest guests."
Finished, Jackson took his dishes to the sink to rinse them off and load them in the dishwasher. He dried his hands on the dishtowel and hung it back on the handle of the stove.
Jackson crossed his arms. "Inoculations? You give your guests shots?"
Derrick laughed. "I do to our animal guests. We have three abused horses and a few sheep coming in today. They have to be quarantined and inoculated before we introduce them to the rest of our group."
"Sounds complicated."
"It can be." Derrick mirrored Jackson's pose. "But it's worth it to give them a better life."
He grinned. "Well, I can't help with the shots, but if you bring your cars here, I'll run into town and get what I need. I'll even change your oil after I do mine."
Derrick's brow raised. "You'd do that? Give up your day to help us?" He squinted at Jackson. "What do you want as payment?"
"Nothing. All I ask is you pay for your own stuff and go halves with me on pizza and beer after we're done."
"Seriously?"
"Yep." Jackson clapped Derrick on the shoulder. "It's like you said. If I'm serious about Brianna, you and I will be in each other's pockets with how close your wife is to my girlfriend. So, we need to be united. Beer, pizza, and cars are great starts to a friendship, I say."
Derrick grinned and slapped Jackson on the back. "I like the way you think. And no need to get oil and such. Brianna keeps a good stock in the barn to take care of the farm vehicles. I'll show you where it is. If you can't find it there, then you can hit town."
"Lead the way." Jackson followed behind Derrick. "By the way, did you say the kids and Callie would be feeding bears?"
"Yep."
Jackson stumbled. "There are bears here?"
"Yep. Brianna brought them."
* * * *
Jackson grabbed the rag Derrick had given him and wiped the oil off his hands before snagging his cell from the worktable that held the tools he had been using. "McCord."
The equipment barn was perfect for car maintenance. Then again, it had been outfitted to house tractors and other farm machinery, it held all the tools needed to keep the machines up to speed.
"Son."
Jackson grinned at hearing Ray McCord's voice on the other end of the line. "Pops, what're you up to? I thought you were off on some cruise in the Caribbean."
"Please, I was home a week ago. And you haven't called to let me know if you're still coming for the Fourth of July celebration?
Jackson rolled his eyes even though his father couldn't see him. "As if I would miss it."
"Well, you didn't miss me, or I would've heard from you."
He snorted. "You weren't due back until this week. I have it set on my phone."
"It was last week. We need to get your hearing checked."
"Or your memory, seeing as you told me the wrong date."
They fell easily into the teasing banter that was a cornerstone in their relationship. Jackson knew his father had come back last week, but Ray liked to settle back in before touching base with Jackson. He didn't like being checked up on, so Jackson always waited a week before calling.
"So, when I set the table for the Fourth, is it just for one?"
"First, you don't set the table. It's a large BBQ for the neighborhood. And second, I might bring someone with me." Jackson leaned against the grill of Derrick's SUV as he waited for Ray to get over his surprise.
"Really?"
"Yep." It would be interesting to see if Ray could drag all of Brianna's secrets from her. There was something about the man that felt trustworthy.
"That's great. Wait, you're not trying to trick me again, are you? It is a woman, right? Not Tristan or Rafe."
That drew a chuckle from him. "I forgot I did that to you."
"I didn't. It wasn't funny. I hadn't even set up the guest room because I assumed the special someone you invited would share your room—"
"It's not like the two of them didn't sleep over back then."
"Right, but you had bunk beds. Then Rafe didn't find it at all amusing that he would have to share a bed with you."
"Too true. I've never seen your junk room cleaned out that fast," Jackson teased.
"Well, tell me about this woman. She'll be the first one you've brought home."
Jackson straightened. "I brought a few others home."
"A prom date that we both know was going nowhere after that night, and that was it. Tell me how you met this woman and don't leave anything out."
So, Jackson took a breath and started at the beginning. When he finished, the silence on the line was deafening. Clearing his throat, he shifted the phone to his other ear. Sweat made the casing slippery. "I didn't want to fall for her."
"Why the hell not? She sounds like she's in trouble." Ray's words calmed Jackson. "Not only that, you are in a unique position to truly understand what she's going through."
"I understand some of it, but it's hard to drag up those memories."
"I would expect so."
"Difference is she signed up for it." H
e hated pointing that fact out, but it was true. Being a child, he hadn't had a choice because his parents kept him on a tight leash. Until they made the mistake of killing Rafe's father.
"Doesn't sound like she had much of a choice. As you didn't before your parents went too far."
He flinched.
"And it hurt doubly for you since they used you to break that family."
Flashes of that time spun through Jackson's head. The stain a heavy weight on his soul. "I remember," he rasped past a dry throat.
"No one blames you. You did what you had to in order to survive. And now, you can help someone else like I helped you."
Jackson straightened in surprise. His father was right. He knew how it felt to be manipulated. Knew how it felt to have no way out. How it felt to have no other choice but to take the deal with the devil you thought you knew, only to end up being burned.
"I'm proud of you, Son. For what you did back then and for what you're doing now."
"I got his father killed."
"No, you saved the rest of his family. Your parents would have taken those paintings as well as the Martinezs' money and disappeared." Ray sighed. "If Rafe's father hadn't done a security check, your parents would have gotten away. Instead, he found out they were frauds and confronted them. His mistake was not alerting the police first, and that got him killed."
Jackson shook his head.
"You saved Rafe and his mother because the second you heard that gunshot, what did you do?"
Jackson flinched, the memories running through his head.
"What did you do, Jackson?"
"I told them to hide. Then I told my parents they had left for a violin lesson, and I had stayed behind to be picked up by my parents."
"Then you came to me the second you could."
Jackson shivered. "And you arrested them."
"Exactly."
"How're you handling calling her Briony? Or being in that setting?" Ray's questions nailed what was really eating at Jackson.
"I hate it." He gripped the back of his neck. "You know how I get when I'm in that headspace. If I'm not careful, I could get lost in it, and she won't understand."
"She'll understand."
The Twin Contract (The Contract Series Book 1) Page 16
