Last First Kiss (27 page)

An older woman seated next to them gasped. “My God, who is that?”

The three women exchanged knowing looks as Lauren told her who he was.

“
Honey, I may be fifty-five years old, but I’m not too old to appreciate a fine looking man when I see one.”

“
Yeah and he’s got an uncle that looks just as good,” Gretchen told the woman. She pointed Bill out, arriving with Gwen and Alyssa. “There he is now.”

The woman groaned as she shook her head in disappointment. “Damn, the good ones are always taken.”

Gwen and Alyssa walked up and the women scooted over to make room for them to sit, while Bill and Jackson hung back.

Jackson sauntered up to the fence to talk to Mac then turned back to the bleachers. “Hello ladies.” His gaze lingered longer on Giselle. “Hey stranger, how was your trip?”

She shrugged. “It was okay, I guess. We’d been before, but I couldn’t work up the nerve to go any further. I don’t feel comfortable traveling without...Well...Just the girls and I. I don’t feel safe, you know? And I hate driving in all that traffic.”

Before Jackson could respond Lexie called out to him. He turned in time to catch her launching herself into his arms. “Hey munchkin, I missed you! Good Lord, you must have grown two inches since I saw you last.” He hugged her tightly then put her down so she could run off to play.

“
We just got back from San Antonio,” Lauren told Giselle. “That’s where you need to take the girls. There’s so much to do there and the drive wasn’t that bad.”

“
Hey,” Gwen interrupted. “Bill, Alyssa, and I are planning on going the first weekend in August. Why don’t you and the girls come with us? It would give Alyssa some company.”

“
I don’t want to impose like that, Gwen. The three of you are trying to bond right now.” She bit her bottom lip as she remembered something. “That’s where Toby and I were supposed to take the girls this summer. We’d never been.”

“
I went five years ago, but it was a bust,” Jackson said.

“
What happened?” Lauren asked him.

He released a long suffering sigh. “Oh, same old stuff. Chloe always turned every vacation into a living hell.”

“
What did she do?” Gretchen asked.

He puffed out his cheeks as he remembered. “She found fault with everything. We changed rooms three times.”

“
What was wrong with the rooms?” Giselle asked curiously.

“
Not a thing, as far as I could tell. I suspect she did it just to piss me off. She thrived on public displays of anger.”

“
Did it work?” Giselle asked with a hint of tease.

He leaned back against the empty bleacher behind him, turned his head slowly to look at her through his dark tinted Ray Bans. “What do
you
think?”

Giselle studied his expression for a moment then leaned back to meet his gaze head on. “I think you took it all with a grin, just to piss
her
off.” She grinned slyly at him.

Everyone waited patiently for Jackson’s answer. He finally smiled and nodded. “You know me too well.”

Giselle laughed softly. “Was she upset?”

“
Extremely upset. We finally cut the trip short and just came on home. I’d love to go back, but I doubt it’d be any fun alone. I wouldn’t mind driving if you and the girls wanted to come with me. I could get us separate rooms in the same hotel Bill and Gwen are staying.”

“
Sounds like the perfect solution, Giselle,” Lauren added. “You’d have a lot of fun. There’s the water park, the caverns, Sea World, The River Walk, the wax museum, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not...All kinds of things to do.”

Giselle nodded slowly, contemplating the possibilities. “Let me think about it.”

Once their team ended the game with a narrow win, Giselle asked everyone to follow her to her truck. They passed out the gifts they’d brought everyone from New Orleans. The girls saved Jackson’s for last—a gold tee shirt, with a tiger riding a motorcycle on the back and LSU on the pocket.

“
This is the coolest shirt ever,” he said, clearly pleased with his gift. He slipped his shirt off to put the new one on.

“
Whoa, Jackson! You sure do have a lot of muscles!” Allie said.

Giselle’s face remained stony as Lauren nudged her in the rib and gave her an enthusiastic nod.

“
Yes, he does,” Lauren whispered.

Every woman there had seen the flash of tan skin and muscular curvature in the few seconds he’d bared his chest.

Jackson smoothed the shirt down and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans. When he was done, he turned around for the two little girls and posed for them. “How does it look?”

“
I like it!” Lexie said.

“
You look very handsome,” Mac told him. “Do you like it Jackson? When I saw it, I knew we had to get it for you.”

“
I love my shirt!” he said, picking each one up for a tight hug. “I really do...thanks, Giselle.”

“
You’re welcome,” she murmured.

Gwen placed her hand on Giselle’s arm. “Are you going to take Jackson up on his offer for San Antonio?”

She nodded. “I believe I will.”

Gwen turned to Alyssa. “Mac and Lexie are coming with us on vacation, Alyssa. Won’t that be fun?”

The three girls began to jump up and down excitedly.

Giselle looked up at Jackson. “Are you sure you don’t mind? They can drive you crazy on trips.”

He gave her a wink. “I’m looking forward to it.”

The next two weeks flew by as Jackson and Giselle prepared for their trip. Bill took care of the rooms, booking four at the same hotel, one of the nicest in the city. Giselle stayed on the internet as she researched things for them to do while they were in the city. The plan was for them to leave as soon as Lexie’s game was over on Thursday evening and spend the weekend. Monday they would drive home so that Gwen could go to work on Tuesday.

Everything was set and planned, down to the last detail. Everything, that is, except for Giselle’s severe case of food poisoning on the Thursday afternoon they were supposed to leave. After some last minute shopping in Lake Coburn, she’d tanked up her truck. Too rushed for time, she grabbed a ham sandwich from the store’s cooler before rushing home to catch Lexie’s game. By the time it started, she was feeling a little nauseous. During the second inning, Jackson took one look at her greenish tinge, told her to go home, and he would meet her afterwards to bring the girls home. She’d barely made it home before going into the bathroom to be sick. By the time Jackson and the girls got there, she had nausea so violent she thought she would crack her rib again.

By eight o’clock, Jackson realized they were in for a long night of it. He frantically tried to think of a way to salvage the weekend for the girls and came up with a solution he believed would work. In between bouts of nausea, Giselle agreed to let Gretchen and her husband, Caleb, go in her and Jackson’s place. They would keep Cathryn and Lexie with them, while Bill and Gwen would keep Mac, Alyssa, and Allie in Bill’s truck.

When Gretchen came by to pick up the girls later that evening, Jackson handed them a prepaid Visa card and told them their two adjoining rooms were taken care of. She gratefully accepted it and thanked him. Jackson hugged the two girls tightly and told them to be extremely good.

“
But, what about momma?” Lexie turned her tear-filled eyes toward Jackson. “Who’s gonna take care of her?”

“
I will sweetie, don’t you worry.”

“
You won’t leave her, will you, Jackson?”

“
I promise I won’t leave her until she’s feeling better, and I need to get back to her. You have enough fun for both of us.”

He watched them drive off then hurried back into the house to check on Giselle, who was so nauseous and weak she couldn’t even sit up. She was too sick to care when Jackson held her head with one hand while she was sick in the container he held for her. It lasted throughout the night and into the entire next morning, but he never left her side for more than a few moments. When it finally ended, she fell into an exhausted sleep. After making sure she was okay, he stretched out on her comfortable couch and slept until five p.m.

Giselle woke up around seven o’clock Friday evening. She rolled out of bed, looked at herself in the mirror, and cringed at her reflection. She showered, dressed, and tiptoed down the hallway toward the kitchen, stopping to watch Jackson stir a large pot of something that smelled delicious. He had the stereo on low and she listened, in amazement, as he began to sing along with Josh Turner to the tune of
Your Man
. He’d also showered, judging from the dampened locks of black hair semi-curling at his neckline. He wore work out shorts, and a sexy as hell sleeveless shirt that revealed every line and ridge of his bulked up arms.

The sight of him, along with seven months of celibacy, awakened feelings of need as he put his head back to sing a few lines of the song. His deep, resonant voice sent shivers down her spine as neurons sizzled, making it impossible to ignore the blatantly sexual signals oozing from the man.

How had she gone so long without seeing this side of him? How had she ever been able to sit next to him and not feel the intense magnetism he projected? She was starved for the touch of a man, but now she could admit to herself that it wasn’t just any man she wanted...It was
this
man.

Jackson danced his way to the counter in a smooth and graceful two-step, his back perfectly straight, and his head held high.
All that and he can dance, too.

He chose that moment to execute a perfect spin on his left foot and discovered her watching him. He gave her a bright smile. “Hey, are you feeling better?”

She nodded, as she walked in and lowered herself onto a stool at the island. “Much better, thanks. What smells so good?”

“
Homemade chicken noodle soup,” he answered. “Carrie says it’s the cure for everything.”

She put a hand to her belly. “I’m famished, is it ready?”

“
You’re probably a better judge than I am. It’s been simmering for an hour and a half.”

She walked over and checked out the soup. “Oh, yeah, it’s done. I’m ready to eat if you are.”

“
Sure.” He got two bowls off the shelf.

She poured heaping ladles of the steaming soup into the bowls, and they each brought one to the island to cool.

“
So, you dance?” She grinned up at him.

He shrugged. “Chloe and I took lessons. She wanted to make sure I didn’t embarrass her in front of her friends.”

“
And you sing too?”

He froze. “Ummm...No.”

She swiveled in her chair to face him. “I heard enough to know that you have a wonderful voice. Why doesn’t anyone know?”

Jackson grimaced. “Carrie’s caught me a few times. I’m surprised she didn’t tell the world.” He gave her a sad smile. “I guess I haven’t had much to sing about in recent years.”

She gazed tenderly at him. “I guess not.”

Jackson turned away from the look she gave him. “Toby used to tell me how much he loved hearing you sing,” he told her. “Have you ever sung in front of an audience?”

“
In high school chorus and now my church choir. Have you?”

“
I’ve never been able to before. I doubt if anything’s changed.” He turned to her with a gleam in his sexy, brown eyes. “I’d sing for you if you asked me to, though.”

She bit her bottom lip, and forced herself to turn away from him. “The soup should be cool enough to eat now.”

“
Maybe you’ll sing for me one day,” he said.

“
Maybe we could sing together,” she answered in a rush before changing the subject. “Do you want some crackers with your soup?” She reached up for a box from the pantry.

“
That sounds good. I hope it’s seasoned enough.” He seated himself at the island and placed some crackers on the plate next to his bowl.

She sat across from him, took a bite, and rolled her eyes in pleasure. “It’s just right. God, I’m so hungry.”

“
You haven’t had anything in your stomach in over twenty-four hours. So, did you learn anything from this experience?”

She gave him a crooked grin. “No more sandwiches from convenience store gas stations for me.”

Jackson chuckled. “I’m just glad I was here to help.”

She set her spoon down and gazed up at him. “Thank you, Jackson. Holding someone’s head while they puke in a bucket is going above and beyond the call of friendship.”